Splenda Safety

Splenda safety concerns are on the rise as this popular low carb sugar substitute becomes more and more popular.

The commercials claim that Splenda “tastes like sugar because it is made from sugar” and I can attest to the fact that it does taste like sugar, in fact it is the best tasting artificial sweetener that I have tried and can even be used for baking.

But it is an artifical sweetener non the less and therefore, concerns about the safety of Splenda are a hot topic today. Artificial sweeteners are not natural foods and controversy around their safety has been raised since the first non calorie sweetener was made.

Safety issues aside, Splenda is also under attack from the other artificial sweetener manufacturers because it’s advertising is geared towards making you think it is natural by saying that it is made from sugar. The fact is that it is made from sugar, but the sugar is chemically changed by adding chlorine atoms to it.

But are they lying?

Certainly not – it is made from sugar, however it is the chemical changes done to the sugar that are under speculation as the safety of the product.

Splenda (or sucralose which is the name of the artificial sweetener marketed under the name Splenda) is 600 time sweeter than sugar and has no calories or carbohydrates. It was discovered in 1976 and approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1998. There have been no significant safety issues that have been found in human studies of Sucralose or Splenda, but research in animals has shown safety concerns such as enlarged liver, decrease in red blood cells, aborted pregnancy, diarrhea and shrunken thymus glands. Interestingly enough, there have been far fewer studies of Splenda on human than any other kind of artificial sweetener.

Other safety issues revolve around the fact that Splenda is chlorinated which is basically what pesticides are. We already have safety concerns around ingesting pesticides so perhaps we should be wary of ingesting too much (or any) Splenda.

In addition, Splenda can contain small amounts of arsenic, metals and methanol which are obviously not too safe to eat.

Since there are very few human studies and even less information on the long term affects of sucralose, you’ll have to draw your own conclusions as to the safety of Splenda. On one extreme, it is not a natural food, so it should be avoided at all costs, on the other perhaps ingesting just a little bit won’t be too bad.

If you really are concerned about how safe it is to eat Splenda, then you’ll need to be aware of the products that contain it. Inspect the list of any diet, low carb, or low calorie food or drink to see if it contains Splenda as most will these days.

Learn more about Splenda Safety

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