31 March 2009

Diet root beer in the Australian market?

| Danman
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I have T2 diabetes hence I am limited to sugar free carbonated bevvies when I wish for one.

This is where the purpose of my posting/ranting lies.

On my recent travels to the US, I fell in love with A+W brand diet root beer (read sarsaparilla) and have only found the diet variety in one place, on the net via a USA food importer.

Including delivery it is ~$50 for 24 cans, exorbitant to say the least.

I was wondering if anyone was aware of a local alternative, it has to be diet though, does not have to be A+W brand, and can be sarsaparilla or root beer.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

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Chase Diamond11:10 pm 02 Sep 17

Sacrilegious to mention sarsaparilla in the same sentence as root beer. I used to buy root beer from this Asian food store and then one day they didn’t have any, they just had A&W (?!?)Sarsaparilla in it’s place. I couldn’t bring myself to buy any to see if it tasted the same as root beer.

I-Filed, T2 diabetes is (currently) like HIV. Once you have it, you will have it until you die. Research is being undertaken to find a cure, but your body will always be insulin resistant or insulin deficient. T2 diabetes is usually controlled by an oral preperation (Called metformin, Sold as Diabex). What research indicates is that through diet and exercise, you can reduce and even eradecate your need for diabex.

In saying so, I do not eat a great deal of crap food, processed food or sugar laiden foods, I ride minimum of 100km a week and I still need the diabex.

Diet and exercise works for some and not not others.

My blood sugar level sits (after a 12 hour fast and on meds) around 7.4mmol (Milimoles a litre) – Average should be between 4 and 8mmol – Mrs danman, who is on the exact same diet as me, but does not cycle, sits around 5.4mmol. Geneology and genetics plays a big part. I am only 2nd gen Skip with maltese heritage, and T2 diabetes seems to plague a lot of Medeterranian and South Pacific Islanders.

Danman I keep reading that T2 diabetes can be cured through exercise … do you know whether that’s just isolated cases – or crap/not true?

In the states you can get Root Beer extract. My guess is you could have it shipped for cheaper then you can buy at US foods, there are recipes online for making root beer

http://www.leeners.com/sodapop.html#fla
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Root-Beer/Detail.aspx
would have to adjust for sweetener.
Have you ever tried Steva Powder, it’s natural and pretty good stuff
it just doesn’t have a lingering sweet after taste.

grunge_hippy6:06 pm 31 Mar 09

Symptoms
Side-effects laid at the door of aspartame poisoning include fits, convulsions, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, memory loss, hormonal problems, hearing loss, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, AIDS dementia, brain lesions and neuro-endocrine disorders.

AIDS???? wtf?

Hells_Bells746:00 pm 31 Mar 09

Interesting this one I came across while researching root beer.

http://septicscompanion.com/blog/2009/01/wrong-root-beer/

Hells_Bells744:29 pm 31 Mar 09

Google is good. Sorry sorry (from corner).

Woody Mann-Caruso4:21 pm 31 Mar 09

Artificial sweeteners are treated with a solution of dihydrogen monoxide, a deadly “food safe” acid that’s been directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in recent years.

Hells_Bells744:13 pm 31 Mar 09

some technicality*

Hells_Bells744:12 pm 31 Mar 09

deezagood said :

Ginger beer is completely different to root beer.

Yeah I had a feeling there would be something technicality like that, but forgive me for being me and not knowing for the life of me the difference, might be time to learn and then I can go back to my corner >>>>>>

Hells_Bells744:10 pm 31 Mar 09

miz said :

I wouldn’t touch any artificial sweetener

http://www.sportstek.net/saccharin-diet.htm

So true, I never use the stuff. But it would suck to be diabetic or such and must be hard for them to not use some kind of alternative to normality. But user beware I say.

Ginger beer is completely different to root beer.

Hells_Bells744:01 pm 31 Mar 09

Bundaberg Brewed drinks also do a diet ginger beer. It’s a skinnier bottle but I’ve seen it round the trap in various locals and Woolies or the like. Plus their site suggests it’s out there.

I wouldn’t touch any artificial sweetener

http://www.sportstek.net/saccharin-diet.htm

I also recommend the cordial option. $3 for a bottle of Bundaburg (diet) or other brand cordial and 89c for a 1.5L bottle of Soda water. It lasts for ages, its cheap and tastes just as good as normal expensive ginger beer.

kick arse – thanks WMC

Keep the suggestions coming peeps 🙂

Even better!!

Woody Mann-Caruso12:41 pm 31 Mar 09

Danman – buy root beer concentrate on line (we like McCormick – tastes just like A&W or our favourite, Dominion) and mix it with cheap diet lemonade. 60ml of concentrate is about US$6 and makes 12 liters of root beer. This gal will ship 6 bottles for US$12.95 (so total is US$50 for 72 liters, or the equivalent of 9 cartons). Sure you can find better with some googling.

Ooooh Danman; just found some diet sarsperella cordial on the sugarfreezone website; you could mix with soda water and make a version of your own (not as nice, but much, much cheaper)!

They probably make the root beer with essence flavour and water then carbonate it soda stream style

But A+W manage to do it?

Pommy bastard11:56 am 31 Mar 09

This site explains why you cannot make root beer with sugar substitutes;

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/ROOTBEER_Jn0.htm

I homebrew full blood sarsparilla, but never really knew if ther was an option to brew it as a low/zero sugar bevvy as you need sugar for carbonation and generating alcoholic content.

I *know* sugar in alcoholic beverages can have no effect in medicated T2 diabetics, because of the alcohols effect on the liver (Google it) , but would prefer a prefabbed zero sugar version.

Deeza, ill give that a shot, maybe they currently have a low/zero sugar version.

With the obesity and diabetic plague in the US, they seem to cater for zero sugar alternatives quite comprehensively compared to here, to th epoint of several restaurants having an array of sugar free options for desserts. My quest continues.

PB – it isn’t alcoholic, so extremely expensive for softies. I have also tried to find inexpensive diet root beer here, but to no avail. Danman – Bundaburg Brewed Drinks makes a fantastic non-diet version – maybe you could write to them with your suggestion of a diet version? They make a bunch of other diet drinks.

Pommy bastard11:23 am 31 Mar 09

Is root beer alcoholic? If not, then $50 for 24 cans,would be no exaggeration to declare it “exorbitant to say the least.”

Is there any way you could make your own? It’s easy to carbonate drinks with a soda stream or the like.

$50 for a case of imported beer isn’t that bad, unless it’s in $US ($AU75).

Don’t know enough about availability of local commercial diabetic beer (that conforms to strict regulation to ensure that it is sugar free) but you might like to try the big bottle shops such as the one near Belconnen markets (on Market St) or near Fyshwick markets (midway on Mildura St).

If you’re out of luck then I suggest you get stuck into homebrewing. Achieving an almost totally sugar-free brew is as simple as adding in a “finishing” agent (gelatin) and leaving it to mature for extra months (e.g. 3~6 months after bottling).

The new IGA in the city has A+W root beer, not sure about the diet version though. Try giving them a call.

They also have all manner of American chocolate, candies and pop tarts at a reasonable price.

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