Do You Use Splenda? You Might Want to Rethink It.

Splenda has been touted as the miracle sweetener. It has zero calories and doesn't cause a spike in blood sugar (or so we've been told). It's the most widely used artificial sweetener both in homes and in food production. But is it really safe? This has been a terrible year for the artificial sweetener sucralose (splenda). The rating for sucralose was until recently  listed as "safe" by the Center for the Public Interest in Science. Sucralose now has a rating of "caution" thanks to an Italian study that may link it to leukemia in mice. Then, there was a study published in Diabetes Care journal in which sucralose was shown to have diabetes promoting effects in humans. Now, a new study* published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health has found that when sucralose is heated (such as when used in baking) it forms highly toxic compounds. Here are the study findings:

• Sucralose increased glucose and insulin levels in obese women
• It can potentially interfere with therapeutic drugs for heart failure, HIV infection, and organ rejection
• The way the body metabolizes sucralose is still unknown and requires further study
• Sucralose decreases the numbers of beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract
• The compounds released buy sucralose when heated may alter DNA

Do you use Splenda or other artificial sweeteners?

  *Sucralose, A Synthetic Organochlorine Sweetener: Overview Of Biological Issues   Photo by: Quinn Dombrowski