--> Final Rule" for sucralose, 21 CFR Part 172, Docket No. 87F-0086.
-. "Food Allergies Rare but Risky." FDA Consumer, May 1994. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/
~dms/wh-alrgl .html.
-. IA #45-06 "Automatic Detention of Stevia Leaves, Extract of Stevia Leaves, and Food Containing Stevia," May 28, 2003. http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia4506.html.
-. Letter from Arlyn H. Baumgarten to Anthony Costello, President of Optimum Nutrition, Inc.,
May 7, 2002. http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/g3288d.htm.
-. '"Nutrition Facts' to Help Consumers Eat Smart," 1994. www.fda. |  They also express concern about the presence of chlorine in the sweetener, stating that consuming sucralose may be like ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated pesticides.
Verdict: Based on research to date, sucralose appears to be the safest of the "artificial" nonnutritive sweeteners. However, sucralose is a highly processed sweetener, so if you are aiming for a minimally processed diet, you'll want to limit your intake.
Acesulfame K Though lesser known, acesulfame K (K stands for potassium) was approved in the U.S. | | So, while sucralose may have begun as sugar, it's really a synthetic chemical."
Furthermore, the consumer children's advocate group Generation Green says, in a complaint to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission about Splenda's misleading advertising, that "following chlorination [of sugar] a further chemical process is applied using phosgene." The Centers for Disease Control website describes phosgene as "a major industrial chemical used to make plastics and pesticides," which at room temperature is a "poisonous gas. |  Sweetness at a Price
Aspartame, sucralose (in Splenda ) and saccharin are the most commonly used artificial sweeteners and have gained huge popularity among people who are concerned about their weight. In the belief that they are doing something good for themselves, they are thrilled to have found the "ideal" sweetener that satisfies their sweet tooth yet doesn't make them fat. However, mounting evidence shows that artificial sweeteners are a major health risk, causing brain damage and other problems of the nervous system. | | Research with animals has shown that sucralose can cause many problems in rats, mice, and rabbits, such as:
• Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40 percent shrinkage)
• Enlarged liver and kidneys.
• Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
• Increased cecal weight
• Reduced growth rate
• Decreased red blood cell count
• Hyperplasia of the pelvis
• Extension of the pregnancy period
• Aborted pregnancy
• Decreased fetal body weight and placental weight
• Diarrhea
Many European countries have discontinued the use of artificial sweeteners for good reason. | | Deceiving the Body
For both humans and animals, aspartame, sucralose, saccharin and other sweeteners belong to the category of "sweet" food. The sweetness of natural foods is caused by sugar. Because sugar can move straight through the stomach walls, it will appear in the bloodstream within 3-5 minutes. However, the body has to keep the blood sugar level in check since too little or too much sugar can be dangerous. The body regulates sugar levels automatically through simple reflex mechanisms. | | Gypsie M., R.N., 56, a school nurse in Houston, Texas. Gypsie revealed in a phone interview with me that after ingesting products with Splenda, she "developed bad headaches, stomach cramps, flulike aches, joint pains in my feet, joints, and bones, diarrhea, and a feeling of impending doom."
Ultimately, of course, we won't know if Splenda is safe for humans to consume until long-term human studies are conducted. |  It's not too sweet, and it has no artificial ingredients -- no artificial colors, preservatives, sucralose, aspartame, or artificial chemical sweeteners healthy people already know to avoid.
It's a great product. I've tasted it myself, and I think it is a great way to get nutrients into your body. And the important thing about drinking your vitamins is that in Western societies, the older we get, the harder it becomes for us to digest and break down foods and assimilate their nutrients into our bodies. This is especially true in nursing home patients or senior citizens. |  Some say, "Well, aspartame is on the way out -- the big sweetener now is sucralose or Splenda." This is the artificial sweetener that claims to be made from sugar. Well, I suppose you can claim that it starts out as sugar, but it's made by removing some of the atoms from sugar and replacing them with atoms of chlorine, which is of course one of the chemical elements used during the atrocities of World War II to create poison gas, the same element used in chlorine to disinfect pools and public water supplies. |  Eliminate aspartame and sucralose and all the artificial chemical sweeteners. Eliminate white flour; stop barbecuing your meat, because barbecuing meat creates chemicals that cause colon cancer and stomach cancer. Stop cooking your food at extremely high temperatures. Or, better yet, become a live foods vegan. I'm just naming off a few things. You can be cancer-free if you follow the recipe.
Curing cancer is not profitable
So why aren't the cancer centers in this country giving people this recipe? It's freely available. |  Mike: What about other popular chemical sweeteners like sucralose in Splenda?
Dr. Blaylock: There's really not a lot of research in those areas. They have some basic research, like with Splenda, showing thalamus suppression. If that holds up in other research, it's a major concern. If you're suppressing the thalamus gland in a child, that's the future of their immune function. You can increase everything from autoimmunity to producing immune-related diseases, to infections and cancers. The implications of thalamus gland suppression are enormous. |  Whether it's Saccharin (Sweet'n Low), aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet, Spoonful), sucralose (Splenda), Acesulfame K (Sunette, Sweet One), each of them is shrouded in controversy and reports of adverse reactions ranging from seizures to headaches to asthma attacks, to liver and kidney damage, and even weight gain. I have personally worked with a number of people who have been relieved of both depression and anxiety by going off diet soda that contains aspartame. None of these are food, they are all synthetic chemicals that have no business in your body. |  Many protein powders contain chemical sweeteners such as aspartame or sucralose, so this is the first ingredient to watch out for when purchasing protein.
Personally, I recommend two types of protein powder: soy protein and rice protein. Look for protein powder products that are unsweetened (or sweetened only with stevia), and absolutely avoid protein powders made with artificial sweeteners.
The next best sweetener ingredient, in my opinion, is fructose. | | Sweeteners
The three primary artificial sweeteners currently in use are saccharin (Sweet'N Low), aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), and sucralose (Splenda). These sweeteners are among the most controversial of food additives. Advocates argue that the benefits provided outweigh the potential negative health effects. The perception is that consumption of these sweeteners will lead to a reduction in calories consumed. This, in turn, will lead to weight loss or prevention in weight gain. | | Sweeteners like aspartame, acesulfame, and sucralose are all made of artificial chemicals and are suspected of promoting serious health disorders, primarily neurological ones.
Aspartame
Of all the chemical sweeteners that are still legal (cyclamates were banned years ago), aspartame by far has the worst record.
It is my opinion, after reviewing an enormous amount of medical and research literature, that monosodium glutamate, aspartame, and other excitotoxin dietary additives pose an enormous hazard to our health and to the development and normal functioning of the brain. | | Approving stevia as a safe ingredient would destroy the profits of the manufacturers of aspartame and sucralose. Some believe, with good reason, that the FDA has been pressured to avoid approving stevia in order to protect the profits of these chemical companies.
Regardless of politics, as an informed consumer you can use stevia in any way you like. And thankfully, many food manufacturing companies are adding stevia to their products despite the status of the herb held by the FDA. | | That's great news because it means there's no aspartame, no sucralose, and no sugar alcohols or high carbohydrate refined sugars in the mix. You can sweeten it in whatever way you like. Naturally, I recommend using stevia to sweeten it, but feel free to use whatever sweetener you like best.
You will definitely need some sort of sweetener, since The Ultimate Meal is considered rather bitter thanks to the fact it contains a dense mixture of organic vegetables and greens, such as organic freeze-dried broccoli sprouts. | | Verdict: Based on research to date, sucralose appears to be the safest of the "artificial" nonnutritive sweeteners. However, sucralose is a highly processed sweetener, so if you are aiming for a minimally processed diet, you'll want to limit your intake.
Acesulfame K Though lesser known, acesulfame K (K stands for potassium) was approved in the U.S. for addition to foods in 1988, alcoholic beverages in 1995, and soft drinks in 1998. The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives also reviewed relevant literature and concluded that it is safe. | | Although sucralose appears safer than either aspartame or saccharin, our top choice for a noncalorie sweetener is stevia, a natural sweetener extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana plant.
Stevia contains a molecule known as stevio-side that is three hundred times sweeter than sugar and has an excellent safety profile. Stevia is used around the world for its incredible sweetening properties. Preliminary studies in animal models show that stevia lowers blood glucose levels and blood pressure—two effects of prime importance in dealing with diabetes. | | Avoid artificial chemical sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame, and sucralose. These artificial chemical sweeteners have a dubious health record at best, and none have undergone long-term epidemiological studies on humans. Aspartame, in particular, has been linked to blindness, migraine headaches, seizures, dizziness and a variety of other problems.
• Avoid non-organic meat products such as hamburger, steaks, and ham. |  As if that weren't enough, many of us then sweeten it with sugar or sucralose or the blue stuff or the pink stuff, which are all toxic chemicals and harmful to our bodies. To top it off, we pop the top of a dairy cream container and pour a substance that is more harmful than the coffee itself.
Consequently, this is just the beginning. The real problem begins when it enters your system and wreaks havoc in your body by raising your insulin levels and a multitude of other symptoms! | | And in the yogurts that are made without refined sugars, you'll usually get artificial chemical sweeteners such as aspartame or sucralose. As a result, you'll need to avoid virtually all flavored or sweetened yogurts.
But don't worry: if you enjoy eating yogurt and would like to continue receiving the health benefits of consuming the live acidophilus cultures contained in many yogurt products, here's the perfect solution: purchase plain, unsweetened yogurt, and stir in your own protein powder and stevia extract powder. |  However, sucralose might be stored in the body simply because this synthetic molecule is never found in nature and the body is not equipped to metabolize it. We would advise limiting the use of this additive/artificial sweetener.
Although many additives are used in very small amounts, it has been estimated that the average American consumes about 5 pounds of additives per year. If you include sugar—the food-processing industry's most used additive—the number jumps to 135 pounds a year. | | The long-term effects of most sugar-substitute additives, including sucralose, are unknown. A safer sugar substitute is an extract made from the herb Stevia rebaudiana, which is available in health food stores.
Increase Your Consumption of Raw Produce
The most healthful fruits and vegetables are those that have been grown organically—without the use of insecticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizers, or growth-stimulating chemicals. Organic produce can be found in select health food stores, as well as in some supermarkets and greenmarkets and through food co-ops. |  Acesulfame-K (Sunette) is in the same family as saccharin but isn't widely available in the States.
• sucralose (Splenda) is the most promising of all. It is basically a slightly chemically altered version of sucrose (sugar) and is six hundred times sweeter. The chemical alteration prevents the digestive system from "recognizing" it and absorbing it, so it doesn't cause the rise in blood sugar and insulin associated with sucrose, unless of course it turns out to cause an insulin rise through a conditioned response mechanism. |  We have all-natural sugar, and then we have artificial sweeteners like saccharine, aspartame, and sucralose. You are led to believe that the chemical man-made sweeteners are so much better for your health than all-natural sugar. Nothing could be further from the truth. The artificial sweeteners are one of the major reasons that you are fat. They also cause depression. There was a great book written about this, Exitotoxins—The Taste That Kills, and another one called Aspartame (NutraSweet®)—Is It Safe? If it's made by man, don't eat it! Don't be tricked by all the advertising. | | There are currently four sugar substitutes approved for use in the United States: saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium (acesulfame K or ace K), and sucralose. In Canada, all of those permitted in the U.S. are approved, plus cyclamates. There is one other sweetener that is technically nonnutritive, but is not an "artificial" sweetener. This is the herb stevia. At the present time, stevia is permitted for use only as a dietary supplement in both the U.S. and Canada. nonnutritive sweeteners are safe when used in moderate amounts. | | However, sucralose is a highly processed sweetener, so if you are aiming for a minimally processed diet, you'll want to limit your intake.
Acesulfame K Though lesser known, acesulfame K (K stands for potassium) was approved in the U.S. for addition to foods in 1988, alcoholic beverages in 1995, and soft drinks in 1998. The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives also reviewed relevant literature and concluded that it is safe. While numerous governments and regulatory agencies agree acesulfame K poses little risk, many other experts argue that its safety is questionable at best. | | The FDA is now evaluating the safety of two more artificial sweeteners, sucralose and alitame. sucralose doesn't seem to cause cancer, but it may cause other problems that would limit the number of foods in which it could be used. Alitame hasn't yet been linked to any problem.
What other additives the future will bring is anyone's guess. Some companies are developing salt substitutes. And it is clear that more and more processed foods will be relying on additives to cut back on calories, fat, and sugar. |  Since it can't be broken down, the liver treats sucralose as a xenobiotic or foreign chemical, one that must be detoxified by protective enzymes in the liver. The ultimate toxicity of sucralose rests on how difficult it is for these enzymes to get rid of it and what kind of by-products will be produced as a result. Experience has taught us that the potential toxicity of a chemical depends on whatever else the liver has had to process. | |
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