Splenda is a brand name form of sucralose. It is a sucrose (sugar) derivative that cannot be digested by the human body. It is considered safer because it is not completely man made like saccharine (Sweet n Low) or aspartame (Equal/Nutrisweet). The pink stuff causes cancer in large doses and has a pretty bad aftertaste. The blue stuff is now being found to cause certain (bad) reactions with other elements and builds up over time. Some people are saying that sucralose needs to be tested some more over a long period of time because there are reports of some people (a fairly small number) who react badly to it. It may be something akin to a food allergy, but that has yet to be determined. Also, some of the sucralose warnings have been coming from what sounds to be conspiracy nut jobs.
It's a shame that tagatose (Gaio) has not become widely known in the US. It is actually a naturally occuring sugar where the D-tagatose molecules cannot be broken down by the human body. This means that it is safe for diabetics and does not promote tooth decay. The D variation occurs much less frequently in nature, so the benefits were not discovered until fairly recently. Although it is in use in some countries, the US FDA is still reviewing the usage of it.
The real problem is the amount of preprocessing that goes into some of food staples. Gluten is basically predigested flour. High fructose corn syrup does not get processed properly. These and other ingredients are what some people believe is creating the increase of obesity and diabetes in the US and other major countries. The body doesn't have to work as hard to break down these types of food causing some of these health problems.
Anyways, knowing all of that, I still eat whatever I want. Cancer, diabetes, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to die anyways. I might as well enjoy that food I like while I'm still able. |