The top-selling artificial sweetener Spenda is now being promoted to encourage kids and their parents to bake "lower-sugar treats with SPLENDA® Sugar Blend for Baking."
This is a development that some health experts such as Dr. Joseph Mercola (who runs the popular mercola.com website) find quite alarming.
In fact, Splenda, Dr. Mercola notes, is a a sweetener that’s "anything but natural," despite a proliferation of clever propoganda.
Indeed, before you dash out to add Splenda to your favorite recipes to make them lower calorie, you need to know, as Dr. Mercola and other experts point out, that this artificial sweetener has been linked to such toxic side effects as shrunken thymus glands, enlarged liver and kidneys, reduced growth rate, aborted pregnancy and diarrhea.
Indeed, most consumers just aren’t privy to this information. In fact, I look on with worry every time I hear someone rave about this artificial sweetener, which contains chlorine, a carcinogen — that means it could be cancer-causing.
In addition to chlorine, as Generation Green points out, Splenda uses phosgene, described by the Centers for Disease Control as "a major industrial chemical used to make plastics and pesticides," which at room temperature is a "poisonous gas). The little yellow packets also contain dextrose, a simple form of sugar, and maltodextrin, a digestible carbohydrate derived from chemically modified cornstarch.
So before you start liberally sprinkling Splenda into your tea, thinking that it’s safe, I urge you to investigate the subject further by reading the following sites:
- Check out mercola.com’s "Is Splenda Making You Sick? Find Out Some Common Reaction Symptoms," the dangers of Splenda (sucralose), and extensive testimonials from people, who’ve experienced all kinds of post-Splenda health woes.
- Read Generation Green’s letter asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Splenda’s misleading marketing campaign. (The press release points out that the Splenda ingredient label doesn’t even list sugar as an ingredient, as is widely advertised.)
- Examine the website, TruthAboutSplenda.com. Ironically, this popular Internet spot — which presents some compelling research — is sponsored by the sugar industry, which is experiencing a drastic slowdown in sales, in large part, due to Splenda’s popularity and worries about obesity.
- Visit SplendaExposed.com from toxicologist Dr. Janet Starr Hull.
- And glance at the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center.
Despite the experts’ worries, you’ve gotta hand it to McNeil Nutritionals — a division of Johnson & Johnson and makers of Splenda — for their innovative marketing gimmick to promote what they dub "Better-Than-Ever School Bake Sales."
Of course, as we well know, if you nab children at a young age, that’s an almost sure-fire way to capture an almost fierce brand loyalty for life.
And, McNeil has the good sense to capitalize on the fact they’re offering these "complimentary reduced-sugar recipes… at a time when parental concern about children’s sugar consumption has reached its height."
In addition to recipes, McNeil is offering a free bake sale kit to school parent groups and tips on how to incorporate fitness into a healthy eating plan. An "Ultimate Bake Sale" contest is even planned.
But, I urge you, before you jump on the ooh-let’s-use-no-calorie-Splenda-in-our-recipes bandwagon, please give some careful consideration to this man-made substance.
Why would you want to put such an artificial chemical in your body without knowing for sure its long-term effects?
Share your Splenda thoughts — but please do so after reading all of the links I’ve provided for further information.
One thought on “Splenda Slips into School Bake Sales, But Is It Safe?”
Chlorine by itself may be a carcinogen but not necessarily when it is combined with other chemicals. What about table salt (NaCl), for example? Splenda, or any other artificial sweetner, is not dangerous simply because it contains the element chlorine.
And although Splenda can be manufactured starting with artificial substances, what difference does it make where the materials come from? It doesn’t matter whether the Splenda is made starting with “real sugar” or other chemicals–the end result is the same in its chemical makeup.
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