Sweetness At A Price
Aspartame, Sucralose (in Splenda®) and saccharin are the most commonly used artificial sweeteners
and have gained huge popularity among people who are concerned about their weight. In the belief that
they are doing something good for themselves, they are thrilled to have found the “ideal” sweetener that
satisfies their sweet tooth yet doesn’t make them fat. However, mounting evidence shows that artificial
sweeteners are a major health risk, causing brain damage and other problems of the nervous system.
The use of artificial sweeteners in Britain alone has rocketed from a total of 615,000 tons in 1988 to
1,801,000 tons in 1993, an increase of 370 percent for aspartame and 250 percent for saccharin in five
years. The situation is even worse in the United States. The sharp increase in the use of artificial
sweeteners is very significant in relation to their sweetening potency. Saccharin is more than 400 times as
sweet as regular sugar and aspartame 200 times as sweet, with Splenda® in between the two. The recently
approved sweetener, neotame, appears to have super strength sweetness, hence it is named “super
aspartame.”
Considered non-toxic and safe by the British government, both saccharin and aspartame have found
their way into the food chain. Both sweeteners are not only found in beverages but also in children’s
jellies, lollies and numerous other types of candies, puddings, as well as beans, and even tinned pasta.
Aspartame, which is sold under the names NutraSweet®, Hermesetas, Gold Choice, and Canderel, has
been included in some 14,000 foods in America and hundreds of products in Great Britain and other
European countries. The products include fruit juices, diet soda, frozen lollies, a sugar substitute for tea or
coffee, instant breakfasts, chewing gum, cocoa and other instant beverages, medical drugs, food
supplements, and even yoghurt.
The British government has issued a call for clear warning labels (why warn people if it is so safe?),
but only a few manufacturers have complied, claiming that it would “clutter up” their labels and confuse
consumers. Yet it is more confusing to the consumer not to know whether a food product contains
aspartame or saccharin than to know it.
A survey conducted by BBC2’s Money Program revealed that up to 40 percent of the public do not
expect to find artificial sweeteners in their fruit juices and drinks, not to mention in their foods. But there
is hardly any drink on the market that does not contain an artificial sweetener, even if the drink is labeled
“sugar free.” The most popular brands give the impression that they are totally natural whereas in truth
they contain synthetically derived sweeteners. The European Union has urged producers to label these
beverages “With sweetener,” but surveys have shown that up to 50 percent of consumers would then no
longer buy these products.
The same applies to sucralose, the sweetener behind Splenda®. Disguised by its lovely sweet taste, it is
yet another Frankenstein food additive of the industry. It is produced by chlorinating sugar molecules.
Chlorinated molecules actually accumulate in body fat and can come back to haunt a body many, many
years later. Splenda is synthetic and, having a chlorinated base like DDT, it can cause autoimmune
disease (the body's natural reaction to attack and neutralize such poisons). Sucralose or Splenda is not
safe. In the original research Splenda was shown to cause many health problems.
Sucralose as used in Splenda is not yet approved for use in most European countries, where it is still
under review. Few human studies of safety have been published on sucralose. One small study of diabetic
patients using the sweetener showed a statistically significant increase in glycosylated hemoglobin
(HgbA1c), which is a marker of long-term blood glucose levels. According to the FDA, increases in
glycosylation in hemoglobin reduces control of diabetes.
Research with animals has shown that sucralose can cause many problems in rats, mice, and rabbits,
such as: