- What is Splenda?
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- It's the artificial sweetener sucralose, which is sold
under the name splenda. It's one of the up-and-coming high-intensity sugar
substitutes. It is about 600 times sweeter than white table sugar and is
non-caloric. The sweetness can vary depending on the food application from
320 to 1000 times sweeter than sucrose (white table sugar). The intensity
of sucralose is much more intense in sweetness than sugar, even though
it looks about the same as sugar.
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- How it is manufactured
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- Sucralose is produced by chlorinating sugar (sucrose).
This involves chemically changing the structure of the sugar molecules
by substituting three chlorine atoms for three hydroxyl groups.
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- Safety Concerns
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- Very few studies exist on sucralose. According to Endurance
News there are only 19 studies that have been performed, yet sucralose
was approved for use by the FDA in 1998. Just to give you an example of
how few studies sucralose has, saccharin, which has been around for a while
has 2374 studies according to Endurance News. Many of the studies on sucralose
so far have been reported by the FDA to have "inconclusive" results.
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- Research in animals has shown that sucralose can cause
many problems in rats, mice, and rabbits, such as:
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- · Shrunken thymus gland (up to 40% shrinkage)
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- · Enlarged liver and kidneys
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- · Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and
thymus
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- · Increased cecal weight
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- · Reduced growth rate
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- · Decreased red blood cell count
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- · Hyperplasia of the pelvis
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- · Extension of the pregnancy period
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- · Aborted pregnancy
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- · Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights
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- · Diarrhea
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- Now you can't directly convert this to humans, but if
it does that much to an animal, I think it's safe to assume that it could
affect the human body in some manner.
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- One claim of sucralose is that it won't affect your sugar
levels. Few human studies exist on safety have been published on sucralose.
One small study using diabetic patients showed a statistically significant
increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (HgbA1C), which is a marker of your
average blood sugars over a 3-4 month period and is used to assess sugar
regulation in diabetic patients according to the FDA.
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- Is Sucralose Absorbed or Metabolized?
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- One of the other main things sucralose has been claimed
by the manufacturer's to do is go straight through the body without being
absorbed. To the contrary, sucralose is significantly absorbed and metabolized
by the body. According to the FDA's "Final Rule" report, 11%
to 27% of sucralose is absorbed in humans, and the rest is excreted unchanged
in feces. According to the Japanese Food Sanitation Council, as much as
40% of ingested sucralose is absorbed. About 20% to 30% of absorbed sucralose
is metabolized. The absorbed sucralose has been found to concentrate in
the liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract. According to Dr. Mercola's
website, "The manufacturer claims that the chlorine added to sucralose
is similar to the chlorine atom in the salt (NaCl) molecule. That is not
the case. Sucralose may be more like ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated
pesticides, but we will never know without long-term , independent human
research," of which there is none. Some chlorinated molecules serve
as the basis for pesticides such as D.D.T., and accumulate in the body
fat.
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- Does sucralose and any of the sweeteners on the market
help with weight loss?
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- According to Consumers' Research Magazine "There
is no clear-cut evidence that sugar substitutes are useful in weight reduction.
On the contrary, there is some evidence that these substances may stimulate
appetite."
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- One of the major selling points of aspartame is a diet
aid and currently is in most diet drinks. Although some companies are changing
to splenda (i.e. Diet rite). When aspartame is ingested with carbohydrates,
such as having a sandwich with a diet drink, aspartame causes the brain
to cease production of serotonin, which is the hormone that makes you feel
full after eating. Therefore you never feel full, thus increasing your
appetite. You then eat more foods, many containing aspartame, and the cycle
continues. Recent research on aspartame in Europe is showing that ingesting
aspartame leads to the accumulation of formaldehyde in the brain, other
organs and tissues (Formaldehyde has been shown to damage the nervous system,
immune system, cause irreversible genetic damage in humans and is also
used to preserve cadavers)!
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- So what should I use as a sweetener?
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- Stevia, which is a sweet herb, 300-400 times sweeter
than sugar and does not affect sugar levels. I would advise just to stay
away from any artificial sweeteners and to use something natural.
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- http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_39516.asp
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