Big Red chewing gum now has aspartame!?

[elfs]

The last gum that Omaha could safely chew has now gone the way of evil. This afternoon, while shopping for supplies, Omaha went looking for chewing gum and we discovered that Big Red, the last of the Wrigley's chewing gums that was all-sugar, now has a message: "May contain aspartame or acesulfame."

Well, crap. So much for that.

How mind-boggling is it that Mexico, once derided as the place where cheap, often low-quality food comes from, is now regarded as the place from which to get better chewing gum and soda products? (Mexico doesn't allow corn sweeteners or aspartame in their food products; Mexi-Coke is regarded as a superior product to the Coca-Cola sold in most groceries.)

Comments

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Canadian Coke is also real sugar.

Can Omaha have sucralose or ace-K?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

She tends to avoid all artificial sweeteners, but as far as I know it's only aspartame that interferes with her epilepsy meds.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

If you can find it, the Cinnamon Tingle flavor of Trident White does not contain aspartame the last I checked. It's the only gum I can chew.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I found there's an ingredient in Trident gum--xylitol, I think--that I'm hideously allergic to. So that might be something to be aware of as well.

[blaisepascal]

Blame it, in part, on "protective" tariffs and subsidies. To protect an almost non-existent US sugar industry, imported cane sugar has a 15-16 cent/pound tariff on it. Meanwhile, corn farmers get subsidies to encourage production.

[voidrandom.livejournal.com]

And of course, the corn growers encourage the retention of the tariff on sugar, as it means it's easier to keep the cost of corn syrup under the cost of sugar.

I seem to recall the sugar tariffs go back to at least the civil war, if not earlier.

[phyxis.livejournal.com]

What about Black Jack, Chowards, et al?

[danceswithlife]

Many of these gums don't seem to have artificial sweeteners:

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/browse/Home/Food-Candy/Gum/D/30002/P/1:100:1020:100790

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but other than around Halloween, those are somewhat hard to find around here. I've looked. I suppose I could mail order them, but gum is really something that we impulse-buy.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

This is the best solution I've found. (http://www.amazon.com/Peppermint-Flavored-Chewing-Gum-Chicklets/dp/B000Q6KVIO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1261886859&sr=8-3)

Real sugar, good flavor. I can't find them anywhere local, but Amazon provides. There are some other online vendors, too. For bubble gum, The Bubble Yum brand still uses real sugar.

[ladyallyn.livejournal.com]

Try the Rainier Beach (really) QFC (or your otherwise local kosher market). Also, last time I got chewing gum at Trader Joe's they had a couple of 'no artificial anything' varieties.

[zanfur.livejournal.com]

Spry has no artifical sweeteners, or at least there's a spry chewing gum product where this is true. It's what Elle uses, and she can't have aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, or sucrose (yeah, table sugar). It does, however, have xylitol, which is a sugar alcohol harvested from birch and/or corn husks. Happens to also be good for your teeth.

[iljoyce.livejournal.com]

There are many 'real sugar" products here. I will try and send some out to you. A lot of chemicals allowed in the US are banned here, and they are very strict on labeling here.