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I'm already thinking about this month's Sugar High Friday: Low Sugar Edition. I like the challenge of coming up with recipes to fit a theme. But low sugar? I'll cut back on fat in a heartbeat, but I have to say that I would be hard pressed to give up sugar for any length of time unless I absolutely had to. Of course, one dessert does not a commitment make. Nevertheless, I wanted to know what I was up against, so I devised a little taste test with some fresh lemonade.

Let me first say that this was not scientific at all. It was not a blind taste test; I simply made two batches of lemonade and sweetened one with Splenda brand sweetener and one with sugar. Both batches tasted very good. The one with regular sugar tasted a little more complex, with the sugar having an obvious presence. The Splenda sweetened lemonade tasted a little brighter and more tart - it was difficult to measure how much I wanted to add from those little packets - but not artificial at all. The sugar version might have tasted a little bit more homemade, but the Splenda batch was very good, as well.

As far as ability to sweeten lemonade, I declared the test between Splenda and sugar a tie. Then I enjoyed the rest of my experiment with a bowl of chips on the side.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]