Aloha Maid All Natural

[jkpescador]

I bought a couple of flavors ... green tea/green apple, guava, and ice tea. So far the taste is lighter and doesn't have that heavy syrupy feeling. It's great to have drinks with sugar in them again. I wonder why they made the move?

Is it better for someone with diabetes to drink high fructose corn syrup?

[Karen]

Sugar is sugar...no matter the type, when it comes to diabetes.

Thanks to their tv commercial hubby and I were thinking of buying some of that at our commissary yesterday, but I read the label! Water....the corn syrup and then the fruit is in it, the calories are 160 per can!! yikes, and that's a high carb count....35? I think...so I put the can down and didn't buy it. If I'm going that high calorie I'll get the Govinda's or Odwalla's pure drinks that are barely pasteurized...by light and quickly, and are much closer to actually having the fruit, sigh.

Good news is that the Arizona brand of green teas are really low, like 70 calories a serving, and sweetened with honey but apparently not too much. We drink that by the gallon but I mostly buy bunches of tea bags...all brands, flavors and types of teas and make my own per 32oz. cup and then add ice. I'm going to buy some Stevia on line and use that as my sweetener...it isn't sugar and it's an herb, actually quite natural, hard to find in the stores but was a diabetic that told me about it. No dangers of what aspartame or saccharin can possibly do.

[Da Rolling Eye]

I bought a couple of flavors ... green tea/green apple, guava, and ice tea. So far the taste is lighter and doesn't have that heavy syrupy feeling. It's great to have drinks with sugar in them again. I wonder why they made the move?

Is it better for someone with diabetes to drink high fructose corn syrup?
Seen the commercials and have yet to give the new stuff a try. Sounds like a winner.

HFCS is being looked at as one of the leading causes of diabetes. HFCS was invented by the Japanese in 1970. It was way cheaper than plain'ol sugar and many food mfr's jumped on it as soon as they could.

[Da Rolling Eye]

Thanks to their tv commercial hubby and I were thinking of buying some of that at our commissary yesterday, but I read the label! Water....the corn syrup and then the fruit is in it, the calories are 160 per can!! yikes, and that's a high carb count....35? I think...so I put the can down and didn't buy it. If I'm going that high calorie I'll get the Govinda's or Odwalla's pure drinks that are barely pasteurized...by light and quickly, and are much closer to actually having the fruit, sigh.


Okay, nevermind that then. :D

[Mike_Lowery]

I've been gulping their Kalamansi juice for the past 3 years or so.

[jkpescador]

There is no corn syrup in the all natural ones. That's the whole point. They have cane sugar in them instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Arizona Ice Tea uses high fructose corn syrup not just honey to sweeten their drinks. Unless you are drinking the diet version which has splenda.
Ingredients: premium brewed green tea using filtered water, high fructose corn syrup, honey, citric acid, natural flavors, ginseng extract, ascorbic acid.
http://www.arizonabev.com/csr/prodtypeitem.asp?item=1608&cat=1

Diet
Ingredients: premium brewed green tea using filtered water, honey, citric acid, ascorbic acid, natural flavors, sucralose (splenda ® brand), acesulfame potassium, ginseng extract.
http://www.arizonabev.com/csr/prodtypeitem.asp?item=1606&cat=1

[Karen]

Arizona tea must not use much sweetener cuz it tastes more mild, less sweet than most of the other drinks and our family gave up sodas for the stuff, only having an occasional soda, thank goodness.

I prefer no sugar in my teas but saccharin is questionable, though it isn't as bad as aspartame which is sooo bad that products are now putting right on their labels "no aspartame." I'm giving stevia a try and brewing my own teas, but am glad the family is drinking the green stuff by the gallons till I can get them hooked on their own fresh ones.

I wonder how bad splenda is.

[Hellbent]

I read about this incredible thing called Brazzein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazzein) on another message board. Its derived from a plant, is 500-1000x sweeter then sucrose, is not a carb (its a protein) and can be eaten by diabetics. I wish there was some reason posted about why this thing isnt in widespread use.

Its scary regarding the chemicals that they use instead of real food, maybe aloha maid all natural is just the latest 'organic' thing (safeways' organics line, 7up's all natural new recipe, sunflower oil cooked potato chips) in retaliation to all of the malamine, olean, partially hydrogenated coconut oil, sodium benzoate whiplash.

[Pomai]

I think Aloha Maid's All Natural line is their answer to Hawaiian Sun's LITE (http://www.hawaiiansunproducts.com/lite.html) line, which touts less sugar, calories and carbs.

Ever since their LITE drinks came out, that's what I prefer buying. Pass-O-Guava is my fav'. It's much smoother and less "syrupy" than the regular stuff. Mildly sweet, but not watery.

[Karen]

Wow, Hellbent, thanks for telling me about that protein? I will google it and read some more about it. Stevia is 300x sweeter than sugar and is an herb and Wikipedia even shows a pic of the plant, here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

I am not sure how trustworthy the reports on that site are since anyone can write there but I know diabetics that are using Stevia and when I google it I find that it, since it's an herb is even being researched as not just subbing for sugar, but actually helping our bodies tolerate it better, like a med in ways.

Wow, if this new drink we started talking about here is their answer to a lite drink they didn't do too well, cuz it's high carb and calorie.

[Pomai]

It looks like Hawaiian Sun recently went the "Natural" way like Aloha Maid, as it now says on the can of this Guava Nectar (http://www.hawaiiansunproducts.com/guava_nectar.html) I'm drinking. In the ingredients, the sweetener is now natural cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup which it previously used.

No mention of this on their website yet.

[kani-lehua]

karen: were you able to find the stevia? i know down to earth had it. how about chai hot or iced tea with vanilla soy milk? you can add honey if you need to, but it's not necessary. apologies for being a little off topic.