read time: about 3 minutes

Spah len dah. It just rolls right off your tongue.
And those commercials with all the magic fairy dust, who can resist.
After all it tastes like sugar.

Splenda has risen to the #1 selling artificial sweetener is a very short time.
In 2000, 3% of US households were using Splenda products.
In 2004 - 20% were.

Let’s look at the advertised claim:
“It’s made from sugar”.

Semantically speaking, and looking only at step one of the manufacturing process, that’s correct…
Splenda (sucralose) starts off as a sugar molecule.
However, the transformed finished product is way beyond what you might see on Nip / Tuck.

The chemical composition of the sugar molecule is converted to a “fructo-galactose” molecule. So?
Well such a molecule does not occur in nature; therefore, your body can’t digest it.

If that’s all there were to it, it would be like a kid “eating” a plastic toy. It would “come out” (assuming it didn’t get lodged along the way). But it’s more like the kid eating lead paint chips.

Sucrolose is produced by chlorinating sucrose (sugar).
Chlorinated molecules are also used as the basis for D.D.T. and other fine pesticides. The molecules are carcinogenic and since they accumulate in fat tissue, there’s a toxic buildup.

Symptoms displayed in research animals given sucralose were:
shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage), enlarged liver and
kidneys, atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus,
reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell count, hyperplasia
of the pelvis, extension of the pregnancy period, aborted pregnancy,
decreased fetal body weights and placental weights, and chronic
diarrhea.

As far as human trials. Well there were only two published before the FDA approved sucralose. The two studies involved ONLY 36 people of which only 23 were given sucralose. The studies only looked at tooth decay. And here’s the kicker… the LONGEST trial was FOUR DAYS. Not terribly far removed from “divine faith”, eh?

Keep in mind that it accumulates in your fat cells.

You can check out the [1] Sucralose Toxicity Information Center for more fun to know things about the current #1 artificial sweetener Splenda.

The menu of symptoms reported by humans (who probably didn’t think they were part of an experiment) are:

Flushing or redness of the skin
Burning feeling of the skin
Rash
Itching
A panicky or shaky feeling
Swelling
Blisters on the skin
Welts
Nausea
Stomach cramps
Dry heaves
Becoming withdrawn
Loss of interest in usual activities
Feeling forgetful
Moodiness
Dulled senses
Unexplained crying
Acne or acne-like rash
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Feelings of food poisoning
Headache
Seeing spots
Mental or emotional breakdown
Altered emotional state, i.e. feeling irate, impatient, hypersensitive
Pain (body, chest)
Bloated abdomen
Diarrhea
Trouble concentrating/staying in focus
Feeling depressed
Vomiting
Seizures
Shaking
Feeling faint

Next up we’ll look at the better sugar substitutes.