Seeing lots of ads for Splenda. Wonder if it's safe? Dr Mercola says no.

[AP]

There's a new artificial sweetener on the block and it is already in a wide range of products, some even sold in health food stores and manufactured by nutritionally-oriented companies. But is it proven safe? Does it provide any benefit to the public? Does it help with weight loss? Are there any long term human studies? Has it been shown to be safe for the environment? The answer to all of these questions is unfortunately a resounding NO.

The artificial sweetener sucralose, which is sold under the name Splenda™, is one of the up-and-coming "next generation" of high-intensity sugar substitutes. It is non-caloric and about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (white table sugar), although it can vary from 320 tp 1,000 times sweeter, depending on the food application. The white crystalline powder tastes like a lot like sugar, but is more intense in its sweetness.

...

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.

...

Few human studies of safety have been published on sucralose. One small study of diabetic patients using the sweetener showed a statistically significant increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (Hba1C), which is a marker of long-term blood glucose levels and is used to assess glycemic control in diabetic patients. According to the FDA, "increases in glycosolation in hemoglobin imply lessening of control of diabetes.


Research in animals has shown that sucralose can cause many problems in rats, mice, and rabbits, such as:




Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage)

Enlarged liver and kidneys.

Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus

Increased cecal weight

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

Diarrhea



According to one source (Sucralose Toxicity Information Center), concerning the significant reduction in size of the thymus gland, "the manufacturer claimed that the sucralose was unpleasant for the rodents to eat in large doses and that starvation caused the shruken thymus glands.

...


http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm#

[northstar]

1. YIKES!!! Trust Dr Mercola ........say NO to this nasty stuff!

:scared:

[lazarus]

15. Don't trust this quack

He advocates not immunizing your children.

[hlthe2b]

30. More on Dr. Mercola (Dr. Stephen Barret of "QUACKWATCH" is suing

him for libel:
Integrative Health Care Centers of America
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/Nonrecorg/ihcca.html

Mercola is a proponent of many alternative theories of health and disease-- some which are pretty far beyond both mainstream and the current body of knowledge from scientific studies. So, be aware that his theories may not always be based on much more than conjecture....He is making quite a bit of money from challenging current medical practice among those seeking (sometimes desperately seeking) alternatives. Where $$ is the motivation, good "science" does not always follow.... Caveat Emptor (let buyer beware)

[KT2000]

2. Thanks for this info

there is no wore example of corporate abuse than the way they use humans as experiment subjects for their products and rake in the profits.

[punpirate]

3. Always read ingredients....

I even found the stuff in the bottled water, Fruitopia. Tiny little logo on the label, but this crap is in it.

Cheers.

[elsiesummers]

4. Don't know about splenda - sure wish Olestra was available as cooking oil.

I wish we got real answers to this stuff rather than either corporate driven or interest group driven non-information.

It's difficult to live in a society where real information is deliberately withheld while we are overtaken by either superstion and fear or false science propigated to feed the corporate whores - with a real lack of good information made available with the best rather than the worst of intentions towards society and the individual.

How can we make intelligent health decisions when on one hand we have corporate shills and on the other unregulated pseudoscience?

[Ms. Clio]

5. I would take this more seriously

If Dr. Mercola also didn't believe that sunblock increases your risk of cancer and that HIV does not cause AIDS.

http://www.therealessentials.com/sunblock.html

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2001/9/prweb28144.htm

The good doctor seems to be quite the "expert" on just about everything, and also has books and products of his own to sell.

I have used Splenda for years, and have experienced absolutely no side effects.

(sp edit)

[mike_c]

6. I've looked at the linked website and at the "Sucralose...

...Toxicity Information Center" website it cites, but neither give enough information about that study to be useful. In particular, was sucralose compared in similar concentrations to other sweeteners that the websites "approved", such as sucrose, fructose, maltose, honey, and stevia?

The article did note that rats evidently did not like the taste, and that led to starvation, although they do not give the evidence for concluding that rats disliked sucralose. I wonder-- did the rats starve because they were ONLY fed sucralose, without any other calorie/nutrient sources? Remember, sucralose is appealing because it cannot be converted to glucose, so it is not in itself a source of calories or nutrients. The justification given for the extremely high doses given the rats suggest that there wasn't likely much room for anything else-- sucralose has pretty much the same volume as regular table sugar. Did the rats perceive that sucralose offered no metabolic resources? Or do rats perceive the sweet taste differently than humans do? Do rats not like sweet food? Testing against other sweeteners would help answer this question, but there's not indication of this in the article.

To be honest, this looks a lot like all those "studies" demonstrating the benefits of dubious nutritional supplements, or like "studies" warning of the dangers of floridating water....

[northstar]

7. I've always wondered

Does the world really need artificial sugar/sweetener? And, if so, WHY??? :shrug:

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Another artificial panic

I remember when the scare about aspartame hit, I decided to eliminate all food from my diet containing aspartame. I was using quite a lot of it, and figured it would be an interesting experiment to undertake, especially since my health was not ideal. Since all the web-based "natural medicine" physicians recommended abstaining for 60 days, I took it to 90 days.

Result? Not a damn thing. Abstaining from this horrible poison did not help me one bit.

Mercola's evidence is scant and most of it is guilt-by-association. For instance, he compares sucralose to pesticides for the simple reason that they each contain chlorine! However, chlorine is a very common element and is half of the salt molecule (NaCl -- Sodium Chloride). Mercola also scares his readers by listing the full chemical names of sucralose and its metabolic by-products, and doesn't tell them that sucrose and its own metabolic by-products have very similar chemical names.

The only piece of useful advice he gives is to tell his readers to "be careful" with sucralose; i.e., pay attention to your body's reactions to foods with it, since some people may have reactions to it. Nearly everything else is scare tactics and high-octane dietary moralizing.

And, as much as I disdain the pharmaceutical and food corporations and their intrusions into our lives, corporate sponsorship does not change the nutritional or chemical properties of a substance. Not one bit.

Sucralose is not a dangerous food product. Avoid it if you react to it, but be aware that the chances of that happening are very low. (Of course, medically-verifiable reactions to MSG have always tested at about 1 in 150, but over half the people you talk to will claim to react badly to MSG.)

Shifting neurotic moralizing from sex to food is one of the most misery-inducing changes we've made in the last generation. And on top of it, we still have the sexual craziness anyway. My own advanced organic spiritual nutritional advice is: Eat to stay healthy. Listen to your body. Don't fall for anybody's hysteria.

And don't share your food with shape-shifting alien lizards from high-status families who like to probe people's backsides.

--bkl

[bullimiami]

14. so you are not sensitive to aspartame

that doesnt make it safe for everyone.

[Dogmudgeon]

18. Exactly!

Some people react to aspartame, and there are several different kinds of reactions people may have to it.

Again, see my earlier "advice" about "listening" to one's body. I am not peeved at people who chose to commit to one dietary philosophy or another, I'm peeved at the moralists who rake in the bucks, from Joe Mercola to Dean Ornish.

But keep in mind also that with all the polymeric plastic residue polluting nature -- especially residues of Teflon-like plastics -- we're basically screwed anyway.

--bkl

[readmylips]

9. I'm allergic to Splenda and Olestra(?)...

Many people are. The substance attacks my intestinal track and causes huge uncontrollable pain. It's nasty.

[Ms. Clio]

10. Splenda and Olestra are not the same thing at all

I would never use Olestra--isn't one of the possible side effects oily rectal discharge, or something? Nasty. I think you could eliminate Olestra from your diet and probably experience no ill effects at all from Splenda.

[bullimiami]

12. oily rectal discharge

and severe abdominal cramps.

when a food comes with warnings of possible side effects...no thanks.

[Dogmudgeon]

19. Another non-reactor

When it first came out as an additive in chips, I bought a bag of taco chips with Olestra and ate it in one sitting, just to see what it would do to me. (Incidentally, I have a long-standing case of colitis.)

Nope. Nuttin'.

I'll repeat my standing advice: Listen to your body. Test it for yourself. Get educated; avoid hype, hysteria and histrionics.

Eat to stay healthy.

I personally avoid most additives. But body purity is well-nigh impossible in this world. We do our best.

--bkl

[Ms. Clio]

22. You're braver than me--I haven't wanted to try that experiment!

I have a very sensitive intestinal tract, so I didn't want to take the chance.

But I totally agree--listen to your own body, because we're all different.

And I was just thinking today that I was probably doomed, anyway, from all the massive quantities of Dursban and Diazinon (both now removed from the market, I believe) that I used to slather on my lawn, kennel, and pets to control fleas and ticks, back in the day. I

[Dogmudgeon]

27. Two "forces"

There's a force, or a set of forces, that promote health and life; there's a similar force (or set) that promotes illness and eventually death.

Yes, that's a vitalistic explanation of it, but I'm confident that the mechanics of these "forces" can be discovered and articulated.

We actually do know quite a bit about how health is lost, but not as much about how health may be regained and strengthened. This lack of information allows out-and-out quacks to gain a foothold in medicine. But as much as things like Dursban may have worked against your health, other factors have enhanced it.

I find that a lot of people have the idea that their health is fragile, and that the pro-health "forces" don't exist. I wonder how much healthier people would be if they paid less attention to what hurt them in picayune ways, and more attention to what made them healthier and stronger.

People will drop $100 on health food and vitamins in a single week, but won't do a lick of exercise, make stress-reducing changes in their lives, or give up patently bad habits like smoking. Yes, even the holistic health movement has its own form of "allopathy", and the results are similar.

It's the desire and energy put into improving health and "using the force" that will be critical factor in dealing with an increasingly polluted, sickening future. The "allopathic" orientation is important, but the loss of a life-enhancing orientation is what's really killing us.

--bkl

[Ms. Clio]

28. An intriguing discussion, thanks

There are weird disconnects in people's heads when it comes to the topic of health--I knew somebody who drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney, but because he jogged several times a week, he thought he was "healthy." And then he had a heart attack while he was running, and just barely survived.

[RebelOne]

29. I have eaten Olestra and Splenda with no ill effects.

But my daughter ate a bag of Wow potato chips with Olestra and became very ill. It caused vomiting and diarrhea.

[bullimiami]

11. tastes like crap too....

ugg.
kind of sweet. kind of weird.
in coffee I couldnt stand it. maybe the taste gets masked in some foods but {shudder} .....

[Ms. Clio]

17. I love it in coffee and iced tea, but I know people who can't stand it

It's the first artificial sweetener that I have ever been able to use. I have never been able to drink diet sodas, for example, because I can't stand saccharine or aspartame.

Everyone is different, that's for sure.

[democracy eh]

31. I am trying to use it in coffee

as a sugar sub
you are right it tastes weird

so I figure I will either get used to it, or give up sweetening my brew entirely.

I was able to quite drinking soda pop cold turkey though. the recent studies on the amount of sugar and the inability of our bodies to handle liquid sugar, did it for me.

[LibLabUK]

32. Sugary question

"the inability of our bodies to handle liquid sugar"

Liquid as in "melted", or liquid as in "dissolved in a solvent"?

Every chemical reaction in our bodies takes place in one solvent or another, so I'm a little puzzled as to how we're unable to handle sugars that have been dissolved in a solvent.

Do you have any links to these studies?

[democracy eh]

37. I will try and track it down

I buzz through so many related sites for work

I thought I had read it on www.foodnavigator.com, but I can't find it at this time. I will bookmark this discussion and if I find it will post or PM you. right now work calls, want to know about phytonutrients in apple peels? I digress...

while perusing foodnavigator I did see this
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news.asp?id=10195
Food authority issues warning over low-cal sweetener(tagatose)

Update, I may have found something

[democracy eh]

38. here you go

in addition to liquids being an effective medium to deliver potent doses of readily absorbed sugar, there is something to do with tricking the brain.... I presume the assertion requires further research, but seems to be an observation from a peer reviewed study. This is not the original spot I saw the article, but I think is more detailled.

from Reuters article posted at:
http://www.sandia.gov/health/update/20040824elin002.html

"There's something about liquid, sugar calories... that exerts an added problem," said the researcher, who is based at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts.

In an interview, Apovian explained that liquid calories -- such as the sugars added to sodas and fruit punch -- may not be processed in the brain in the same way that sugars in food are, thereby preventing your body from letting you know you've had enough calories, she said.

For instance, women who started to drink more sugary soft drinks during the study period did not compensate for the extra calories by eating less food -- in fact, they tended to eat more. Liquid calories are relatively new, anthropologically speaking, Apovian explained, and the human body may not have evolved to the point where it can equate calories from drinks with calories from food.

interview supplementing research published in JAMA at
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/292/8/927
editorial
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/292/8/978

I don't have access to JAMA from here for the full text. But I am going to walk over to the library after lunch, maybe there.

OK time to get back to work.

[LibLabUK]

39. Ahhh...

Okay, it's not about metabolism...

It's a problem with the feedback loop that tells you when you've consumed enough calories.

When you said that there were differences in the ways in which sugar metabolised depending on whether it was in solution or not I was wondering what the possible biochemical reasons were and what pathways were being used.


Thanks for digging up the links, that's some very interesting research.

[democracy eh]

40. I was fuzzy on it too

always good to dig a little deeper,
as time permits

[lazarus]

13. Oh, crap

research has shown that EVERYTHING causes problems in rats.

As for chlorine, do you know what the recommendation is for purifying water? Adding chlorine. As in bleach.

Besides, this guy's exceedingly questionable. Did you see what he recommends?

""The Danger of Vaccines, and How You Can Legally Avoid Them" Audio Tape - In August 2002, I hosted a timely and important teleconference featuring nationally renowned vaccine expert, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, to discuss the real dangers of vaccines and how you can legally avoid them. This professionally recorded 90-minute audio tape presents that full conference. "The Danger of Vaccines, and How You Can Legally Avoid Them" tape will help you :

Understand why vaccines are essentially loaded guns aimed at your child's body

Find out how you can disarm your school nurses by legally avoiding vaccines

Learn what approaches you can take to immunize your child against disease safely - and for life "

Yeah, avoiding vaccines is a good thing. Let's bring back smallpox and rubella and polio! Life was better back when we had the life expectancy of our pets.

:eyes:

[Ms. Clio]

16. He also agrees with a researcher who thinks AIDS in Africa

is caused by severe starvation, not the HIV virus.

And that sunlight prevents skin cancer.

[lazarus]

20. Oy

Yeah, we should trust this guy. :eyes: He and Weil and Ornish have made a nice living preaching crap, haven't they?

[Ms. Clio]

24. There are always people who will buy into it, unfortunately

:shrug:

[Dogmudgeon]

21. This is ironic

Not to be too much of a nay-sayer, but ...

AIDS is, in fact, greatly promoted by starvation. Well-fed people have a much higher resistance to HIV and opportunistic organisms. But as for HIV not being the causal agent? Even Duesberg has concluded that HIV causes AIDS. (His work done with the idea that HIV isn't causal was actually quite productive and he's now collaborating with Gallo.)

Sunlight is necessary to allow your skin cells to produce Vitamin D, which does exert anti-cancer effects, as long as you keep your exposure to under an hour a day, tops.

Mercola has a few good pieces of advice at his site, but in general, he's a food moralist and hypester.

--bkl

[Ms. Clio]

23. But well-fed people have a much higher resistance to all viruses

and bacteria, do they not?

I don't think the majority of AIDS victims in Africa have been in the throes of severe starvation when they contracted the disease?


In an article published in the latest edition of Dr. Mercola’s newsletter, Dr. Al-Bayati discusses his ideas about what is really causing the AIDS epidemic, as well as what should be done immediately to help stop it. Dr. Al-Bayati’s entire article, entitled "HIV Does Not Cause AIDS", is posted on his website (www.toxi-health.com).

"AIDS in the industrialized world is caused by the heavy use of corticosteroids and/or cytotoxic drugs used to treat many health problems resulted from the use of illicit drugs by drug addicts and some homosexuals, rather than the innoccuos retrovirus HIV," maintains Dr. Al-Bayati.

[Dogmudgeon]

25. That explains how AIDS ran riot through the African populace

It also explains how so many otherwise mundane illnesses kill people in Africa. Extreme poverty also makes things like simple antibiotics too expensive to buy. So you could make a case that "Capitalism" is killing Africa -- although I'd give serious credit to the psychotic tyrants that get into power there, too.

Peter Duesberg established that exposure to large amounts of "nitroso-" compounds also promoted AIDS, which is presumably how the gay community was the first to be hit with it in the 1970s. Alkyl nitrate recreational drugs put large amounts of nitroso-containing free radicals into the users' bodies; it was a double-whammy since the stuff (amyl and butyl nitrates, mainly) could bring on profound relaxation of smooth muscles making anal sex easier. Gay men in the late 70s did not have very healthy lifestyles; the gay community has also provided an excellent example for how an entire subgroup can get educated and change its habits in just a few years.

Al-Bayati's work is similar to the anti-HIV-theorists, but I think they have erred in one critical respect -- they have not taken into consideration that HIV could, in fact, be innocuous in some individuals, and highly pathogenic in others. The factors that increase its pathogenicity could be the ones that Duesberg identified, as well as still-unknown factors. This is probably why many of the "heretical" AIDS doctors can get good results in spite of some of them having their heads up their patoots. The undiscovered variables have confounded their observations.

Anyway, progress is being made in that part of the fight against AIDS, and I suspect that in a few years, it will be a moot point.

--bkl

[Ms. Clio]

26. Very interesting about the "nitroso-" compounds

I had never heard that before.

[radwriter0555]

33. I don't eat nothing that they gotta TEST ON RATS to "make sure it's SAFE"

if it's THAT SCARY, it ain't SAFE and I ain't eating it.

[LibLabUK]

35. They test all artificial additives on rats..

Colours, preservatives, sweetners.. you name it, it's been tested, so you may have a hard time finding stuff to eat or drink.

They test drugs on animals too, do you not use them either?

[truthspeaker]

34. "New"? "Up and coming"? It's been around for years

I'm hesitant to trust the rest of the information in the article if it can't even keep straight how long Splenda has been on the market.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

36. I've decided to eat nothing but multi vitamins and drink gatorade

That should do the trick