Fueling for a long ride or fun w/ diet restrictions

[Chile Pepper]

Gotta love when they advertise "Natural flavors, natural colors" and forget to mention the artificial sweetener.

Yep--drives me crazy. I bought a couple of tubes of Nuun a few months ago, thinking cool, finally a sports drink I might like (I don't want the calories in the regular ones, but do not under any circumstance use artificial sweeteners), only to find out that Nuun uses acesulfame potassium. I just didn't read the label closely enough. So now I can't bring myself to throw them out unopened, but also can't give something I consider toxic to a friend. Sigh.

[dinabean]

I've never heard of acesulfame potassium, I had just assumed it was the delivery method for some of the potassium/electrolytes. Can you direct me to some info as to what the problem is with it? Thanks!

[aicabsolut]

Oops, missed that one. I think my brain just read "potassium" too. It's aspartame. That is better for my gut than the -itol sugar alcohols, though. The ZYM tablets aren't very sweet, so hopefully, they aren't using that much of the stuff. They don't have that diet soda aftertaste or anything. No artificial sweeteners would be better, of course.

[OakLeaf]

It's not aspartame, but it is an artificial sweetener with some safety concerns. One of the main differences with aspartame is that acesulfame K is a more stable molecule, so it can be stored for longer periods, or heated.

http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemc...tm#acesulfamek
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/asekquot.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acesulfame_potassium


ETA: and the polyethylene glycol in Nuun grosses me out at least as much as the acesulfame K.

[Chile Pepper]

dinabean, I generally avoid all artificial sweeteners on principle (including natural stevia extract). Not only are many of them suspected carcinogens, but they just don't work for weight loss. Here's a short explanation from Wikipedia:

Animal studies have indicated that artificial sweeteners can cause body weight gain. A sweet taste induces an insulin response,[citation needed] which causes blood sugar to be stored in tissues (including fat), but because blood sugar does not increase with artificial sugars, there is hypoglycemia and increased food intake the next time there is a meal.

A teaspoon of sugar has 15 calories. I just don't see the need for artificial sweeteners, and I prefer my food to be chemical free to the extent possible.

[aicabsolut]

Oh, my brief use of Google told me it was aspartame. Guess I should've read more than one site.

The point of these is not weight loss. It's how to make electrolytes not taste funny when you don't have added sugar. All of those "electrolyte enhanced" waters lack sodium, which is precisely what I need, considering that I'll be crusted in white at the end of a summer ride. So, when you add sodium to the formulation, you need to add some sort of other flavoring.

I wouldn't mind it if they did use a little bit of real sugar instead, but I guess that doesn't work for some reason.

[OakLeaf]

I think real sugar is just impractical for this application. All of these sweeteners, including stevia that Zenergize uses, are many times sweeter than sugar. You'd need a pretty substantial envelope of sugar to get the same sweetness you get in an electrolyte tablet. Plus, it would tend to take up moisture and get sticky.