Today’s culprit is… Jello’s Chocolate Pudding! Oh wait, no, “pudding snacks”, whatever in the label-regulation-dodging fuck that means.

Posting here because this has quickly become a very common shrinkflation tactic where the manufacturer substitutes fructose/sucrose in their main product with the cheaper aspartame and stevia and calls it “healthy”. There is no sucrose-only version of this product anymore.

However, these shrinkflated products taste bitter, unsweetened and are completely unappetizing to me. So I end up having to look at labels very carefully (usually some thin text at the bottom of the label) to make sure they didn’t sneak in some artificial sweetener.

The strangest part is I haven’t seen or heard of anyone complaining about it, are we in the minority of people for who artificial sweeteners are bitter, like Cilantro that tastes like soap? Both me and my partner find it bitter and unappetizing in any product, but only I have the “cilantro gene”.

I did find these articles on the topic:

https://www.phillymag.com/be-well-philly/2013/08/22/study-fake-sweeteners-taste-disgusting-people/ (the source link is dead, here’s a wayback machine link: https://web.archive.org/web/20130826013630/http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/why-fake-sweeteners-can-taste-funky/)

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120531102334.htm

  • Notyou
    8·
    9 months ago

    Aspartame is nasty to me. It has the disgusting after taste that I never liked. I never liked diet soda, and mainly drink water now. I used to be able to drink soda zero, like coke zero or whatever but they switched whatever the old sweetener was with aspartame. Probably better for my health over all, but the fact companies switched out ingredients like that has made me more cautious when buying sweet items now.

    • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.caOPM
      5·
      9 months ago

      One of us!

      I’m also at the point where I have to look at the ingredients before I buy sweets, otherwise it’s a pipeline from the grocery store to the food bank.

    • Grimpen@lemmy.ca
      3·
      9 months ago

      The old sweetener was Ace-K, acesulfame potassium, I’m pretty sure.

      I don’t mind the taste of Aspartame, but I’ve noticed I get bad headaches when having too much foods with Aspartame, so I tend to avoid it. The occasional pop is okay, but much more is too much.

      Hopefully Monk Fruit stays trendy, it’s my favourite tasting of the sugar substitutes. Splenda is okay too. Not great, not terrible,

      • Notyou
        3·
        9 months ago

        I have noticed monk fruit in some ice creams and they taste good. I agree that I hope it stays trendy.