Well said TS:clap1:

It gets my goat that sugar is replaced by cancer causing chemicals and sweeteners, the evidence is right there and they still put chemicals into a lot of our foods and drinks.

In the local Co-op they have replaced regular sugar in squash with sweeteners and chemicals, they've started to do this in Tesco with their Hi-Juice (you can still get Hi-Juice with the green lid, this has sugar in), there seems to be a phasing out as the green lids are replaced with blue lids indicating sugar free (meaning poisoned with sweeteners and chemicals).

Whilst sugar has no nutritional value, chemicals and sweeteners are known to be carcinogens, yet they continue to put them in our drinks and food.

Give me regular sugar any day over sweeteners!

Its also good at cleaning toilets:hehe:

I agree but finding a regular sugar can also be confusing. Most table sugar on our supermarket shelves contains 60% crystallised fructose and that stuff is the same as high fructose corn syrup. When we shop for sugar we need to look out for 'pure cane sugar' and even then read the ingredients. Unfortunately fructose can still be labelled just as 'sugar'.

Yes, calories have no nutritional value but our body still recognises what it is. When we put something in our bodies (chemically modified) that our body doesn't recognise, it doesn't know what to do with it so conserves it and converts it into fat. Diet products are a nightmare for this.

Yep, sugar has no nutritional value but there's nothing inherently wrong with it in reasonable amounts. The only issue with it is that it's high in calories. It's still not going to make you fat, unless you're taking in more calories than you're burning. It's a really simple formula! Yes you can go overboard with sugar in drinks because it's easier to take in more calories than you realise with liquid than with food... But a few glasses / cartons a day is simply not going to be a problem. It's also azure perfectly acceptable quick energy source if you haven't had much to eat.

For a while it seemed like we were getting past the sugar / fat vilification but it seems like we're right back to it, and promoting synthetic rubbish.

In short, if you eat real food and not too much of it, you won't get fat. If you have proper nutrition and keep your teeth clean, they won't decay. Tesco can bugger off.

I didn't know this!:shocked:

It's disgusting that they can mislabel food and drinks, and they wonder why the nations health is suffering:(

Absolutely!

I'm actually starting to cook (learn to cook) like my grandparents did, i try to buy real food, and bake with ingredients that are pure, and when i'm making cakes or biscuits, then i use sugar!

Like you say it's everything in moderation:wavey:

Everything has sugar in it, take all the cereal off the shelves it has tablespoons of sugar in per serving! Diet meals and bars have masses of sugar in to replace the fat removed bin them too.
glucose
sucrose
maltose
corn syrup
honey
hydrolysed starch
invert sugar
fructose
molasses

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1139.aspx?categoryid=51

Exactly, "diet" meals are packed with sugar and salt, it's all nonsense. If you eat good, fresh food (and a sensible amount of it) 95% of the time and are active, your weight will take care of itself, and the other 5% - a bit of chocolate here and there, a glass of delicious sugary Ribena - will not be a problem.

On the most basic level, anyway, the bulk of this country's obesity problem is quite simply a combination of eating too much (even good foods, most make portion sizes far too big) and not doing enough to burn the energy (lots of retail and desk jobs, not much manual work, kids wrapped in bubble wrap in their houses by scared parents instead of out being active).

Totally agree.

Surely not! I'd say that hell has frozen over, but I've heard Jews don't have hell. And godless heathens like me definitely don't.

tbh it should be down to the individual (or parent) to make healthier decisions influenced by concerns and recommendations... Those who want to make unhealthy choices will seek unhealthy foods and drinks.

Great post!

You're right sometimes TS. Sometimes...

I don't buy the whole 'tackle obesity' claim for this. If they were stripping away all sugary products from their stores then fair enough, but picking two products which are quite low in sugar compared to what else you can buy in a Tesco store this doesn't really make any logical sense.

It just all sounds like some silly publicity stunt to me.

A publicity stunt specifically aimed at losing customers? It seems like an odd decision!

I would go along with that but unfortunately we are being misguided with what's on the label.

I took a look at the ingredients in Ribena (no added sugar) variety.

Water, Blackcurrant Juice from Concentrate (7%), Malic Acid, Acidity Regulators (Calcium Hydroxide, Calcium Carbonate), Citric Acid, Sweeteners (Aspartame, Acesulfame K), Vitamin C, Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Flavouring, Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Bisulphite), Colour (Anthocyanins), Contains a source of Phenylalanine, Product before dilution contains 35% Juice

Aspartame is the devil itself when it comes to sweeteners and studies show that this low calorie alternative sugar can cause anything from severe allergies to liver damage, cancer and premature births.

Acesulfame K... another sweetener and a known carcinogen.

Xanthan gum is another glucose based solution.

And then of course we have concentrated juice which is anything but natural. To make juice concentrate you have to remove the water. Unfortunately that also removes the flavour and so has to be reconstituted. This is done with a cocktail of chemicals.

The labels are misleading. Sometimes I think you need to be a chemist to fully understand all this unnatural ****e. People that manufacture this stuff rely on our naivety.

Morbid obesity in this country is in epidemic proportions and yet people are trying to lose weight and failing at the first hurdle because diet products are one big lie. All this sudden health awareness is pointless if food manufacturers are allowed to disguise the word 'sugar' and mislead us into believing we are eating a healthy low calorie diet. If something is low in sugar but our bodies can't get rid of that sugar because it doesn't recognise what it is, then we are on a hiding to nothing

Taking out two drinks is hardly going to lose customers. It might lose a few, but hardly enough to make an impact.

It just really doesn't make sense to remove two products when you sell 100s of others with far higher sugar content.

Oh also to add to the dangers of synthetic sweeteners: they psychologically trick you into eating. Your body realises it's getting something sweet, which is interpreted as an intake of sugar, so it "expects" to get the associated energy boost, but then it never comes. Body then craves the expected sugar hit.

In short: if you arent hungry, then you consume sweeteners, 15 minutes later you'll feel hungry.

Ribena is rank anyway so idc

I think it will have a noticeable effect on their business. It's not because they're not selling the products... It's the message. People don't like to be patronised. 5 to 10 years ago Tesco could have gotten away with it no problem, but they are already in HUGE financial trouble and can't afford stunts like this.

..I have to say that all of the paediatric health/diet websites that I've looked at mostly say that they feel no added sugar/artificial sweetener drinks are ok with children 'in moderation'..everything in life I think is moderation ..anyway that aside because I'm sure other studies/websites will counter it, the article isn't saying all Ribena/Capri Sun etc but only the 'children's lunchbox' ones specifically to possibly be removed for the start of the new term year, which seems like a strange stance to take because people if they want to will only buy it in a different version or go to another supermarket...it's like when they took the sweets/chocolate away from the checkout area/well that stopped those little children from eating them, didn't it/that showed them..:fist:...I prefer Sainsbury's anyway...

Sainsbury's!! I never knew Ammi woz posh.

..no it's not posh TS but lazy because it's by far the easiest supermarket for me to get to and I haven't got the online provisions shop thing down yet as I see my weekly trip there as my social life and very exciting...