The only type of "sweetener" I like is Splenda. I can't really tell the difference between real sugar and Splenda.

wow, I hope everything turned out ok with bf! my mind would be all over the place too.

more mundanely(!), I don't use the artificial sweeteners, I don't like them either. There's not many things I use sugar in: tea (but I mostly drink coffee, when I drink tea I usually use honey -- calorie wise I think they're about equal, but I like honey better). I was afraid, since they're sweeter than sugar, it would intensify my cravings for sweets. (I don't drink diet sodas for the same reason.)

OMG! You have GOT to be kidding me! This completely, completely pisses me off!

"Natural Flavors" is always code for "we don't want to say what it really is."

With the extreme reductionistic general outlook on health and nutrition these days, if the ingredient were something lovely, they'd spell it out and use it to sell the product.

I just can't believe companies still aren't required to clearly list monosodium glutamate on the labels. I realize it has no effect on most people, but some people have such bad reactions that I can't believe they can hide it under "natural flavors." (I've got a close friend who gets nasty migraines from ingesting just a little MSG so of course I'm biased.)

I don't like any kind of artificial sweetners, and I never use them. I'd rather use real sugar sparingly than anything artificial, but I don't sweeten my tea or coffee so it's not much of an issue. When I have iced tea or make lemonade, I sweeten it with One to One, a spoonable stevia that, for me, has no nasty aftertaste that many complain about with stevia. I got it at the health food store; the ingredients are listed as "Partially hydrolized inulin (a complety natural soluble fiber from chicory root) and Stevia Concentrate."

oooh Fressca, I might have to get some of that. Thanks for mentioning it.

Glad the SO is safe and today is a better day. I still use the pink stuff for iced tea. One spoonful of real sugar for my one cup of coffee a day. Will try to get off the pink stuff soon.

Having been the recipient of it many many times - I wanted to say that I love your term "pout cloud"!

This won't help you in terms of calories but I read (in Oxygen) that honey is acceptable in clean eating. And also something called Sucanat (I think) which, if memory serves me right, is an agave or aloe extract (oh, memory not so good). I have never tried the latter.
Personally, I don't like artificial sweeteners myself - for example, I really dislike the taste of Diet Coke. I like Coke Zero but even that I allow myself maximum 2x a month. I learned to drink both tea and coffee with no sugar and I have been drinking them unsweetened for years.

I've gotten my coffee down to 1 tsp of raw sugar and 1 tbsp of fat free french vanilla creamer. I do use Stevia, but not Truvia. Splenda makes me really sick.

Jennifer - sorry you had such a crummy night honey...

No, just less-refined sugar (I think they're silly calling it "non-refined." Doesn't look like a bag of sugar cane to me )

"Sucanat (a contraction of "Sugar Cane Natural") is non-refined cane sugar."

Don't let this get ya down. Keep pushin' through. You can do this!

I've never tried Truvia, but have used a few drops of stevia extract in my tea
for years and love it, it's just an acquired taste. But I'd rather use turbinado or brown sugar, honey, or agave over artificial sweeteners ANY day. I'll take a few calories and no mystery chemicals over processed crap ANY day!

But yeah, I have a sensitive palate and yet Stevia has never bothered me. I just take the bitter note as a part of its' flavor profile

I know that I've read that the fake sugars can make you crave more for regular ones, I guess for different reasons, like the fact that you crave the better flavor and I guess some chemicals, too. For me it isn't so much the flavor as the weird feeling that it leaves in your mouth, I can always tell that it's artificial when I get that feeling. I have been trying to cut down but still allowing myself to have smaller amounts of sugar than I did, much less, it's better to enjoy less of the real stuff for me than it is to hate the artificial stuff, I feel more satisfied when it comes to my cravings.

I'm totally with arctic mama here, I'm a whole foods person and would rather go for natural sugar any day. That said, I'm totally with you and have always gotten a nasty chemical aftertaste in my mouth after tasting anything with artificial sweetener. Makes my decision a little easier.