The Double X folks put the artificial sweetener stevia to the test, and find it wanting. I'm with them. You can have my Sweet 'n Low when you pry my cold, dead fingers from around the pink packet. I don't like NutraSweet either, and have concerns about its safety (but not so great that I completely swear off diet Coke, which I drink one of a day). You?
UPDATE: A certain uppity chicken enthusiast who lives in Old East Dallas writes to say:
Dude, you have stevia growing in a pot in your backyard and a jar of dried stevia leaves in the fridge. And still you call it an artificial sweetener!?
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Coffee (black), water, beer and wine is about all I drink. Anything with an artificial sweetener has a bizarre, nasty taste.
I'd never make a good southerner for any number of reasons, not the least of which is an aversion to sweet tea and lack of a sweet tooth in general (I drink my coffee black and my tea has at most a little lemon).
I'm not even a terribly big fan of most desserts (although a friend we had to dinner the other night baked an astonishingly good apple pie as his contribution, with brown sugar to counteract the tartness of the apples).
Now every good cook does need some sweeteners in the kitchen, and often for things that might seem odd at first glance (marinara tends to need a touch of sugar to counter some of the acidity from the tomatoes for instance). But I can't see using anything but good old cane sugar for that, especially since the amounts used are so low.
Honey is certainly wonderful, especially with breakfast on a cold winter morning. And real maple syrup is something I've waxed eloquent about elsewhere.
I will say that the only place my aversion to sweets leaves me is with my homemade ginger ale (which all of you homeschooling types ought to make with the kids...a great science lesson with a delicious result!). But even in that case you need real sugar, since the yeast needs something to eat in order to create the carbonation.
So I guess I'm saying that I'm with Margie
My Midwestern wife is black coffee and unsweet tea all the way. I'm from middle Appalachia, which is kind of transitional (not as sugar-laced as, say, Georgia, but more so than, say, Indiana). I tend towards sweet bevarages, but as a diabetic, I try to avoid them. However, I have become increasingly concerned about the risks of artificial sweeteners. That, combined with the bad effect carbonated beverages have on my GERD, has led me to give up pop (soda, for Northerners), sweetened or otherwise, at least 90%; to switch to unsweetened iced tea (which is working better than I'd thought); since I don't drink coffee very often and can't stand it black, I do cave and use sugar--alas!--but I'm working on it; and to try to drink more water (that needs a lot more work!).
As to sweeterners, can't stand stevia (although the commercial variant Truvia is margincally OK, though not worth the cost); like aspartame (Nutrasweet) the best but trust it the least (long story); can't really get to where I like sucralose, though it's better than stevia; and before Nutrasweet I used saccharine, though I've not had it in ages. It would fall in the middle. I can actually vaguely remember I used to drink Funny Face (a Kool-Aid knock-off) with cyclamates right before they banned cyclamates in the late 60's, but I don't remember what it tasted like.
For the occasions when I use the real stuff, I have switched lately to the choice of professinal bartenders when I make lemonade or sweet tea, and make a simple syrup. It really is much more effective than just dumping sugar in.
Alas, all this talk of carbs--I may have to take my metformin early tonight!
Sugar 15 kcal a teaspoon.
I'm with GeoffG re: sweet tea. Grew up in Alabama and lived in the South most of my life. Don't care for sweet tea--not the kind served in restaurants. When my mother makes tea for me, she makes a very lightly sweetened variation or serves it to me unsweetened.
As for artificial sweeteners, don't use any of them. When I want something sweetened I use sugar or honey. I drink Coke, full strength, whenever I drink Coke--which probably averages out to be less than 6 oz per day, if that much. Sometimes I'll go days without a Coke. I like Sprite with my popcorn (the real stuff, popped in a stainless steel saucepan with canola oil, not microwaved). Don't drink Mountain Dew, Pepsi, diet anything, or any other cola brands, whether regular or diet.
Once a year I might have a rootbeer float, made with Breyer's vanilla ice cream (full-strength) and Barq's.
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