#sucralose

Sucralose is a popular sugar substitute for people who are cutting calories or managing blood sugar levels, but new research by the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center suggests that the artificial sweetener may not be the best choice for patients undergoing cancer immunotherapy. Published in the journal Cancer Discovery, the study found that patients with melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer who consumed high levels of sucralose had worse response to immunotherapy and poorer survival than those with diets low in the artificial sweetener.

This does not surprise me at all. They push these artificial sweeteners out with minimal testing and no regard at all to potential long-term health impacts.

Aspartame: The oldest and most studied sweetener, aspartame has zero grams of sugar and won’t spike insulin levels after it’s consumed. However, studies in mice have shown that aspartame affects gut bacteria in ways that could lead to insulin resistance, especially with frequent and repeated use. Aspartame is found in diet coke, as well as the brand name sweetener Equal.

Saccharin: Found in Sweet N Low, saccharin may affect gut bacteria in ways that could lead to insulin resistance, based on mice studies. If this is an issue in humans, it will likely only occur with frequent and repeated use. In the past, saccharin has been associated with bladder cancer, based on mice studies, but that was based on extreme levels humans would never consume, so that fear is not based on reality.

Sucralose: A recent human study found that sucralose, which is found in Splenda, may lead to increased insulin spikes when sugar is consumed. It’s also been shown to alter gut bacteria in mice.

Stevia: A relatively new sugar substitute, Stevia is considered one of the safer sugar substitutes. However, little research has been done on it.

Erythritol: This is a sweetener that’s only been approved on the market since 2001, and becoming more popular in recent years. It isn’t recognized as sugar in the body hasn’t been shown to raise insulin levels and is well tolerated, compared to its cousin malitol. That said, it hasn’t been well studied.

Xylitol: Xylitol is a sugar alcohol with about 40% of the calories of regular sugar, so it can contribute to insulin resistance and Type II diabetes if consumed in high amounts.

Maltitol: Maltitol is a sugar alcohol with fewer grams of sugar than pure sugar. But at around half the calories of sugars, it’s not a good option for avoiding insulin resistance and Type II diabetes. It can also lead to significant diarrhea and bloating issues.

Sucralose aka Splenda Is Genotoxic | June 2023

Me: Big Food sells us low quality at high prices that makes us gradually sicker then Big Pharma sells us high priced meds to control the symptoms until we need Big Hospital and a funeral. Think I'm exaggerating? Read on.

"When we exposed sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate to gut epithelial tissues—the tissue that lines your gut wall—we found that both chemicals cause 'leaky gut.' Basically, they make the wall of the gut more permeable. The chemicals damage the 'tight junctions,' or interfaces, where cells in the gut wall connect to each other.

"A leaky gut is problematic, because it means that things that would normally be flushed out of the body in feces are instead leaking out of the gut and being absorbed into the bloodstream."

"We found that gut cells exposed to sucralose-6-acetate had increased activity in genes related to oxidative stress, inflammation and carcinogenicity,"

"To put this in context, the European Food Safety Authority has a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day," Schiffman says. "Our work suggests that the trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in a single, daily sucralose-sweetened drink exceed that threshold. And that's not even accounting for the amount of sucralose-6-acetate produced as metabolites after people consume sucralose."

Harvard says: "Some studies show that leaky gut may be associated with other autoimmune diseases (lupus, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis), chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, arthritis, allergies, asthma, acne, obesity, and even mental illness." 

Splenda.com says: "Today, the Splenda brand is the most recognizable and iconic low-calorie sweetener brand in the world, having sold more than 100 billion yellow packets since its launch in 1992."

Michael Zeece, in Introduction to the Chemistry of Food, 2020 says: "Granulated sucralose is mixed with fillers to provide a measure for measure substitution with table sugar (sucrose). The powdered form of sucralose contains 90% bulking agents such as maltodextrin, that are a metabolizable form of carbohydrate. A 50/50 mixture of sucrose and sucralose, plus a bulking agent, is available for baking applications. This mixture reduces caloric content and enables browning reactions in baking applications."  Source

Me: Wow. Ok. 50/50 sugar/Splenda plus bulking agents for baking. Would that mean commercial baking? Processed foods? YES!!!

"Sucralose is also highly stable at elevated temperatures that are often used in food, beverage, and drug manufacturing processes so that product sweetness levels can be maintained following cooking, baking, and/or pasteurization. Sucralose also has excellent stability in low-pH products so that sweetness degradation is not a determining factor in the shelf-life of such products."

FDA says "Sucralose is a general-purpose sweetener found in various foods, including baked goods, beverages, chewing gum, gelatins, and frozen dairy desserts." 

By weight, Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (sugar).

 Me: Even if I don't buy or use Splenda or drink diet sodas there is a good chance that I'm still eating more than 0.15 micrograms of sucralose in "shelf stable" cookies, pastries, bread or ice cream. Big Food cuts in Sucralose/Splenda because it gives big sweetness and probably costs less than natural sugar/sucrose.

The FDA approved it for general use in 1999. They suggest it for diabetic people! No wonder Celiac Disease, Crohn's disease, and irritable bowel syndrome have steadily increased.

Latest little kitchen experiment finally gotten around to! 👍

For whatever reason, Splenda is just not readily available in stores here. (Though it does show up in some commercial foods.) And it's the least nasty artificial sweetener to my taste that I have tried. I end up using it a lot in drinks, especially.

So, since the tablets I carried from the UK were getting low? I ended up just ordering a bag of pure sucralose powder pretty cheap, pulled out my trusty diabetic drug dealer scales and a tiny funnel, and diluted some of that into water to make my own liquid sweetener.

Using somebody else's reckoning as a guideline, I decided to try 1.25g of sweet stuff in a 10mL bottle. Starting with a smallish quantity to test it out, and also for freshness since I just used tap water.

That did give me something totally acceptable, which does taste like the rough equivalent of two drops per teaspoon of sugar. (Or per commercial Splenda tablet, more like!) Which was what I was aiming for.