Just Passin' Through
I agree with the author - and I don't like the taste of products with Splenda. I use stevia when I am making something sweet.
Just Passin' Through
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
July 2, 2003
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Dear Reader,
Last night my husband came home beaming. He'd just made a
miraculous discovery: Atkins brand ice cream.
This is by no means the first Atkins product to come in the
door since my husband started his Atkins diet just a couple
of weeks ago. So far he's sticking with it and losing some
weight, but I'm a little concerned about all the Atkins snack
products. Atkins Endulge (the product name of the ice cream)
has only 4 grams of net carbs per serving. But like other
Atkins snacks, it contains sucralose - the artificial
sweetener known better by its brand name Splenda.
So while I'm convinced that the "Atkins Nutritional Approach"
is basically a good idea (it's not for everyone, of course,
but no diet is), I'm also wary of the long-term consequences
of my other half ingesting all this sucralose.
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You are what you absorb
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Sucralose is a relatively new sweetener - it was only
approved for use in the U.S. in 1998. Since then, two camps
have developed: one camp says sucralose is perfectly safe and
offers "proof" in the FDA approval based on a review of more
than 100 studies, while the other camp argues that some of
those studies clearly did not support the safety of
sucralose, while most of them used animal, not human,
subjects.
And then there's the processing of sucralose. Simply put,
sucralose is chlorinated table sugar. To say chlorine is
toxic is to put it mildly. But some in that first camp (such
as Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Splenda) claim that the
chlorine processing is not a problem because sucralose passes
through the human body without being absorbed. A similar
claim is also made on the Atkins web site, which states that
sucralose is "inert" in the digestive system, and passes
quickly through the body without accumulating in tissues.
According to the sucralose "Final Rule" issued by the FDA,
however, the body may absorb from 11 to 27 percent of
ingested sucralose. And research from the Japanese Food
Sanitation Council doesn't even agree with that assessment;
it estimates that perhaps as much as 40 percent is absorbed.
In addition, the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center (STIC)
has determined that once sucralose is absorbed, as much as 20
to 30 percent may be metabolized by the body, where it
accumulates in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as the
liver and kidneys. And what it may be doing there, over a
long period of time, with more added daily, is the unknown
factor of sucralose. STIC research in the 90's demonstrated
that years of sucralose use may lead to immune system and
neurological disorders.
I suspect that, in the end, the reality of sucralose's safety
will fall somewhere in between the predictions of the two
camps. To date, the only real complaint that most people have
about sucralose is that it may cause stomach pains and gas.
Nevertheless, I personally don't want to be a part of this
lab experiment as it unfolds. Unfortunately, my husband
already is.
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Processed beyond recognition
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Caramel nut chews, peanut butter cups, wafer crisp bars,
deluxe fudge brownies, dessert cake rolls, caramel nut
clusters, cheesecake, chocolate fudge sauce, jelly beans,
salt water taffy, peanut brittle - this is just a partial
list of snack and dessert products containing sucralose that
are offered by Atkins. And it's not my intention to pick on
Atkins, it's just that this is what my cupboards at home are
filling up with. There are hundreds of other brand name
products lining grocery shelves that have "sugar free" on
their labels, and sucralose inside.
You can argue that sucralose is probably a better choice than
aspartame - the other major sugar substitute. And from what
I've read about aspartame, I would agree with that. But in
addition to the safety questions, processing is also an
important concern. Anything that contains sucralose has to be
considered highly processed. And while our bodies can digest
foods that have undergone a wide variety of processing, the
cumulative side effects of eating processed foods often lead
to chronic health problems.
Of course, the obvious and preferable choice is fresh whole
foods.
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You scream, I scream...
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A colleague of mine once pointed out that snacks and desserts
(such as ice cream, candy bars, potato chips, etc.) are not
food - they're entertainment for the taste buds. That's not
entirely true (some snacks contain genuine nutrients), but it
makes the point that snacking on sucralose sweetened ice
cream is a world away from snacking on, say, a red bell
pepper.
I know - except for their color, red bell peppers are no fun.
It's hard to imagine a family going for a ride on a summer
evening and stopping off at a fresh vegetable stand for a red
pepper "treat." But this is the age of an American
obesity "epidemic." And poor nutrition is one of the two
primary causes. (The other, of course, is lack of exercise.)
As a nation, if we pass on the whole foods and reach for the
processed treats, we'll never see the rates drop for chronic
diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
etc., etc., etc. Of course, taking a pass on treats begins at
home. The tough part now will be convincing my husband that a
red bell pepper (one of the veggies high on Atkins' low carb
list) can be as tasty a treat as Endulge ice cream.
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