I don't really bake much and don't really eat any kind of sweet tasting food at all anymore, but I do enjoy Ocean Spray's low sugar cranberry juice which is sweetened with stevia in this part of the world, but interestingly they use aspartame in the States instead. Vitalzing's water and milk drops are also stevia-based; a little of the former is a nice variation on plain water from time to time, and I used milk drops to great success when making my own low carb ice cream last summer.

Most of those water drop sweeteners seem to have malic acid in them, it sort of curdles heavy cream into a yogurt-like consistency. The cream will still whip, but it changes the consistency when you freeze it. Still makes a good ice cream to my tastes, though.

Be sure to read labels carefully! Sunday paper coupons had something called "Whole Earth Nature Sweet". The website then says. "A blend of the world’s best sweeteners, this zero calorie product is made with stevia and monk fruit. It’s the perfect addition to coffee, tea or your favorite beverage" Good so far. But then read the Ingredients:

Fructose?! And probably 95% erythritol.

We've grown our own and made syrup and dried leaves for our own use for bout 4 years, the syrup doesn't last too too long, make sure to make it very strong and boil it long enough in order to keep it pure -- also in small containers and put the syrup in and seal like you would jam, once you open the container it will start spoiling. Pinch plants early so that they put out multiple branches where the leaves form.

Yeah, why the fructose? I'd rather it was 95 percent erythritol, but I'd probably assume about a gram of fructose per package. The stuff also includes a homeopathic dose of chicory root fiber. I'd probably buy the stuff if it showed up in the dollar store.

The war against sugar has finally escalated to the point where liquid splenda is available at my local Wal-Mart, so I'm going with that for now.

I had heard of a brown sugar substitute (Splenda? don't remember brand). When I saw it at the store I checked the label & compared it to real brown sugar - the carb counts were the same! I guess I don't need the brown sugar flavor in anything.

If I want a brown sugar taste in something, I'll add a tiny amount of blackstrap molasses. 1 tsp has <5g carbs, and often 1/4 tsp is all you need to get the taste of brown sugar in a serving (along with your favourite sweetener).