Artificial Sweeteners

[dev]

I read at atkins.com that some artificial sweeteners are allowed during induction, and some are not. However sucralose (splenda) is okay. I drink Crystal Light lemonade (Yes, I know I should be drinking water instead) but it uses aspartame as the sweetener, is this an allowed sweetener? Furthermore atkins.com says to count one packet of artificial sweetener as one carb. However, the package says there is zero carbs. Perhaps this may be to influence us to drink more water? Any help is much appreciated.

[CathyR]

when it reads less than a carb, you count 1,,,
I have read that Crystal light has Aspartene, which I have also read will cause stalls in some folks. I have maybe one glass of it every few days in the evenings after I have drank all my water. It makes it a treat, since after all that water it taste really sweet, but no more.

Cant vouch for if it stalls tho,, thats just what I have heard and thats whats also written in the book,,,,

[tabekat]

my 2 cents

You can have 3 artificial sweetners a day on induction.

I personally gave up aspartame, (with encouragement from the monitors...heh, heh) because it isn't the healthiest choice.
Plus it pays to follow all of Dr Atkins instructions.

First I weaned myelf to Splenda, then I switched from Splenda to Stevia.

Stevia is a plant, 8 - 10 times sweeter than sugar, and best of all it doesn't give you a false lift then send you crashing. It has a glycemic index of 0 and does not affect blood sugar.

[Elizellen]

A reminder from the list of acceptable foods

Artificial Sweeteners
You must determine which artificial sweeteners agree with you, but the following are allowed: sucralose (marketed as Splenda), saccharin, cyclamate and acesulfame-K

and

We discourage the use of aspartame (marketed as NutraSweet and Equal) because of clinical observations that it slows weight loss in certain individuals.