Question on sugar free jello page

[PillowFire]

Recently I have really gotten a taste for these sugar and carb free jello's. They don't have corn syrup or hydrogenated or anything of the sort, and have very few ingredients. That, and also a sugar and carb free tapioca pudding in a small cup with a bit of rice in it. I know that sugar free "doesn't satisfy the cravings" but when I eat these, I actually do so because I like the taste. I genuinely enjoy putting a few almonds into this jello and then taking a small spoon full of the stuff with an almond in it. Maybe I am just weird. Is this stuff bad for me?

[chocolatechip69]

If you're trying to quit sugar cold-turkey, that stuff will only makes it worse as it triggers all kinds of other cravings.

Sugar-free jello is made with Splenda which is not very good for you. It's also made with use of artificial flavors which who knows what they derive those from anyways. You would be much better off eating an apple with some almond butter.

[PillowFire]

I am not trying to quit sugar cold turkey. I like sugar, especially in the form of fruits and real, non-American candy that is made from actual wholesome ingredients and not chemicals whose name I cannot even begin to pronounce. I just also like the Jello as a snack sometimes. I do eat lot's of berries and fruit besides that though.


I am curious why splenda is bad, though. Isn't it made from inverting the crystal structure of sugar, making it pass through your body completely unabsorbed and unprocessed, but taste-wise having nearly the exact same properties as real sugar (since, it actually is sugar, just structurally inverted)?

[chocolatechip69]

Splenda goes through some insane chemical processing before it actually ends up in your jello or what not. Our body basically doesn't know how to process it.


I guess I was just confused as to your original question? Are you asking whether jello is primal or if it's just plain bad for you? It's not good for you, that's for sure. But it is definitely not primal because it doesn't really qualify as a real food It's a man-made, chemical-laden, overpriced cup of gelatin.

[hannahc]

Tate & Lyle manufactures sucralose at a plant in McIntosh, Alabama, with additional capacity in Jurong, Singapore. It is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose (table sugar), which converts three of the hydroxyl groups to chlorides. The selective chlorination is achieved by selective protection of the primary alcohol groups followed by acetylation and then deprotection of the primary alcohol groups. Following an induced acetyl migration on one of the hydroxyl groups, the partially acetylated sugar is then chlorinated with a chlorinating agent such as phosphorus oxychloride, followed by removal of the acetyl groups to give sucralose.[6]

That is from Wikipedia, but it's cited at the bottom of the page if you care to check:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose


I agree with CC that it's as far from "Primal" food as you can get, and I'd say it isn't a healthy kind of snack at all. You can choose to eat whatever you want, but I doubt you'll find anyone who will vouch for the nutritional validity of sugar-free snacks in general. Like I said, if you're going to eat it then eat it, but a handful of berries or another fruit with nut butter is going to be a more nutritionally sound choice. Just because something tastes good doesn't mean you should eat it (heck, dogs like the taste of anti-freeze, but if they knew it would kill them they'd probably avoid it).

[hannahc]

To be clear I wasn't actually comparing sugar-free jello to anti-freeze in the sense that it's going to KILL you, but just saying that you shouldn't always eat things just because they taste good to you.

[AuH2Ogirl]

Gelatin, Adipic Acid (for Tartness), Disodium Phosphate (Controls Acidity), Maltodextrin (from Corn), Fumaric Acid (for Tartness), Aspartame (Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine.) (Sweetener), Contains Less than 2% of Artificial Flavor, Acesulfame Potassium (Sweetener), Salt, Blue 1, Red 40.


Not trying to be snarky, PillowFire, but does this look like it might not be that great for you?