Day 21 - English Sweeteners vs. Japanese Sweeteners

Dukan Day: 21
Remaining Days:  43 (131 until consolidation)
Weight Lost: 5kg
Weight To Go: 3.8kg

5kg lost so far!!! Yay!!! I'm back to my pre-England holiday weight!!!


My pulled muscle was quite painful last night. I aggravated it yesterday evening while doing some cleaning. I ended up going to bed about 9pm and I woke up this morning at 7.30! I slept straight through - which is surprising for a Saturday night. I live in the downtown of my city and I'm about a 3 minute walk from the main nightlife area. Saturday night more often than not involves a drunken party walking by my apartment building and/or a police car/ambulance riding by in the small hours. I guess I needed a long deep sleep.

I have a super sweet tooth, so naturally I use sweeteners in my tea. I have very weak teeth (because I don't like milk and so never drank it and I eat sweet things) so I have to avoid sugar in my tea. I bought some Sweetex from England with me and I love it. Not the most healthiest thing in the world, but I'm sure it's much healthier than munching on some chocolate to get a sweet-fix.

This week I ran out! D:


So, I was on the hunt for a replacement here in Japan. My local supermarket does not have the best choice of food. But, I did find a temporary replacement.


I say temporary replacement as I have asked my mother to send me some Sweetex from England!

The Japanese sweetener I found was Pal Sweet (パルスイート). It comes in both a sugar granule type packet or a liquid. I got the granule type. You use a third the amount you would of sugar - but I still use a tea spoon of Pal Sweet in my tea just to make it sweet enough.

The big problem I have with this is the price... its 900円 for a bag of 140g that doesn't even last a week. It really annoys me in Japan that so much emphasis is made on being skinny (and I do stress skinny, not thin, not healthy, SKINNY) that diet products are extremely over priced, more so than in England.

Sweetex costs the equivalent of 600円 (plus the postage from England) and will last me a few months.

I think Sweetex tastes better too. It seems to disperse better in tea, unlike Pal Sweet which, despite frantic stirring, gets sweeter towards the bottom. I wonder if the density of Pal Sweet causes the sweeter water to sink to the bottom? Look at me trying to be all sciency and stuff! I don't have a clue lol.