Sucralose
Brand names: Splenda
Maximum daily intake considered safe: About six cans of diet soda, according to the Mayo Clinic
Where you find it: Jellies, milk products, baking mixes, salad dressings, beverages
Numbers: zero calories, zero carbs
Everything about Splenda touts how it’s just as sweet as sugar, sans the calories, insulin surge, and side effects of other artificial sweeteners. Call me a cynic, but nothing can be that good.
The reasoning behind all this praise is that the product claims to be more “natural” than other chemical sweeteners—the brand’s slogan actually reads, “Made from sugar.”
Here’s how Segal puts it: The molecule is, in fact, made from sucrose (sugar), but it’s chemically altered into something different. It has three chlorine molecules where sugar has three pairs of oxygen-hydrogen bonds. The significance?
“This altered molecule actually just slips through our bodies undigested because the body doesn’t know what it is,” she says. That’s why it has zero calories.
“They claim it’s safe because of that, but, at the same time, it’s kind of unsettling to know that a chemical compound is running through your system that your body can’t recognize.”
The manufacturer’s studies also show that the chemical causes shrunken thymus glands and enlarged livers and kidneys in lab animals. Again, the FDA maintains that these results don’t translate to humans.
Truly natural alternatives
Since the FDA doesn’t have an official definition of natural, let’s go with mine: not coming from a scientific laboratory; something that can actually be found in—call me crazy—nature.
Diabetics have been using these products—polyalcohol sugars like sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol, and mannitol—for years, and they come from places like forests and gardens. Xylitol, for example, can be found in birch tree pulp. Like artificial sweeteners, they don’t cause the insulin spike that sugar does. While they don’t have the magical zero calories, they do have half the amount that sugar does.
Stevia, known in South America as “the sweet herb,” has been used for over 400 years, and is extremely popular in Japan. It’s two to three times sweeter than sugar, so to sweeten, say, your iced tea, you need just a small amount, which further decreases the calorie count. I’ve used this in baking muffins, which I gave to my boyfriend without telling him they were healthy. (He loved them.) It’s sweet in a way that reminds me of honey.
I’m not claiming that I’ll never pick up a diet soda again, but at least I’ll know what’s really going on when I do. Segal maintains that a slip-up every once in a while is no big deal:
“All of these effects will only happen in extremely high doses,” she says. “The FDA has researched the heck out of these things and continues to say they are safe, so there has to be truth to that.”
As for the cancer factor, it’s a gamble I’m just not sure I’m willing to take. As Segal puts it: “It’s kind of like the chicken or the egg thing.”
Updated July 29, 2009
