Do you know what Splenda is? Of course you do. It's one of the many sugar substitutes out on the market. In fact, Splenda is one of the most popular ones. It is supposedly "made from sugar", of course, by sugar, they mean chemicals. Splenda is a molecule cleverly dubbed sucralose.

Regular sugar has groups of hydroxyl attached to the sugar molecule. To make Splenda, you replace those hydrogen based groups with a chloride atom. Yummy! This is done in a five step chemical process. Now, people will claim that the chlorine in sucralose molecule is harmless and that it passes through the digestive system completely inert. In all fairness, Splenda was put through a 20 year FDA trial before it was marketed and found to be harmless... in humans. And we all know the FDA has never made a mistake before when approving something for human consumption. However, there is a mis-statement to this in the SPlenda advertising. Despite the manufacturer's mis-statements, sucralose does break down into small amounts of 1,6-dichlorofructose, a chemical that has not been adequately tested in humans.

It should also be noted that no independant, controled human tests were made on sucralose by the FDA. They also never did any long term studies on the product

The Splenda molecule will pass completely through the system without being metabolized. It is completely eliminated after you eat it. According to claims. However, chlorocarbons are known to cause the lymph folicle in the spleen and thymus to atrophy in lab animals. of course, the human system is not the same as a lab animal, but we use those lab animals for a reason. The chlorocarbons in sucralose also cause a retarded growth rate, a decrease in red blood cell count and at the very least diarrhea.

The dosages given to the lab animals was of course very high, but these inflated dosages cause the shrinkage of the thymus and enlargement of the liver. One person may not have effects until a dose of 10 mg per kg of body weight (10 mg/kg) is reached, while another person may have chronic toxicity effects at 1 mg per kg of body weight (1 mg/kg). In addition, it is well known that many chemicals are much more toxic in humans than in rodents (or even monkeys). For example, the chemicals that the sweetener aspartame breaks down into vary from 5 to 50 times more toxic in humans than in rodents. Therefore, toxicologists estimate a further 10 times the dose for differences between human and rodent toxicity for a total of 100 times (10 * 10).

What does this mean, you ask? Well, we take the lowest dosage given to a lab animal that caused a negative effect. We divide that number by 100. That number is known as the Tolerable Daily Intake for a life time of use, or TDI. This is assuming that it has the same effect on humans as it does animals, but as we learned with aspertame, some chemicals are far more toxic to humans than rodents. Anyway, this number roughly equates to 50 diet sodas according to manufacture. Of course, do you know how much is put into one can of soda? I don't either. I don't drink soda and thus do not have access to the can and though I looked and looked I couldn't find the list of ingredients online.

I can tell you this though: Most Americans eat 20tsp of sugar/sugar substitute a day and 60% of that comes from our soft drinks.

So, think about this before you reach for those little packets of sugar... those "sugar-free low carb treats" and the new diet Coke with Splenda. It is unlikely that you'll overdose on Splenda any time soon, but, I've seen the sweet tooth on the American nation...

I don't like sweets, but I am known from time to time to indulge in Dunkin Donuts with my Husband. I figure anything in moderation... remember, moderation include supposed "sugarless, calorie-less" things as well.

Posted by Utopia at August 19, 2005 07:38 AM

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Posted by: Navarre at August 19, 2005 03:04 PM

Posted by: Darkstar at August 21, 2005 08:56 PM

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