Healthy Bytes

Made from sugar?!?

read time: 284 words, about a minute

Merisant, manufacturer of Equal (that would be the blue packet) is suing Splenda (that would be the yellow packet) manufacturer McNeil Nutritionals. They’re suing for $176 million or so.

Charging big decrease in their sales since Splenda entered the market. Ok, technically they’re charging that the Splenda slogan “made from sugar so it taste like sugar” is misleading. They’re only looking out for you

Symantics? Wellllll…
Splenda is sucralose.
They start with a sugar molocule and chlorinate and chemically alter it to produce “fructo-galactose”. Such a thing does not appear in nature and you cannot break it down and digest it.

Since it’s a “food” – well that’s how it’s technically classified, it does not go through that same kind of testing a drug would go through.

Chlorinated molecules are carcinogenic. They aren’t digested but instead accumulate in your fat cells.

There has been a swarm of “symptoms” associated with Splenda. There’s also quite a bit of politics with it.

Now McNeil claims that it does not say it is made WITH sugar so how can ANY consumer (I believe they don’t distinguish between literate or not, PhD in chemistry or not) interpret made FROM sugar so it tastes LIKE sugar as actually being in any way related to sugar.

Corporate jostling aside –
Sugar creates inflammation in your body which leads to nothing good.
Artificial sweeteners completely mess with your satiety brain signals… you’re not “satiated”, you keep eating…

Splenda controls nearly 60% of the sweetener market. Is it beeter or worse than the competitors? They’re all chemical toxins. I don’t see a point in arguing over which toxin is worse. Avoid them all.

Want to know more about Splenda…
Sucralose Toxicity Info Center

Splendid… nope, not really

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 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.