Sucralose Rhymes With.......Gross!

Sucralose is a non-natural sweetener that is used as sugar substitute in over 4,500 food products nationwide. This is no secret either. We see it all the time when we go to diners and/or coffee shops, it likes to hang out in bright yellow packets with the word "Splenda" written in blue across it. What most people aren't aware of is the overlooked danger of sucralose that is hiding right under their noses.

Let's start with how Sucralose came into the picture. During the mid-1970's, scientists at the British company, Tate & Lyle, were looking to develop a new insecticide. They were working on adding chlorine to table sugar (sucrose); a chlorination process commonly used for insecticides. During a conversation between scientists, a misinterpretation led a scientist the "taste" the compound rather than "test" it. Upon tasting the newly created substance and noting it's sweet taste, they began exploring it's uses as an artificial sweetener. An artificial sweetener that is 600x sweeter than regular table sugar.

So now we have an artificial sweetener containing chlorine with a similar chemical structure to the now-banned pesticide, DDT.

DDT Chemical Structure

If we look into the negative effects that chlorine has within in the body, we can understand how bad it is that we are consuming sucralose. Side effects associated with having chlorine within the body include head and muscle aches, diarrhea, bladder issues, stomach cramps, skin irritation, dizziness and inflammation, just to name a few. In another animal study, sucralose was shown to reduce healthy gastrointestinal bacteria need for proper digestion.

Further research is beginning to show that sucralose is playing a role in the shrinking of the thymus gland, an important gland in immune system regulation.

It's scary how much our society is obsessed with these non-nutritive sweeteners. Everyone is focused on being as "healthy" as possible and will turn to anything for a short-term fix without concern of the potential long-term implications. Non-nutritive sweeteners are never a good choice. So pass up that offer to add some Splenda to your morning coffee and look for some other alternatives such as Stevia or natural cane sugar.

Sources:
http://www.medicinenet.com/artificial_sweeteners/page9.htm
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/top-number-most-dangerous-artificial-sweeteners.html


Photos taken from Google via:
www.tuberose.com
www.icanhasscience.com
commons.wikipedia.org
www.aliexpress.com