What is Splenda & Is Splenda Safe?

What is Splenda & Is Splenda Safe?
Page content

Overview

Having trouble with your diet? Perhaps your calorie count is off. Products containing Splenda, a “calorie-free” sweetener marketed by McNeil Nutritionals LLC, may be the culprit. Splenda is in many products, especially those marketed to people watching their weight. From light products to sugar free soft drinks, Splenda is touted as being made from sugar so it tastes like sugar. It is marketed as safe, and no-calorie. Many believe that it is a natural sweetener. This is not the case. The dangers of Splenda have been hidden from the public. It’s time to take a look at how dangerous Splenda is and how misleading packaging can be.

Sucralose Molecule

What is Splenda?

Splenda is the trade name for sucralose. The FDA classifies it as a non-nutritive, non-calorie sweetener. This chemical was discovered in 1975 by a chemistry graduate student and his advisor at Queen Elizabeth College in London, England. They were working on developing a new insecticide and discovered that the product they were testing tasted sweet. Testing originally consisted of dropping sulfuryl chloride into a sugar solution.

After much testing and manipulation of the chemical formula, sucralose was born. The chemical equation for sucralose is 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-beta-D-fructofuranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranoside. Sucralose is much easier to say and it takes up a lot less room on the ingredients label.

Splenda is not available to the public as pure sucralose. This would be way too expensive. Instead, it is mixed with other sweeteners. Here is the breakdown. Splenda packets are a mixture of sucralose and maltodextrin, dextrose, or both. Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking is a mixture of sucralose and regular sugar. Splenda Brown Sugar Blend is a mixture of sucralose and brown sugar.

In reality, Splenda is a chemical. Technically it is an organochlorine in the same class as DDT, Dioxin and other very toxic substances.

Splenda – A Non-calorie Sweetener

Splenda contains sugar, brown sugar, maltodextrin, and dextrose, depending on the particular product. How can it be considered a non-calorie sweetener? We can compare ingredient lists and FDA labeling rules to figure out this dilemma.

Keep in mind; ingredients listed on food packaging are listed in order by quantity. If sugar is the first ingredient in a product, then it is mostly sugar.

The yellow individual packets of Splenda contain maltodextrin and dextrose as well as sucralose. Both maltodextrin and dextrose contain calories. Maltodextrin is made from corn syrup solids that contain mostly fructose and glucose. Dextrose also known as glucose, contains calories. The ingredients label on a box of Splenda packets reads: Dextrose, Maltodextrin, and sucralose. According to the label ingredients, each packet of Splenda can be up to 99% sugar!

FDA packaging regulations state that if the serving size is less than half a gram (.5g) a product can be labeled as sugar-free. The regulations further state that if the calorie count per serving is less than five calories, the product can be labeled as calorie-free. A packet of Splenda is one gram and the serving size is one packet. Each packet contains four calories. This falls under FDA guidelines for calorie-free. This holds true for Splenda granules as well.

Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking is mostly table sugar and maltodextrin. Splenda Brown Sugar Blend is mostly brown sugar and maltodextrin. Both products have the same calories content per pound as table sugar. However, the serving size is half of what table sugar is, so the calorie count appears lower. Maltodextrin is used because it can be “whipped” to increase the volume of the packaging. This allows the Splenda blends to be used in baking without losing the volume that pure table sugar would add. It also means that you are paying for air.

One teaspoon of table sugar contains 15 calories and 4 carbohydrates. Splenda is mostly sugar and should not be considered a no-calorie product.

Is Splenda Safe?

Sucralose, the generic name for Splenda, is an organochlorine. Organochlorines are highly toxic to all life forms. That is why they are used as insecticides. DDT, lindane, chlordane, and heptachlor are some examples. All three have been banned for use in the US by the EPA. Organochlorines are also used as solvents. The dangerous part of an organochlorine is the chemical element chlorine (Cl).

Chlorine should not be confused with chloride. Chlorine is not found isolated in nature. It is produced by running an electric current through salt water. Running the electric charge through salt water breaks the chemical bonds of the salt molecules and releases chlorine. Chloride on the other hand is found in crystal form known as salt. Table salt or sodium chloride is an example. Although chlorides contain chlorine, the chemical bonds are different.

Splenda does not completely leave your body. Some of it remains behind in your fat cells. How much remains is unknown. Short term exposure to organochlorines can cause any of the following: irregular heartbeat, coughing, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, skin rashes, headaches, dizziness, certain paralysis, respiratory failure, blurred vision and pulmonary edema. Long term exposure can cause loss of appetite, liver damage, kidney damage, central nervous system disturbances and skin irritation.

The general consensus among scientists is that sucralose is not safe. Splenda, a mixture of sugar and sucralose, is also not safe.

Other Concerns

Splenda is said to be safe for diabetics. The fact that it contains sugar should be looked at closely. Consuming items containing Splenda can interfere with the ability to keep insulin levels under control, even with medication. Products containing Splenda should be viewed as a source of hidden sugar and not as a diabetic friendly product.

Sucralose or Splenda based food and drinks are not as low-calorie as the label states. As discussed earlier, each packet of Splenda contains four calories. Drinking diet soft drinks containing Splenda will add calories. Sugar will interfere with stable blood sugar levels. Anyone watching their weight or trying to control diabetic or glucose-resistance health issues through diet should avoid all products containing sucralose or Splenda.

The FDA approved sucralose and Splenda to be used as sweeteners for many reasons. One reason was that studies performed by McNeil Nutritionals LLC (the marketers of Splenda) stated the product was deemed generally safe. The other is less obvious. It has to do with corporate politics and how FDA approval is granted.

Conclusion

Splenda is a product that is surrounded in controversy. The marketing surrounding this product is misleading. Sucralose is not a natural sweetener. It is a lab created chemical. Splenda is mixed with sugars. It contains calories. There are serious issues surrounding this artificial sweetener’s safety that the FDA needs to carefully examine.

Note:

Splenda is a trademark of McNeil Nutritionals LLC.

Sources

Sweet Deception: Why Splenda, Nutrasweet, and the FDA May Be Hazardous to Your Health, by Dr. Joseph Mercola & Dr. Kendrea Degen Pearsall

Splenda’s Website

Wikimedia Commons provided the image of sucralose