What is the truth on artificial sweeteners?

[CoffeeCat]

I'm wondering if artificial sweeteners are dangerous.

Knowing our world--where corporations pay off politicians to approve their products--I'm wondering
if artificial sweeteners are hazardous to our health.

Does anyone have the skinny on artificial sweeteners and if they are truly safe?

I'm concerned about the safety of Splenda. It's in so many things and I don't want to give
it to my children if it was FDA approved because of food-additives lobbyists working overtime.

Thanks for any info.

[seemunkee]

1. Try stevia

natural sugar substitute from a plant extract. Get it at a health food store.

[pitohui]

11. yeah so is splenda and it tastes a heck of a lot better

natural sugar substitute from a plant extract

splenda is made from sugar cane, just like sugar, at the same sugar refinery

and it tastes a hell of a lot better than stevia, which is just nasty, i'm sorry

[SeveneightyWhoa]

26. It is made from sugar, but its not "natural".

I believe Splenda has chlorine added to it. Sounds scary, but I'm not sure about the science behind it--I think it leaves the body quite quickly.

[NNadir]

2. They taste like shit.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Aspartame & Rumsfeld...

Many health-conscious people believe that avoiding aspartame, found in over 5000 products under brand names such as Equal and NutraSweet, can improve their quality of life. The history of this synthetic sweetener's approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a long record of consumer complaints and the agency's demonstrated insensitivity to public concern, suggests they're right.
In October 1980 the Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) impaneled by the FDA to evaluate aspartame safety found that the chemical caused an unacceptable level of brain tumors in animal testing. Based on this fact, the PBOI ruled that aspartame should not be added to the food supply.

....

In November 1980, however, the country elected Ronald Reagan President. Donald Rumsfeld (former congressman from Skokie, former White House chief of staff, former secretary of defense and since January 1977 president of Searle) joined the Reagan transition team. A full court press against the board decision began.

In January 1981 Rumsfeld told a sales meeting, according to one attendee, that he would call in his chips and get aspartame approved by the end of the year. On January 25th, the day the new president took office, the previous FDA commissioner's authority was suspended, and the next month, the commissioner's job went to Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes.


....


http://www.stevia.net/aspartame.htm

[graywarrior]

4. Causes depression

[BigBearJohn]

5. do a search on google for "splenda" and "warnings"

I found this site

http://splenda.worldwidewarning.net/

[AllieB]

15. Many of Splenda's biggest critics

either work for the big sugar producers or the companies that manufacture and diustribute aspartame, Nutrasweet, etc. I'm not a fan of Splenda, but you have to question why the sugar industry has hired so many 'bio-stitutes' to write papers against Splenda.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

24. delete

.

[uppityperson]

6. Aspertame is bad. I would like to know about Splenda also.

I hate that name, oh, it's just splendid?

[bloom]

7. This was in the NYT on Aspartame:

February 12, 2006
The Lowdown on Sweet?

By MELANIE WARNER
WHEN Dr. Morando Soffritti, a cancer researcher in Bologna, Italy, saw the results of his team's seven-year study on aspartame, he knew he was about to be injected into a bitter controversy over this sweetener, one of the most contentiously debated substances ever added to foods and beverages.

Aspartame is sold under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in such popular products as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free Kool-Aid. Hundreds of millions of people consume it worldwide. And Dr. Soffritti's study concluded that aspartame may cause the dreaded "c" word: cancer.

The research found that the sweetener was associated with unusually high rates of lymphomas, leukemias and other cancers in rats that had been given doses of it starting at what would be equivalent to four to five 20-ounce bottles of diet soda a day for a 150-pound person. The study, which involved 1,900 laboratory rats and cost $1 million, was conducted at the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, a nonprofit organization that studies cancer-causing substances; Dr. Soffritti is its scientific director.

The findings, first released last July, prompted a flurry of criticism from the Calorie Control Council, a trade group for makers of artificial sweeteners that has spent the last 25 years trying to quell fears about aspartame. It said Dr. Soffritti's study flew in the face of four earlier cancer studies that aspartame's creator, G. D. Searle & Company, had underwritten and used to persuade the Food and Drug Administration to approve it for human consumption. "Aspartame has been safely consumed for more than a quarter of a century and is one of the most thoroughly studied food additives," read one news release from the council.

At the same time, Dr. Soffritti's findings have energized a vociferous group of researchers, health advocates and others who say they are convinced that aspartame is a toxin associated with a variety of health troubles, including headaches, dizziness, blindness and seizures.... <more>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12sweet.html?ex=1143090000&en=a1b678d4bac1d847&ei=5070

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=222&topic_id=4448

[mike_c]

8. another vote for stevia....

All natural sweetener, NOT artificial. No calories, no bitter aftertaste.

[pitohui]

13. stevia is refined, as is sugar and splenda

no sweetener other than honey is natural

stevia is made from an extract, it does not grow on a plant like that, it just tastes bad so you think it must have been scraped off the bottom of some nasty root somewhere

[AllieB]

9. I use Stevia, and some sugar alcohols in baking

Stevia is natural and is sold with supplements, as the FDA has not approved it as a sweetener. It can be bitter, and I've had the best luck with the Sweet Leaf brand.

http://www.sweetleaf.com/

I use Splenda in baking once in a blue moon but I don't think there have been enough studies on it.

I like the flavor of Shugr, which is a mix of sugar alcohols (tagatose erythritol and polydextrose), but it is expensive: one pound can cost $15-20.

[meow2u3]

23. I wouldn't touch sugar alcohols with a ten foot pole

Sorbitol, mannitol, and other sugar alcohols cause a serious case of the runs. I call it Liquid Plumber.

[AllieB]

28. The only one that I had trouble with is Maltitol

I have never farted so much in my life! :blush:

[mzteris]

10. Besides the fact that they taste NASTYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

- most of 'em are truly bad for you.

[tammywammy]

12. I prefer to just skip them

The only thing I really use that has them in it is gum.

I only drink one or two sodas a week, so I'll just stick with the regular sugar ones.

Do a Google search with warnings. My old nutritionist professor had strong warnings against using any artificial sugars (unless you were diabetic or other health reasons).

[pitohui]

14. many people ARE diabetic or have metabolic syndrome

they will live a lot longer w. splenda than w. regular sugar or honey

i don't think we can presume the person's reason for wanting to use artificial sweetener is pure vanity rather than health

[blondeatlast]

18. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Every time the issue pops up I roll my eyes and think "just spend a month in my shoes--or rather, with the cannula from the insulin pump attached to you."

Life's about choices,and this insulin-dependent diabetic doesn't have the luxury of the same ones non-DBs do.

:hug:

[Warpy]

20. No kidding, there are compelling health reasons to use artificial

sweeteners and lots and lots of people can use aspartame with no apparent problems. Some folks are sensitive to it.

The main problem for people who aren't sensitive to it is that it begins to decompose at a fairly low temperature and become less sweet. That means forget about cooking with the stuff. Even using it in coffee and tea is less than satisfactory.

If you think you may be sensitive to aspartame, stop using it for a couple of weeks, then go back to it for a couple of days. If you notice a change for the worse when you go back to it, stop using it.

People who are sensitive to aspartame but who need to use artificial sweeteners can generally tolerate Splenda quite well. It is much more stable at high termperature, so it can be used in cooking and baking, too. The down side is the increased expense of switching to it.

I agree that stevia is pretty tough to handle if you're used to a neutral tasting sweetener.

If blood pressure isn't a concern, some people might find that ground licorice root is a great sweetener for coffee and tea. No, it doesn't taste like licorice. It just tastes sweet. However, it can raise blood pressure in large quantities, so should be approached with caution.

[tammywammy]

21. I was saying for myself, I skip them

But I'm not diabetic. My uncle is and swears by Splenda (he's so happy that it actually tastes like sugar).

If you need them, by all means use them. I don't think they should be illegial or anything.

[starmaker]

16. They are dangerous

Chief Two Trees told me on my first visit to avoid artifical sweeteners
Decaf coffee and margarine.

[pitohui]

17. ho kay

the space brothers told whitley streiber not to eat chocolate but i bet he does and we do and the earth still turns

[MazeRat7]

19. The truth ? Really ? Ok... sorry but they are not real. *grin.

[lindisfarne]

22. "ALL-Natural", "from a plant" does NOT mean SAFE.

There are lots of plants out there which can kill you. Never, never, never equate something being "natural" with it being safe.

As for the "sweetener" debate, my opinion is cut back on all sweeteners, and avoid stevia/aspartame/splenda/etc. unless there are valid health reasons (such as diabetes) to need to use them. Diet sodas have lots of bad things in them, and all carbonated drinks eat away at the enamel on your teeth and can increase your risk of cavities (carbonation makes the drink slightly acidic) and cause or aggravate other health problems (reflux, irritable bowel syndrome), etc.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

25. I don't trust Aspartame. I've switched to Splenda/sucrose.

I haven't seen any evidence that Splenda is dangerous.

(Well, other than the online health/nutrition equivalents of the "Bush blew up the WTC!" sites; in other words, quite out there and untrustworthy.)

[BlooInBloo]

27. Um, mebbe it's old-school and not cool....

... but I never knew anything was wrong with, um, sugar.

[pitohui]

31. diabetes and metabolic syndrome for starters

sugar is fine for those who can tolerate it, many can't, as the galloping diabetes and metabolic syndrome epidemic teaches us

[Lethe]

29. Splenda tastes like sugar because it's made from sugar...AND CHLORINE!

yep thats right, they add chlorine to sugar to make splenda

enjoy

(and before you say that table salt is NaCl, remember salt is one of the most naturally occurring substances on the planet, whereas splenda is unnaturally made in a testtube)

[SeveneightyWhoa]

32. That really doesn't mean much.

If it leaves the body quickly (as Splenda does), then why would it be a problem?

Don't let the word "chlorine" scare you. There's a whole lot of it in the air.

[Orsino]

30. Nothing wrong with saccharine, as far as I know.

Just don't drink 800 diet sodas a day. I love the taste of Sweet 'n' Low.

[anarch]

33. The truth is, they don't really taste like sugar. They taste like shit.