The medical journals are full of studies that show that artificial sweeteners are directly linked to liver and kidney damage...
Sweetness plays an insidious role in our health. We are primed to seek it out, but we are primed from times when sugar was rare and only found packaged within foods which contain many more nutrients in addition to the sugar. It is too easy to find today, and has displaced healthy foods and even the fruits we originally found sugar in.
Artificial Sweeteners
To counter the caloric load excess sweeteners place upon our body, scientists have discovered and marketed many artificial sweeteners. These substances taste sweet on the tongue, but provide no calories, making them seem like an ideal choice to replace sugar in many beverages and foods. While they may provide no calories, there is a lot of controversy over whether they are actually good for you, or just plain bad.
There are four common artificial sweeteners found today. Sucralose is the artificial sweetener found in Splenda. Equal and Nutrasweet are trade names for aspartame. Saccharin is not found often in food and drink anymore, but can be found in packs of SweetN' Low. Sports drinks and protein powders often contain acesulfame potassium, often shortened to acesulfame-K. All of these sweeteners have been known to cause side effects in certain people, and most have been linked to some form of toxicity as well. None of them should be classified as "healthy".
The artificial sweetener getting the most attention today is Splenda, containing sucralose. Sucralose has been billed as a new generation artificial sweetener, and it desperately wants to avoid the same sort of controversy which surrounds aspartame and saccharin.
Splenda's manufacturer claims that Splenda has no side effects, no toxicity, no danger at all, and that it can be used effectively to lose weight. They also compare Splenda to sugar, stating that the process for making sucralose begins with real sugar, which implies that Splenda has a certain kind of wholesomeness. The question is, are any of these claims really true?
Is Splenda (Sucralose) Really Natural? Not Really...
To be fair, the manufacturer of Splenda is quick to point out that they never claim that it is natural. Nonetheless, they state that the process "starts with sugar and converts it to a no-calorie, non-carbohydrate sweetener."
The implication, despite no claims that it is natural, is that they've made an improvement upon a product which is natural, so we should not worry. The process sucrose goes through to become sucralose involves replacing replacing certain parts of the sugar molecule (three hydroxyl groups) with chlorine atoms, but it is not the process or even the chlorine which is circumspect.
In reality, mentioning sugar serves no purpose beyond marketing. Sucrose and sucralose have completely different molecular formulas (C12H22O11 [sucrose] vs. C12H19Cl3O8 [sucralose]), and are processed in our body in completely different ways. Table sugar, in the form of sucrose (a disaccharide formed of glucose and fructose) is safe, at least so far as general toxicity goes, and is recognized by the enzymes in our body.
Sucralose has a short history, conflicting evidence regarding its toxicity, and is not broken down by enzymes, meaning that whether it is absorbed through our intestine or excreted, it will likely be done so intact.
Sucralose Remains in Our System
The manufacturer of Splenda claims that very little sucralose gets absorbed into our bloodstream, and the amount that is absorbed is excreted through our urine. It's easy to assume from this claim that there is a 100% recovery rate of sucralose, either through urine or feces, but this study found that total recovery rate for a normal dose of sucralose (1mg/kg) was 92.8% and for a high dose (10mg/kg) was 96.7%, which means that approximately 3.3% to 7.2% of the sucralose remained in the body after five days.
If you had Splenda once, chances are that the tiny amount to remain in your system caused no harm and was eventually excreted. However....
Splenda, and other sucralose-containing products aren't marketed for one-time users, however, but for habitual users. Splenda is for people who want to cut sugar calories out of their sweet foods and drinks. Sucralose in small amounts occasionally is not likely to accumulate, but what happens when a small amount is ingested every day?
The Link Between Splenda Liver and Kidney Damage
The FDA is quick to point out that there are over 100 studies attesting to the safety of sucralose for human consumption, but what you won't find on that list are the studies which don't attest to its safety. The subjects of the studies are also important to note; many of them are studies to determine whether sucralose causes tooth decay, which is hardly relevant to the potential toxicity of sucralose.
In reality, all it should take to cast doubt on the safety of a substance is one well-designed study which suggests it might not be safe. The scientific process isn't rule by majority, it must be unanimous. One study might not be enough to throw a whole idea away, but it is enough to warrant further investigation.
Is Splenda Bad For You?
Many more of the studies which found sucralose to be safe were designed to test the genotoxicity of sucralose, meaning they tested to see if sucralose acted upon our DNA. Sucralose, according to the studies, is not carcinogenic or genotoxic, but that doesn't mean it is not toxic in any other regard. In fact, one study found that sucralose at levels of 500 mg/kg was hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic--it accumulated in amounts sufficient enough to cause lesions in the liver and the kidneys.
It's important to note that 500 mg/kg is far more sucralose than a human would consume in a day, about 34g for a 150 pound adult (or 680 packets of Splenda), but if sucralose accumulates in the liver and kidneys, as this study demonstrates, then a similar effect could build from years of habitual use as opposed to occurring in one month, as happened in the study.
Another study points to evidence that Splenda changes the flora of our intestines and raises the pH of our poop. The study found that these changes occurred at doses between 1.1-11 mg/kg. This means that it is entirely reasonable that such a change could affect a person in the short term. 1.1 mg/kg is about 75 mg sucralose for a 150 pound adult, or 1.5 packs of Splenda a day.
The above article was written by Brian Rigby...
peertrainer.com
GZ |
