I am using a product for with this sweetner, acesulfame potassium, and I have started having breathing problems. Any info on this?
Also:
From:
http://www.candrugsstore.com/news_May.aspx(A website for Discount Canadian Drugs. The political history of saccharine is also included for anyone who doubts that politics can affect FDA matters.)
Not All Sugars Are Created Equal
By David Schardt
Nutrition Action
The artificial sweetener business must be a pretty good place to be these days. Thanks to the obesity epidemic, a growing number of people are trying to cut calories. That means more “diet” this and “no-sugar-added” that. And the low-carb craze has left food manufacturers scrambling to be the first on their block to take the sugar out of everything from chocolate to ketchup to Bloody Mary mix.
The result? We’re eating more low-calorie sweeteners than ever before. Yet not all sugar substitutes are Equal, so to speak.
- Sucralose and Neotame are safe.
- Sugar alcohols and tagatose, while safe, may give you the runs if you eat too much.
- Aspartame probably is safe.
- Acesulfame and stevia may or may not be safe; there’s not enough good research to tell.
- Saccharin isn’t safe (though the risk is small).
If you drink diet soda or chew gum (sugarless or regular), you’ll have a hard time avoiding aspartame and acesulfame. And if you’re a fan of “light” yogurt, you’ll be getting either aspartame or sucralose. That’s because manufacturers choose sugar substitutes depending on the food. Some are used in baked goods because they withstand heat better. Some are used in yogurt because they can survive in an acidic environment. Some lose their sweetness in the syrup used to make fountain sodas, but are fine for bottled or canned soft drinks. Just keep in mind that even an unsafe sweetener like saccharin poses only a tiny risk to any given person. The potential problems arise when tens of millions of people consume the sweetener for years. That’s why the government should require better studies on some sweeteners and should ban others. And remember: real sugar is hardly a toxic chemical. The problem is the large amounts that Americans eat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has suggested a limit of ten teaspoons of added sugars per day for people who eat a 2,000-calorie diet. That’s 40 grams, about as much as you’d get from one 12-ounce soft drink or two six-ounce fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts.
Sucralose
Also known as: Splenda.
What is it? Sugar (sucrose) chemically combined with chlorine. It’s “made from sugar” label slogan is technically true, but misleading. Why it’s low-calorie: Our bodies can’t burn sucralose for energy.
Safety: Sucralose passed all safety tests in animal studies.
Comments: There is no reason to suspect that sucralose causes any harm....
Aspartame
Also known as: Equal, NutraSweet, NatraTaste.
What is it? A synthetic derivative of a combination of the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine.
Why it’s low-calorie: Only tiny amounts of aspartame are needed to sweeten foods.
Safety: People with the rare disorder phenylketonuria (PKU) can’t metabolize phenylalanine, so they should avoid aspartame. Whether aspartame causes headaches is unclear. An industry-funded study of people who complained of aspartame-induced headaches concluded that it doesn’t. But an independent test in 1994 of 26 similar people found that the sweetener was linked to symptoms in the 11 who were “very sure” they were sensitive. That suggests that some people react to aspartame, though fewer than the number who believe they do. The most serious charge—that aspartame increases the risk of cancer—has never been proved. Among the many animal studies on aspartame, only one hints at an increased risk. There’s no foundation to claims floating around the Internet that aspartame causes everything from Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis.
Comments: Clouds hang over both aspartame and acesulfame, but researchers have done more—and better—studies on aspartame. Even so, because aspartame is used in so many foods, the FDA should err on the side of caution and require non-industry-funded studies to resolve any questions about aspartame’s safety. People who believe they suffer from headaches or other symptoms after consuming foods that contain aspartame should avoid the sweetener.
Probably safe, but certain people should avoid...
Acesulfame
Also known as: Sweet One, Sunett, acesulfame potassium.
What is it? A synthetic chemical.
Why it’s low-calorie: Our bodies can’t metabolize acesulfame.
Safety: The safety of acesulfame (pronounced ace-SULL-fame) rests on three animal studies conducted in the mid-1970s. The first was inconclusive because it found a variety of tumors both in mice fed acesulfame and in control mice fed acesulfame-free diets. The second was so plagued with sick animals that the FDA tossed out the results as unreliable. In the third study, female rats fed acesulfame were twice as likely to develop breast tumors as control rats. While most of the tumors were benign, there were some malignant tumors—one in the 60 control rats, two in the 60 rats given low doses of acesulfame, and three in the 60 rats given high doses of acesulfame. The sweetener’s manufacturer argued that acesulfame seemed to cause more tumors only because the control rats happened to remain unusually tumor-free. The FDA bought the company’s interpretation and refused to require more safety testing.
Comments: Acesulfame should be better tested. Until then, try to avoid it.
Stevia
Also known as: Sweet Leaf, Honey Leaf.
What is it? An extract from a shrub that grows in Brazil and Paraguay.
Why it’s low-calorie: Our bodies can’t metabolize stevia.
Safety: When male rats were fed high doses of stevioside (stevia’s active ingredient) for 22 months, they produced fewer sperm and there was increased cell proliferation in their testicles, which could cause infertility. And when female hamsters were fed large amounts of a derivative of stevioside, they had fewer and smaller offspring. That—combined with the absence of other animal studies that are normally required for food additives—led the FDA, Health Canada, the European Union, and the World Health Organization to conclude that stevia shouldn’t be allowed in food.
Comments: Stevia can’t be used as an ingredient in food. But it can be sold as a supplement, since safety rules for supplements are looser than for foods. Stevia is promoted by the health-food industry as a natural alternative to synthetic sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose. But “natural” doesn’t automatically mean “safe.”
Saccharin
Also known as: Sweet ‘N Low.
What is it? A synthetic chemical that was discovered in 1879 when a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore noticed that a compound he spilled on his hand tasted sweet.
Why it’s low-calorie: Our bodies can’t metabolize saccharin, and only tiny amounts are needed to sweeten foods.
Safety: In 1977, the FDA tried to ban saccharin because animal studies showed that it caused cancer of the bladder, uterus, ovaries, skin, and other organs. Bowing to pressure from the diet-food industry and dieters, Congress intervened to keep saccharin on the market, though with a warning notice on the label.
(At the time, saccharin was the only high potency sweetener.) In the late 1990s, the Calorie Control Council—which represents the low-calorie food and beverage industry—convinced the FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that the main health concern about saccharin was bladder cancer in male rats, but that people didn’t develop bladder cancer through the same mechanism as the rats. In 2000, over the objections of a number of scientists, the NIH removed saccharin from its list of carcinogens and Congress removed the requirement for warning notices. Yet last year the National Cancer Institute noted that one of its own studies—the best human study of saccharin use ever done— had found “some evidence of an increased risk of bladder cancer” in heavy saccharin users, “particularly for those who heavily ingested the sweetener as a table top sweetener or through diet sodas.” “Heavy” meant “six or more servings of sugar substitute or two or more eight-ounce servings of diet drink daily.”
Comments: Just because saccharin no longer carries a warning doesn’t erase the evidence that it may cause cancer in humans.
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