Sucralose Is Not Sugar—and It's Not Safe

by Heidi Stevenson

Sucralose. It's sold in health food stores as a safe alternative to sweeteners. It's even described as being the same as sugar, only with half the calories. Don't let the hype fool you.

Sucralose is not sugar.

Sucralose is not safe.

Sucralose is just another product from Big Pharma—another con job. It belongs to the same family of chemicals as DDT and PCBs.

Sucralose, retailed as Splenda and used extensively in processed foods, has never been demonstrated as safe. It has slipped through the cracks because it's derived from sugar. But do not be fooled. Sucralose has been chemically altered. It is not the same thing.

Though its manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, claims that it's passed through the body without absorption, a Japanese report of studies on sucralose estimated that up to 40% is absorbed, and 20-30% is metabolized⁽¹⁾. The same report noted that tests on rats documented a link to a wide range of disorders, including reduction of red blood cell count, shrinking of the thalamus, enlargement of the liver and kidney, reduction in growth rate, and neurological disorders.

A recently released paper in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, reports that Splenda has these adverse effects:

• Reduces digestive probiotics, the good bacteria, by as much as 50%
• Affects the function of glycoproteins that can affect your health and interfere with some oral medications.
• Increases fecal pH.

These effects were seen at doses approved by the FDA.

Reports of adverse effects from sucralose include:

• Wheezing, coughing, tightness of lungs, shortness of breath
• Heart palpitations
• Joint pain
• Depression, anxiety
• Headaches
• Swellings in face, including eyes, nose, lips, tongue, throat
• Skin reactions, including itching, swelling, blistering, oozing, rashes, hives, and other eruptions
• Bloating, gas, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea

Keep in mind, too, that people may experience symptoms without associating them with long term use of sucralose.

Sucralose is manufactured by replacing three hydrogen-oxygen groups in the sugar molecule with chlorine atoms. It's illogical to suggest that it's just like sugar.

Sucralose is not a natural substance. It is not reasonable to suggest that your body is equipped to cope with it. The FDA approved its use, although none of the studies on which it based that approval lasted more than four days and only two were done on humans. In fact, some of the animal studies had some significantly negative results:

• Decrease in red blood cells, a sign of anemia.
• Decreased male fertility.
• Brain lesions at high doses.
• Enlarged and calcified kidneys.
• Spontaneous abortions in half of rabbits.
• 23% death rate in rabbits, compared with 6% in controls.

It's most interesting that "scientific" studies tend to claim that negative effects on animals have no meaning in humans, but positive ones do.

Its manufacturers can get away with claims of safety only because it's a new product. The methods we have for protecting the public are backwards. If a major corporation wants to sell it, then it's necessary that others prove it's unsafe before it's removed from the market—and even then, it generally takes years.

The lesson to be learned from sucralose is that you should never trust unnatural pseudo-food products as safe simply because they've been approved by the FDA. As is abundantly clear now, that agency is in the pockets of Big Pharma. There is plenty of evidence and experience to demonstrate that sucralose is not safe. If you have a sweet tooth, you're much better consuming sugar than sucralose. Of course, honey, stevia, and naturally-occurring sugar, such as sugar cane, is better still. The important point, though, is that any artificial sweetener is poison, including sucralose.

References:

Why Hydrogenated Fat Is So Bad (Part 1 of a series on trans fats) explains how trans fats cause so much damage.

Risks of Hydrogenated Fats (Part 2 of a series on trans fats) is about the types of diseases trans fats can cause.

How to Identify and Avoid Trans Fats in Foods (Part 3 of a series on trans fats) discusses how you can spot trans fats when you shop.