Hi,

I purchased some soy Protein shakes from Revial Soy. I like the consistency and the taste....

They have two kinds that are sweetened. One is with fructose and the other is sucralose.

Is one sweetener better than the other? Does banding effect how we process sweetener?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,

Margie (P.S....they sell unsweetened, but I don't think I could drink those) :omg:

What about unsweetened with Splenda?

Hi wasabubblebut,

I think Splenda is the brand name for sucralose. I know that one of the sweeteners can make me really gassy, I just can't remember which one. I would like to find the most natural artifical sweetener....I know that sounds weird!

Margie

I don't know much about sweeteners.

One thing in Dr. Oz's book is a list of all the sweeteners. He lists all the problems with all the sweeteners and he said the only one where the jury is still out is Splenda. *So far* they haven't found anything bad about it. Of course, tomorrow that could change.

I just looked up fructose online, and I would personally go with it, rather than sucralose. Here is part of the Wikipedia entry for fructose:

Fructose (or levulose) is a simple sugar (monosaccharide) found in many foods and is one of the three most important blood sugars along with glucose and galactose. Honey, tree fruits, berries, melons, and some root vegetables, such as beets, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and onions, contain fructose, usually in combination with sucrose and glucose. Fructose is also derived from the digestion of sucrose, a disaccharide consisting of glucose and fructose that is broken down by glycoside hydrolase enzymes during digestion. Fructose is the sweetest naturally occurring sugar, estimated to be twice as sweet as sucrose.

Fructose is often recommended for, and consumed by, people with diabetes mellitus or hypoglycemia, because it has a very low Glycemic Index (GI) relative to cane sugar (sucrose). However, this benefit is tempered by concern that fructose may have an adverse effect on plasma lipid and uric acid levels, and the resulting higher blood levels of fructose can be damaging to Proteins (see below). The low GI is due to the unique and lengthy metabolic pathway of fructose, which involves phosphorylation and a multi-step enzymatic process in the liver. See health effects and glycation for further information.

To me, fructose has less of an "artificial sweetener" taste than sucralose.

Fructose contributes calories and the other, splenda, does not.

Actually, Splenda does have calories, but since it's less than 1 gram of carb per serving, it can be reported as a no-calorie food in the US.

From netrition.com:

How low are the calories in SPLENDA?

SPLENDA®, the brand name for the sweetening ingredient Sucralose, has no calories. A two-teasoon serving of SPLENDA® Granular or a single Low-Calorie Sweetener packet also has very few calories -- so few, that these are considered equivalent to zero under the FDA's nutrition labeling regulations. The small amount of calories in the SPLENDA® Granular and Packet products come from the presence of some common, natural food ingredients in these products. These ingredients, maltodextrin, for example, give SPLENDA® the necessary bulk so it can be used like sugar, but with only 1/8 sugar's calories. Both the Packet and Granular forms of SPLENDA® have only 2 calories per teaspoon, while sugar has 16, and a cup of SPLENDA® granular has only 96 calories, while sugar has 770. Using SPLENDA® instead of sugar can therefore significantly reduce the amount of calories, sugar and carbohydrates in many of your favorite recipes.

Something to be aware of if you are choosing to use Splenda in large quantities (as in baking, or using granular Splenda to sweeten Kool-Aid).

The primary difference is that fructose is a natural (i.e. REAL) form of sugar and sucralose is a synthetic sweetener. Fructose contains more calories, but sucralose is artificial. There haven't been any long-term studies on the effects of sucralose, so I'm a little wary of it, personally.

:faint:So I just looked up the calorie difference if I get the ones with fructose. They run about 100-115 calories more than if I got the unsweetened or the shakes sweetened with sucralose (Splenda)....

The thought occurs to me....(a little slow on the uptake I am)....why can't I buy the unsweetened and just add sugar to taste? One teaspoon of sugar is only 16 calories. I can't imagine adding more than 1-2 teaspoons per shake....and that would only be an increase of 32 calories (assuming I use 2 tsp)....

Do bandsters have to avoid table sugar? I haven't read anything (yet) that said we did.

Margie (not yet banded! - Oct 2007 hopeful). THANKS IN ADVANCE for your input.

Margie,

Bandsters only watch sugar intake for caloric reasons. We have no malabsorption issues like the bypass patients. Therefore we are not at risk for "dumping syndrome".