USA Today has the latest in the low carb stuffage.
Okay, I won't drink any of the malt liquor based drinks in any case, because the full-sugar versions taste vile, and I don't think that swapping out Splenda for the sugar is going to do anything for the product.
Unilever, the folks who bring you Skippy peanut butter, Wishbone salad dressings, and Lawry's steak sauces, are also providing low-carb, Splenda sweetened versions of a bunch of their products. Klondike bars now come in a Splenda sweetened version, as does the new Atkins ice cream bars. Russell Stover is also offering a full line of Splenda sweetened chocolates (I suspect that there is a sugar alcohol in there somewhere, as the Klondike bars use Sorbitol, and the Hershey's products use a mix of Splenda and Lactitol).
You'll notice that I keep mentioning the sweetener. That's because the best thing that could have happened to Splenda is that the late Dr Atkins gave the sweetener his blessing. The low carb crowd is looking for it, and not Nutrasweet/Equal (aka aspartame) in their sweetened goodies.
My response? woo-hoo! I'm not an aspartame fan--the stuff just tastes weird to me. I shouldn't do sugar--feed me a fruit punch and watch my blood sugar go to 300mg/dl before dropping down to 70mg/dl--and all those sources of hidden sugar, which are actually high yield fructose corn syrup, can be annoying to find out about ex post facto.
Interesting thing though, even though the Pepsi spokesman was quoted as saying they were going to ride the low carb horse, even though it might only last for a year, they are still insisting on riding the aspartame horse. At some level, they either don't understand the full Atkins message, or hope that the low carb crowd doesn't. Right now a lot of diet soda outlyers, Diet Rite and Hansens are the two available here in the SF Bay Area, use Splenda (sucralose) and advertise as such. I think that if Coca Cola or Pepsi does a reformulation and markets it to the low carb crowd, they could realize a significant chunk of change. It makes me wonder if one or the other will market a sub-brand with Splenda, and if there is long-term interest, switch the major brand line over.
Posted by lsefton at January 17, 2004 05:58 PM