Splenda....do you use it???

“I use it, Div. I am aware that it hasn't been tested on a long-term basis. But, then again, that's true of a lot of things. Frankly, I don't know how anyone can possibly determine what's going to be entirely safe, being that these 'findings' are not always forthcoming to the consumers.

Life's a crap-shoot. that's for sure..”

“what about stevia?????...I have used it before.......”

“I use it, no ill effects.

The main complaint from the website is no long term testing. I suppose something has to be around for a long time in order for there to be long term testing.”

“That does it, if I don't use splenda I won't die.”

“but what about the chlorine??????”

“I use splenda in coffee, tea, etc. I'm not afraid of it. I know I have no problems with it, and my body handles it much better than aspartame.

Stevia is some nasty s--t. I can't stand the stuff although it smells nice in the garden and an occasional leaf dropped into a teapot is okay.

Also, salt braks down into sodium and chloride ions in your body. I think the body can handle it as long as it's not massive doses, like anything else you eat or drink.
last edited: 3/27/06 8:26:38 AM”

“I don't use it. I have read about some research that suggests using artificial sweeteners may end up causing you to GAIN weight. From what I've read, it sounds like the body is able to distinguish between real sugar (it's sweet AND it provides calories) and artificial (it's sweet but there are no calories). Under normal body chemistry, if you eat sugar to satisfy your sweet tooth, your cravings subside as you get the calories. However, if you try to satisty your cravings with something that uses artificial sweeteners, the cravings don't really go away and you end up consuming more in the end.

I think the study was centered around comparing regular soda vs. diet soda. It seems that people who drank diet ended up drinking more of it, and got fatter than people who only drank regular. At any rate, like I said, there was merely the suggestion that the body can distinguish between real sugar and artificial sweeteners.”

“Dissagree with you maps on I switched from Regular soda to diet soda and in 2 weeks or less dropped 5 lbs. Some people consume so much of something that switching to the low-cal options is a better choice. I was drinking 2-3 soda's a day and that didn't switch when I went to diet. Hence the weight loss.”

“I hold my pants up with 'splenda's.”

“The website information is provide by The Sugar Association, so I will take what they say with a grain of salt. The manufacturer of Nutrasweet, who had lost quite of bit of business to Splenda, had an issue with their advertising as well and ended up suing them. Not sure, but I believe the outcome was that the court did not find that Splenda's advertising was misleading.”

“The sugar manuf. association also tried to sue the makers of Splenda. I don't know why, since the stuff really is made from sugar. I guess it's because they buy it for a lower rate or from a foreign source.”

“I wouldn't eat it with a 10-foot pole!”

“The website information is provide by The Sugar Association, so I will take what they say with a grain of salt. - Creek Dancer

LMAO!”

“Eat it lyra.”

“Don't eat it!!

Go Lyra!!”

“YOU eat it, conk!! No wait, don't eat it...I'm getting all confused...
;-)”

“More chemical cuisine?”

“Splenda is wrong. Chlorination of a product consumed by humans is insane, IMHO. And I'm not sure many products are synthesized this way. Don't confuse Chlorination with swimming in chlorinized water or the ionic chlorine in salt.

That being said, what the site implied by the studies is misleading at best. Most studies are done using animals, many by the manufacturer. FDA goes through the data with a Nanocomb instead of the microcomb they use for an independent tester. How much data? Before data was collected by computers one drug study could generally fill a tracter trailer. Long term (1+ years) human clinical studies aren't done for any drugs.

Now and interesting effect they found regarding sucralose studies was Thymus shrinkage. Shooting from the hip I would say, that's bad.

;)

http://www.nicnas.gov.au/publications/car/new/NA/NAFULLR/NA0900FR/NA944FR.pdf”

“BM, what is chlorination of a product?

When I realized that the supporters of the website were, in effect, competitors of Splenda, I wondered if the information they provided might be jaded. But they do raise the question of safety of this product in my mind.”

“It's the chemical addition of chlorine to a compound. They added 3 chlorine atoms to sucrose in a very selective manner. Selective being they had to exchange Chlorine for Hydrogen/Oxygen at specific Carbon sites to get the desired effect. This makes it 600x as sweet as sucrose.

Chlorine is never bonded to Carbon in Nature, methinks. Any Organic Chemists out there?”

“To be fair the Thymus shrinkage seems to have occured only in the High dose group, 3000mg/Kg/day and the 3% diet group. The studies indicate that the compound appears to be safe for human consumption. FYI - NOEL = No Observable Effect Level. You always want a NOEL in a study along with an observable effect level.

I wouldn't touch it.”

“I don't because my wife won't let me. She hates the "after taste."

Her parents use it, and she says it ruins the baked goodies that her mother makes.”

“FWIW splenda doesn't trigger the "gotta binge" response I get with aspartame products.”

“I think it tastes nasty. I only eat it when it's served to me at someone's house, in a baked good or something. You couldn't pay me to bake with it myself. Icky.”

“I think I said this here once before, Splenda taste like a swimming pool.”

“Seeing as how I refrain from drinking the water while at a pool party, I couldn't really say if Trailhound is correct or not.

However, my mother switched to splenda a year or so ago and after she figured out how to adjust her recipes, I never could tell any difference.”

“Ah Mon don't

eat no artificial sweeteners

poison, dangerous

particularly, Splenda!

I fed a teaspoon of it to my pet rat to see for how many days, uh, well, it died after 3 days.
last edited: 3/27/06 7:33:11 PM”

“Saccharin's been around since 1879. I assume that had there every been any REAL danger, that the epidemiological evidence would have shown up by now. I've been using it for 30 years. Someone asked about chlorine and carbon....grin.

Carbon Tetrachloride...carbon in the middle, four big fat chlorines bonded to it.

http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/gifs/ccl4.gif”

“I know that since I quit drinking the diet drinks that I feel better and, what's more, I have a lower glucose level (metered) than I did while I drank diet drinks, particularly soda.

I once noticed a warning on a package of York ' patties which states that you may notice an elevated blood sugar level while eating their sugar-substituted candy.”

“NOPE!!”

“HELL NOPE!!”

“well....I have thought about going back to good old sugar....BUT...isn't it treated with chlorine to whiten it?????”

“http://search.drweil.com/search?site=my_collection&client=my_collection&proxystylesheet=my_collection&output=xml_no_dtd&q=sugar&x=58&y=9

Dr Weil's input....”

“I eat raw organic sugar. I think it is actually sweeter.
last edited: 3/28/06 8:02:59 AM”

“While I do agree with some points (I for the most part do not consume any artifical sweetners anymore), I find it a bit hard to swallow due to being sponsored by the Sugar Association...uhhh, anyone biased there? ;-)

Personally, I'd hedge that as a whole, we need to eat less sweetners. If isn't faux sugar it is corn syrup and it's evil cousin HFCS in food these days. One of the main reasons I buy so much organic food is to avoid stuff like corn syrup-go read commercial pasta sauce. Almost every brand contains HFcorn syrup! And yesterday, I saw brands with Sucrolose in it-ie..Splenda! And this was in a brand touting "No added sugar!"

Sigh!

I don't mind sugar in itself, but at least at home I can control it.

I used to be a major diet pop/diet tea/splenda syrups in my lattes. After all the issues with my health this past fall/winter, I went cold turkey and quit everything. Most "diet stuff" has sodium in it, and I couldn't have it....And then my kidneys quit hurting-which they ached quite often. I was born with a partially defective kidney-and having infections/pains has been common for me.
And I drink water now. Maybe not as tasty...but I feel better.”

“Divinity - flour may be bleached sugar is not. Although the chemical processing required to make white sugar can not be said to be "good".

Now bleaching flour does most likely produce chlorinated hydrocarbons. At what concentrarion is the question.

Chemicaly stripping/bleaching/whitening a food item is not good on so many levels. period.

And as I pointed out earlier, to be fair, the toxicity report on sucralose indicates it is safe.

I still wouldn't touch it”

“WTF???
I never put sugar of any kind in pasta sauce!!!

I load it with garlic and extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil.......easy!”

“I put sugar in my sauce, no oil. My recipe is from the old country.”

“I have come to the conclusion that easter candy made from plain ol' refined sugar is good for you.”

“Any tried the new Splenda Flavor Blends for coffee packs? 30 to a box.

http://www.splenda.com/destinationflavor/
last edited: 12/14/06 7:51:17 PM”

“Splenda will rot your brain.”

“why would I make sissy coffee out of real coffee? ;)

If it would make a good cappuccini, now that's another story.”

“Splenda is better (or less harmful?) for you than nutrasweet.”

“I don't even use sugar......pfffttt”

“I'd like to wean myself off of sugar, but that would mean I had to give up coffee, i cannot stand black coffee.

I can handle unsweetened tea though.”