I was doing some surfing looking for tips about using AS and I learned, (see below) that Cyclamates are worse for you than Aspartame! Is this true? I've been avoiding aspartame like the plague, and have been using Sugar Twin in my Tea and it turns out that a person should not exceed 3 pks per day, while I believe you can have 138 pks of Equal per day! Does this seem accurate? Should I start using splenda in my tea? Put it into packets myself? I found this info here: http://www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/h...items/sugar.htm



CYCLAMATES
(brand names: Sucaryl, Sugar Twin (yellow box), Sweet'n'Low)
Cyclamates:

do not increase blood sugar levels
can be used in baking and cooking
is not used in commercial foods
is available in grocery stores and drug stores as a table-top sweetener
is considered safe in small amounts (Acceptable Daily Intake: 11 mg/kg body weight per day* OR up to 3 packets/day for adults)
The ADIs are based on the work presented by the 1996 FAO / World Health Organization Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives and included in the Canadian Diabetes Association position statement:

That was interesting to read. I wonder what standard determines how safe something is? Perhaps it's the tendency of any substance to possibly cause cancer. At one time, I believe that both saccharine and cyclamates were banned in the US & Canada because they caused cancer in rats. But I think that HUGE amounts were fed to the rats - far more than a human would eat.

I know that I have exceeded the article's limits for cyclamates for years.

You could avoid the problem by using Splenda which has Dr. Atkins' vote along with Stevia.

The way I remember it, cyclamates were brought on the market to compete with saccarine. It was great! As far as I'm concerned, no after taste, no cravings. The research determined it could cause cancer in large amounts (sorry, can't remember the dose, but it was pretty high), so it was pulled off the market.
Later the found saccarine also can cause cancer, again in large doses, so they tried to ban that as well. Because it was the only thing that diabetics had that would allow them to still enjoy sweets, the FDA decided to allow saccarine to remain on the market, until a viable substitute was found. The FDA also eventually lifted the ban on cyclamates, but by then no one would touch anything made with it, for fear of getting cancer!

Now, when aspartame first hit the market all was well. Then people started complaining about seizure-like problems....and women complained that their periods had stopped. Since then, extensive reasearch has been done and they say there's no link....but there's an awful lot of anecdotal evidence that says there is.

I hate the taste of saccarine, and refuse to use aspartame (I get nasty sugar cravings when I use it)...and never tried any of the others until starting LC. Since then I've used maybe 12 packets of Splenda (since early August)

Personally, I'd take the cyclamates in any dose over saccarine or aspartame. Partly because of the taste, mostly because of the potential effects. Mostly, I prefer to avoid all artificial sweeteners.

Cindy

Cyclamates are readily available in Canada in packets and bulk and liquids. I use the cyclamate Sugar Twin liquid in tea because it has NO carbs!