Today’s culprit is… Jello’s Chocolate Pudding! Oh wait, no, “pudding snacks”, whatever in the label-regulation-dodging fuck that means.

Posting here because this has quickly become a very common shrinkflation tactic where the manufacturer substitutes fructose/sucrose in their main product with the cheaper aspartame and stevia and calls it “healthy”. There is no sucrose-only version of this product anymore.

However, these shrinkflated products taste bitter, unsweetened and are completely unappetizing to me. So I end up having to look at labels very carefully (usually some thin text at the bottom of the label) to make sure they didn’t sneak in some artificial sweetener.

The strangest part is I haven’t seen or heard of anyone complaining about it, are we in the minority of people for who artificial sweeteners are bitter, like Cilantro that tastes like soap? Both me and my partner find it bitter and unappetizing in any product, but only I have the “cilantro gene”.

I did find these articles on the topic:

https://www.phillymag.com/be-well-philly/2013/08/22/study-fake-sweeteners-taste-disgusting-people/ (the source link is dead, here’s a wayback machine link: https://web.archive.org/web/20130826013630/http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/why-fake-sweeteners-can-taste-funky/)

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120531102334.htm

  • @[email protected]
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    78 months ago

    It’s genetic. I feel the same way, aspartame tastes like filmy chemically shit to me. I also can’t stand cilantro, how bout you?

    Maybe there’s correlation

    • themeatbridge
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      38 months ago

      I don’t have the cilantro gene, but my wife does. So in our sample size of three…

    • @Addv4
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      28 months ago

      Afraid I’m going to have to contradict that one. I rather dislike sucralose/aspertame (don’t like the taste and can notice it when I eat it), but I love cilantro. I cook with it constantly.

      • @[email protected]
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        38 months ago

        Fair enough! Mostly was wondering if they correlated at all, but I also have a ton of other weird… let’s call them “quirks” as well so who even knows.

        Genetics is wild sometimes