Journal: News & Comment

Rate the sweet

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I have diabetes, so I only consume pure sugar or non-diet pop in an emergency, to counteract a hypoglycemic episode brought on by too much insulin or not enough food. I'm used to the flavour of artificial sweeteners in coffee, soda, and gum, and on top of pancakes, oatmeal, and so on.

Surprisingly, a non-diabetic food connoisseur for Slate magazine discovered that she preferred Splenda, a relatively new artificial sweetener, to anything else, including real sugar, in a blind taste test of iced tea. More amazing, real sugar was last on her list. On the other hand, real sugar baked by far the best muffins in her tests, with last place going to Equal, another new-ish sweetener, tied for last with raw cane sugar, whose crystals were apparently too big to bake in properly.

These days, however, I'm drinking club soda, which has no sweetener in it at all. But that's because my kids hate it, and thus don't mooch it from me.

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