I had a real urge for something sweet tonigh so I made these https://peaceloveandlowcarb.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-keto-no-bake-cookies/
I was so pleased with the result that I gave my wife a bite. “Yuck!” she responded and she rarely doesn’t like almost anything. Maybe it is the erythritol?
I am just guessing we have different responses to sweetness now?
Yeah, I find plain greek yoghurt sweet now and find plain milk sickly sweet. And I can easily drink coffee without any sugar or sweetener these days whereas before keto I couldn’t. My tastebuds have definitely changed.
same. I had greek yogurt yesterday and it tasted too sweet. Had some veggies as well, fresh from the farmers market. Tasted like candy.
Stevia bitterness is a non existent idea to me. I mean I literally use ground up stevia leafs as sweeteners for recipes and I frankly enjoy it!
As we commonly say, keto is a return to normal. The taste buds are very sensitive so when overloaded with multiple sources of sweet all day they become dulled. Since keto eliminates most of the common sources of the ‘sweet flavour’ the sweet taste buds regain their normal sensitivity.
In an evolutionary sense, ‘sweetness’ developed in association with nutrients. In the absence of sugar overload, all those non-sugar nutrients can once again be sensed by the ‘sweet’ taste buds. So we notice things as ‘sweet’ because that’s normal. Other people don’t.
I stopped using all sugar when I began Keto (of course) in February, then stopped using artificial sweeteners early June (soon after I joined the forum actually). If I add vanilla extract to anything it tastes really sweet to me, and my herbal tea’s with nothing added taste sweet, and even herbal peppermint tea. It is enough sweet for me, but I am not adding any sweetener. When I cook cauliflower in EVOO I love it, and it tastes sweet to me.
My taste buds are awakened on Keto. Foods that I found bland before, my sauteed cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, radishes, and others, are now very delicious to me, and when I think what I am going to make for lunch or supper, are what I crave.
The taste buds are eminently trainable. Long before I went keto, I eliminated all additives to my coffee and reached the point where even a small amount of milk or sugar made the coffee taste terrible. The irony is that when I started drinking coffee as a college student, the only way to make it palatable back then was to add in nearly an equal amount of milk, and then add sugar to the point that there was about a quarter-inch of the stuff precipitated out in the bottom of the cup after the liquid was gone. I eventually trained myself, over a period of several years, to dispense with the milk, and eventually with the sugar. So I have preferred black coffee since quite a few years before going keto.
On the other hand, before I started keto, even 75% dark chocolate tasted rather bitter, and unsweetened chocolate was altogether inedible. I’d like to credit the ketogenic diet with altering my taste to the point where I find unsweetened chocolate quite tasty nowadays, but I suspect it’s instead the result of two years of eating no sugar in any form. I have also noticed that when baking a dessert to share with carb-burners, it is difficult to find a happy medium between my disgust at too much sweetness and theirs for not enough.
Well, I’ve used Splenda in my coffee, ever since my first “back to fitness journey” 11 years ago. But for the last 5 years, I also ate enough actual sugar and corn syrup to sink a freaking barge !
Since starting Keto 3 months ago, zero actual sugar or corn syrup. Then a few weeks ago, we found some wild black berries. I picked a couple and popped them in my mouth, and Holy #%$% ! Tasted like a spoonful of sugar… black berry flavored of course 
I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything that sweet, other than pure refined sugar, or pure Splenda…
So yes, I have definitely become a lot more sensitive to sweetness.
IMPO, every sweetener “other than sucralose” tastes weird and unnatural… even the natural ones. I do end up drinking some aspartame and acefultame potassium, just because its convenient, and food and drink manufacturers are retarded.
So this may only apply to me, and is not a requirement or recommendation for anyone else.
But I used to love sweets. In particular, sweet baked goods like cookies, pastries, donuts, more so than candy.
Definitely a weakness. I decided I was going to completely eliminate the taste of sweetness from my palate. Cold turkey - no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no “keto” versions of cookies or pastries. Just done with it.
Took about 3 months before the cravings for those were just a memory. I am no longer tempted. But I don’t want to risk keeping the sweet tooth alive. It’s just another trigger for me to eat for pleasure or taste, and not for hunger or nutrition.
For some, having a rule that says “I can have cookies, just not today” works. For me, I need a rule that says “I’ve already had all of the cookies I will eat in my lifetime, I just chose to front-load them in the first 60 years.” And there are others, lucky ones, who can eat a cookie and it does not trigger overeating cravings. Everyone has to figure out where they land on the cookie spectrum (or cakes, or candy, or whatever.)
Clearly there are people who are not dealing with weight issues who can eat the occasional pastry and get along fine. I am not one of those people.
So I don’t say anyone should utterly avoid artificial sweeteners. But doing so helps me.
As to the taste of food - there are many vegetables now that I enjoy eating whereas before I would only eat them because they were “good for me” but what I really wanted was that rice, bread, or dessert. Now, I’m like “Oh boy, broccoli!” and it’s not sarcasm.
This is me for now anyway, at least until maintenance, which is a long ways away for me, as I have about 130 pounds to go for this.
I have no weakness to pastries, cakes, etc. I still make “normal” cakes, muffins, and cookies for all the family, and I am not tempted at all by any of them. My weakness was always candy and stuff like ice cream. We don’t have Rebel here; I am kind of hoping that by the time I am in Maintenance we will have some of that that I can buy once in a while.
Although, I might not have any desire to even ever have any by then regardless if it is available or not.
Oh I ate those, too. They just didn’t need a mourning period like I did for fresh-baked sugar cookies or a nice cream-cheese and strawberry croissant.
I have lost weight before and gained it back. I know where my demons lie waiting.
This is how it worked for me, as well, though in about 2 months. I remember the exact moment I had this “aha” moment - I heard Robb Wolf on a podcast and he says sweet things are the equivalent of a pencil to him: “I wouldn’t eat that pencil, so it’s not a struggle for me not to eat it.” That was such a liberating moment for me, that there could come a point where it won’t be (as much of) a battle, or perhaps not a battle at all.
Yeah, I had to do some mental gymnastics early on to get my brain to think of sugary things as “not food.”
Internally I always replaced whatever it was with “broken glass” so while I was saying “No thanks, I don’t eat cookies” my internal dialogue was “No thanks, I don’t eat broken glass.”
Cheesy little trick but it worked. Or you can call it a pencil. 
Ah, it is to laugh.
This from the fella who derides those who “cheat” in multiple posts. 
#humblebrag
You must be loaded! And able to take abundant time off work! Impressive.
Even with two 6 figure incomes my household never has done this amount of international vacationing. 
As to the question, the closest to “sweet” items I’ve had since starting as I have never not once “cheated”, are coconut and almond butter, nothing added type, both just pureed coconut/almonds and they taste so sweet I kinda don’t trust the label and fear there’s actually sugar added 
When I first joined the forums and was having real trouble with cravings, someone suggested thinking of it as “deathfood.” I’m going to add “broken glass” to my repertoire, as well.
As for “rewarding” myself, I figured out a while ago that staying keto is my reward; going back to eating carbohydrate in any quantity would be punishment. That turns out to be another extremely helpful thought, since although I do have a self-destructive streak, I’m not actually suicidal. Anything that helps keep the glazed doughnuts at bay! 
I am with @BlueViolet on this
You reamed everyone out in another thread for having any cheating on Keto; and included things like Keto pizza, breads, fat bombs, etc in your tirade on what you thought was cheating to you…
and yet you say you have total CARBAGE cheats on horrid foods that are poison to your body ----- so ummmm --“pot calling the kettle black” being a hypocrit here.
Totally… like wow, and this desert you have posted is pure SUGAR CARBAGE, and would make most of us fat-adapted Ketonians throw up if we ate it…
Sounds EXACTLY like the rationalizations you smugly “railed against” while seated upon your many hands high, horse.
I’ve NEVER not a single time since staring in Aug 2017, “cheated”.
Mentioned so you know I’m not reacting due to being part of your targeted audience.
@Momof5 is one of THE most laid back, kind and genuine folks on here; she’s not like me (a miserable wretch) at all. If SHE’S put out by your posts, that’s really indicative of something quite valid. You’re the ONLY poster she’s ever criticized.
Ditto here. I recently had some strawberries and OMG were they the sweetest berries I’d ever had. Sooooo yummy. But hunnie, who also had some, said they were just typical berries and not particularly sweet at all.
I started this post with an honest question and desire to hear other people’s results. If it is going to continue in the current vein maybe we can ask a mod to close it.