Thursday, November 11, 2010

Must Get the Word Out

After much deliberation and promising me that he won't go to Dunkin Donuts anymore, k-ster and I bought a Keurig coffee maker. His requirement is that he gets to use cups like they use at Dunkin' Donuts, not a travel mug. After I did all of the math, it really is cheaper for him to buy cups and lids and the Kcups to brew the coffee. Really. It seems like it would be even, but it really is cheaper.

So we bought it and got an ass kicking deal. $69.99 for the B70 model which is supposed to be $169.99. Thank you Bed Bath and Beyond for their 20% off coupon and Discover for the crazy gift cards that you get when you cash in your points.

And did you know that you can buy Kcups that are hot chocolate? WHOOOO HOOOO. Until I read the ingredients. I am a pure sugar person. No saccharin, aspartame (aka Nutrasweet), sucralose (aka Splenda) or acesulfame potassium (aka Sweet One) for me. No way. Aspartame gives me an outrageous headache. And tastes bitter. Sucralose tastes very wrong to me and makes k-ster have to head for the bathroom(and NOTHING does that to him). And we all know that saccharin may cause cancer in laboratory mice (didn't we learn this from our packs of Trident we chewed?). And I link acesulfame potassium with sucralose because they often appear on stage together.

So, you guessed it. They have artificial sweeteners in the hot chocolate Kcups. I have only checked on two of them, Green Mountain and Cafe something or other. But if they both have it, then how could the rest not? I suppose that it has to do with fitting all of the ingredients in the little Kcups and they can't fit actual sugar but can fit the other things that are "just as sweet" but only take up half the space.

I'm not scientist and I don't even play one in the classroom(I do play many roles in the classroom but French never calls for me to be a scientist). I have many theories, too many to ever test, about food and fake additives. But when it's a fake additive that I can actually taste, then it doesn't belong there. Sure, you think it's all in my head. I see the label, so I know to taste it. SURPRISE but that is not the case. I remember when Nutrasweet first came out and my mother bought Jello pudding with it. I made a bowl and it just tasted awful. So I threw it away and thought it was bad. But then I made another one later and had the same problem. Just yesterday, a teacher who knows I love chocolate gave me a chocolate yogurt with some fruity flavor on top. It was good. Until I swallowed and the aftertaste hit. And I kept tasting the metallic, sweet yuckiness. I asked if it had Splenda and she said "what's that?" So I explained. She brought in the carton the next day and yep, sucralose AND acesuflame. K-ster's aunt made a carrot cake (which I love) all with Splenda. One bite and I knew instantly and she was so proud when I told her I thought I could taste it. NONONONONONONO. I never buy anything sugar free or light because 99% of the time they have these fake sugars in them.

The saddest part is that some of you are reading this and have no clue what's in your cabinet. You're wondering if your food has real sugar, corn syrup(which, is it really so bad?), fake sugar or truly, no sweetener at all. And you're giving it to your kids. And maybe they have weird stomach aches that you think might just be kids being kids and fussing about fake ailments. GO. Get thee to they labels. Read and weep. And then throw the damned things away.

And see if you can find me some Kcup hot chocolate that doesn't have the fake stuff. I'm dying for it!

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