My Zero Calorie Sweetener Does Contain Calories
Drinking plain water is a challenge for me. It needs to be cold. After a while, drinking cold water also becomes a challenge. Flavoring the water is my next step, Kool-Aid or ice tea. So far these two flavored drinks are working for me. In order for them to count as water, they need to be 0 calories.
In general, regular sugar is listed as having 9 calories per serving. That can add up quickly since I am aiming to drink six to eight glasses of water a day. Four servings of sugar per drink would be 216 - 288 calories. For easy math, I'm looking at 300 calories taken out of daily caloric budget. Grrrr.
A zero calorie sweetener would be a better choice. According to Splenda (R), they are a zero calorie sweetener. Yahoo! I started adding it to my drinks. Hmm... Splenda is made from real sugar? Wait. How did they pull this off. It tastes sweet like sugar, but not exactly like sugar.
According Splenda's website: http://www.splenda.com/products/packets
"Each packet has less than 1 gram of carbohydrate and less than 5 calories, which meets FDA's standards for no-calorie foods." Splenda's website does not say they they are actually zero calories, but that they meet the FDA's standards to be classified as a no-calorie food.
This got me wondering how many calories there are in each serving. Are there 4 calories per serving? Four is less than five. According to an unverified source, "SPLENDA (R) Granular 1 tsp = 0.5 gm carb = 2 calories" Okay, so I'm looking at about 64 calories I'm consuming throughout my day if I drink 64 oz of my flavored water. As I look around at various sources for my height and weight, I found out that walking up and down my stairs once and driving to and from my son's school burns approximately 35 calories. Since I have to take him to and from school each day, it roughly translates to 70 calories per day that I will automatically burn.
The amount of calories I consume through sweetening my flavored drinks with Splenda (R) are cancelled out by merely taking my son to and from school each day. A very simple, effortless task. This being the case, I am no longer worried about my use of Splenda. The amount of calories becomes insignificant in my book, just as they are in the FDA's.
One day at a time.
One step closer to my goal.
In general, regular sugar is listed as having 9 calories per serving. That can add up quickly since I am aiming to drink six to eight glasses of water a day. Four servings of sugar per drink would be 216 - 288 calories. For easy math, I'm looking at 300 calories taken out of daily caloric budget. Grrrr.
A zero calorie sweetener would be a better choice. According to Splenda (R), they are a zero calorie sweetener. Yahoo! I started adding it to my drinks. Hmm... Splenda is made from real sugar? Wait. How did they pull this off. It tastes sweet like sugar, but not exactly like sugar.
According Splenda's website: http://www.splenda.com/products/packets
"Each packet has less than 1 gram of carbohydrate and less than 5 calories, which meets FDA's standards for no-calorie foods." Splenda's website does not say they they are actually zero calories, but that they meet the FDA's standards to be classified as a no-calorie food.
This got me wondering how many calories there are in each serving. Are there 4 calories per serving? Four is less than five. According to an unverified source, "SPLENDA (R) Granular 1 tsp = 0.5 gm carb = 2 calories" Okay, so I'm looking at about 64 calories I'm consuming throughout my day if I drink 64 oz of my flavored water. As I look around at various sources for my height and weight, I found out that walking up and down my stairs once and driving to and from my son's school burns approximately 35 calories. Since I have to take him to and from school each day, it roughly translates to 70 calories per day that I will automatically burn.
The amount of calories I consume through sweetening my flavored drinks with Splenda (R) are cancelled out by merely taking my son to and from school each day. A very simple, effortless task. This being the case, I am no longer worried about my use of Splenda. The amount of calories becomes insignificant in my book, just as they are in the FDA's.
One day at a time.
One step closer to my goal.
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