Sweet N Low

I was on the Atkins Diet several years ago and acquired a taste for artificial sweeteners. Prior to that time, I could not stand any artificial sweeteners, especially Sweet N Low, which is the sweetener I had been exposed to for most of my life. After spending about a year on the Atkins’ Diet, one of the habits I had formed was using artificial sweetener in my coffee. That habit has stayed with me. I have tried all of the artificial sweeteners, and Sweet N Low is my favorite for day to day use. My most recent purchase of Sweet N Low was at Sam’s Club, where I bought a 1500 count box of the sweetener. That was in November, and I have barely dented the box. The 1500 count box was priced around fifteen dollars at Sam’s Club, which is a bargain. With the grocery store selling the 100 count box for well over three dollars, this bulk purchase would have been equivalent to more than forty-five dollars if purchased as 100 count boxes. That would have been triple what I actually paid. The Sell By date on the box is June 25, 2010...so I have plenty of time to use this product up (although anything with a shelf life like that can’t really be good for you!)

I’d like to start with a little bit of History regarding Sweet N Low. Benjamin Eisenstadt and his son invented the sugar packet for distribution by their packing company. The introduction of artificial sweetener was secondary to that invention. The Sweet N Low product was introduced in 1957 and was the major artificial sweetener in use until the 1980s. The main ingredient in Sweet N Low (in the United States) is saccharine, which has been used as a sweetener since the 1800s. It has been banned at various times in US History and is currently banned in Canada. Sweet N Low is available in Canada, too, but contains cyclamate instead of saccharine. Ironically, cyclamate is banned in the United States.

Taste is subjective. As far a flavor goes, I actually prefer Splenda. Splenda is made from sucralose, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims is 600 times sweeter than sugar. The sweetness in Splenda resembles the taste of sugar closer than the other artificial sweeteners. However, something I noticed when using artificial sweeteners to sweeten everything I consumed a few years back was that Splenda lost a bit of it’s flavor when introduced to heat. So in a cup of coffee, the effect of the sweetener was lessened. Sweet N Low maintains is sweetness without regard to the heat. The FDA estimates the sweetness of Saccharine (the sweetening agent in Sweet N Low) to be 700 times the sweetness of sugar. Other sweeteners approved for consumption by the FDA include Aspartame (Equal, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar), Acesulfame-K (SweetOne, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar) and Neotame, which is 7,000 to 13,000 times the sweetness of sugar. Neotame is used as a commercial sweetener. I have not used Neotame or Acesulfame-K so I cannot compare them to Sweet N Low. Equal has a lower degree of sweetness than Sweet N Low or Splenda, and I do not care for the taste at all.

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