The Truth About Artificial Sweetner: Sucralose

Alarmingly, the rate of obesity in the United States continues to rise. To aid in battling obesity, many individuals use low-calorie artificial sweeteners as a substitute for high-calorie foods.

Read Part 1 Saccharin

ReadPart 2 Aspartame

Sucralose was accidentally discovered in 1976 by Tate & Lyle, a British sugar company. A graduate student misunderstood a request for “testing” of a chlorinated sugar as a request for “tasting.”

Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar and contains no calories. Sucralose was approved by the FDA in 1998 for use in 15 food categories, including a tabletop sweetener under the brand name Splenda. It is used in beverages, chewing gum, frozen desserts, fruit juices, and gelatins. In 1999, the FDA expanded its use as a general-purpose sweetener in all foods.

Sucralose is a sucrose molecule in which three of the hydroxyl groups have been replaced by chlorine atoms. Although sucralose is made from table sugar, it adds no calories because it is not digested in the body. Most of the sucralose given orally to mice, rats, dogs, and humans passes through the gastrointestinal tract and is eliminated.

Sucralose gives me
the bubble guts :(

Toxicology studies of sucralose show little effect. Cases studies have been reported on sucralose consumption and the increased incidence of migraines triggered by sucralose.

Many of the studies on product safety have been conducted by companies that produce these products and are not generally available to consumers. A Medline search of publications from 2000 to 2008 using the key words “artificial sweeteners,” “sweetening agents,” “toxicity,” “toxicology,” “safety,” and “consumer product safety” resulted in only one study available to readers of primary product safety data. Groups that believe the safety of these substances has not been demonstrated point to the length of studies, sample sizes, and lack of controls.

Susceptible populations for the potential deleterious effects of artificial sweeteners include diabetics, children, pregnant women, women of childbearing age, breastfeeding mothers, individuals with low seizure thresholds, and individuals at risk for migraines.

The use of artificial sweeteners remains controversial. Their consumption has been shown to cause mild to serious side effects ranging from nuisance headaches to potentially life-threatening cancer. Recent reports of selected sweeteners suggest they are not efficacious in weight loss and may promote weight gain. Because artificial sweeteners are in more than 6,000 products, including foods, medications, and cosmetics, it is impossible to completely eradicate them from daily encounters.