I would be really happy with less sweetening in food, in general. This is actually because I love sweet things, but I know that lots of sugar makes me feel sick, so I'd rather eat it in things that I want to be sweet, and leave it out of most other stuff altogether.

I don't really like soda all that much. There's an old Bloom Country comic strip in which Milo and Binky are discussing Coke vs. Pepsi and wind up deciding that both of them taste like battery acid, that pretty much mirrors my own feelings on the topic.

In most foods I'd prefer less sugar/sweetener. I couldn't finish a side of cajun fries last weekend because they sprinkled so much sugar on them along with the hot powder, and the sweetness of most marinara sauces puts me right off. (Curse you, Piero, for ruining me for all lesser lasagnas!) But the diet Dr. Pepper that some find too cloyingly sweet is my favorite drink, and I'll use up to 3 heaping teaspoons of Splenda or sugar in a cup of coffee.

More important (could I be more off topic) than substituting for sugar should be making food less sweet, period.

I'm with ita, tommy and Kate on this. With processed and packaged foods from babyhood, most if not all of them, if "naturally" sweetened being so now with high fructose corn syrup rather than cane sugar, or if "lite," sweetened with either aspartame or sugar alcohols, our collective palates are cultured to crave the sweet.

Anthropologically, we're built to crave fats and sugars, even though our lifestyles mostly no longer require high-energy and energy-storing foods. But the double-whammy of natural cravings and deliberately-by-marketing cultivated ones makes us a society of overweight people prone to diabetes and other health risks.

The simple act of *not* adding sweeteners of any kind to foods that don't actually need them would improve Americans' health dramatically. But, over a generation or two, it would also lower the acculturated cravings that power the soda and snack industries.

Heh. I suspect we're getting close to the end of this thread, as it's quickly turning into just another natter.

It ain't over 'till the fat penguin sings....

Oops. Sorry. I forgot where I was.

So how 'bout that 2006, eh? 86% more windy in January than previous years!

Nah, I think that the Slacker Santas/ees still deserve some time.

Nah, I think that the Slacker Santas/ees still deserve some time.

Oh, absolutely. It's just one of the signs that the thread is coming toward its end.

Are there still people out there who haven't sent/received gifts?

Are there still people out there who haven't sent/received gifts?

A kind birdie told me my gift is on its way, but it hasn't arrived yet.

Are there still people out there who haven't sent/received gifts?

I haven't gotten mine, but I wouldn't start worrying until the 31st. I do Slacker Santa for a reason :)