Hello All!

I switched from sugar to Splenda in an effort to save calories in my morning coffee. I *just* learned, contrary to my belief, that Splenda is *not* calorie free.

Was I the only one laboring under this delusion?

The four packets that I use over two cups of coffee have 13 calories. It's not a lot, but 13 is more than 0.

What low/no calorie sweetener do you use? Do you like it?

Stevia tastes great, is completely natural, is supposed to increase insulin sensitivity, and is zero calories. I almost never use it. Since I eat sweet things so infrequently now, I have sort of lost my desire to sweeten things. I don't drink coffee, but I will occasionally use it in herbal tea, though I am now far more likely to prefer even that unsweetened. Whoda thunk that the girl who used to eat cookies by the box would even think about that?

nothing, i reapeat NOTHING that you eat has zero calories. Despite what the packaging and nutrition labels say. Companies get away with this, because the FDA allows a food to be advertised as "zero" calories if a serving has less than 5 calories. So companies purposefully make their serving sized as small as they can to come in under 5 cals per serving, thus allowing them to say zero cals. The PAM spray you might use-Calories. The I can't believe its not butter spray-- Calories. Your diet soda--Calories. Sugar Free Gum-- Calories. Even the supplements/vitamins you might be taking all have calories. Stevia in a packet has calories too. Its *generally* the fillers they use in the single serve packets that have the calories.

If your weight loss is going along just fine, then dont worry about counting these cals if you dont want too. But if you get stalled out, or youre eating really low cal, like 1200 or less (where every calorie matters!), and you regularly use "calorie free" foods..... then turn to counting them as well. They can add up. FAST. Like, a couple extra hundred cals a day easily, that you didnt even know you were eating..... I'm personally not a fan of stevia. ive yet to find a brand that doesnt have that awful bitter after taste. I used to be all about splenda. Got sick of it. Now i use equal. It doesnt really matter.

I was a Splenda-holic but I don't like it any more. I have tried every sweetener under the sun but I have not found one that I like. I tried Stevia and it is horrible! Ewwwwwwwwwwwww. I am still looking for the right sweetener.

I'm a fan of stevia, xylitol, or erythritol when I need a zero calorie sweetener. I can use Splenda in small amounts but I find it has more of an aftertaste than the others. And yes, there are calories, but much less of a blood sugar impact and caloric load than sugar!

I think I only realized the truth about calories in Splenda and Pam like within the past year, so no you're not alone! And it DOES add up. I still use Splenda (the American one, the European one is foamy and leaves a residue) though. It's my favourite low cal sweetener. I found Stevia has a definite taste as do Equal/Canderel and Sweet n' Low.

Stevia has the same number of calories as Splenda (about 6 per tablespoon, and about 100 per cup). Of the two, I prefer Splenda, flavor wise.

I like xylitol, but learned that it only has 30% fewer calories than sugar (per teaspoon zylitol has 40% fewer calories than sugar, but it's also less sweet). If you compensate for the difference xylitol ends up being only 25% to 30% fewer calories than sugar).

I do find though that sweeteners often have a synergistic effect (combining them results in a more sweet result than an equivalent amount of sweetener alone). It's a case of 2 + 2 sometimes equaling 6 instead of 4.

I can use less sweetener if I use a combination of sweeteners rather than a single sweetener (which constantly perplexes hubby, because he'll say "Didn't you just buy a big bad of Splenda?" when he sees xylitol or Equal or another sweetener on the grocery list.

"How many sweeteners do we need," he asks, and I try to explain the whole synergy thing, but he just gets glassy eyed...

I had no idea Kaplods! Thank you for that bit of information I'll definitely have to test this out. I use WAY too much sweetner... and always looking for ways to cut cals a bit.

i learned something useful today!