Splenda: Not so sweet?
Researchers take another look at the safety of Splenda
By Sally Wadyka
If you’re going to drink soda—or any other sweetened drink—it seems to make sense to pick the ones that don’t contain real sugar. After all, that simple swap can shave several hundred calories off your daily diet.
But you’ve also got to figure the safety of your artificial sweetener into the equation. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit food safety watchdog group, places many popular artificial sweeteners on their “avoid” list—including saccharin (the ingredient in Sweet ‘N Low), aspartame (the ingredient in NutraSweet and Equal) and acesulfame potassium (the ingredient in Sunett and Sweet One). And now comes the news that the group has downgraded its rating for sucralose (better known as Splenda) from “safe” to “caution.”
The change is due to some potentially troubling results found by a group of Italian researchers. An independent lab in Italy has released an as-yet-unpublished study that calls into question the safety of sucralose. According to CSPI, the only long-term studies done previously on the sweetener were conducted by the compound’s manufacturers. In the Italian study, the researchers found that sucralose caused leukemia in mice. Since the study has yet to be vetted by other scientists, we don’t know all the details yet, but it was enough for CSPI to sound an alert.
This is not to say that if you continue to down the occasional Splenda-infused beverage you will inevitably end up with leukemia. Even the notoriously cautious CSPI isn’t saying that. In a statement, CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson put it this way: “Sucralose may prove to be safer than saccharin, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium, but the forthcoming Italian study warrants careful scrutiny before we can be confident that the sweetener is safe for use in food.”
So what’s a diet-conscious consumer supposed to do with this information? Well, you could avoid the issue all together by drinking things—like water, unsweetened iced tea or seltzer mixed with unsweetened fruit juice—that skip both high-calorie sugars and high-risk artificial sweeteners. But yes, that does mean that you don’t get to have a soda.
Is sugar really that bad for you?
10 sneaky names for sugar
The effects of high-fructose corn syrup
But you’ve also got to figure the safety of your artificial sweetener into the equation. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit food safety watchdog group, places many popular artificial sweeteners on their “avoid” list—including saccharin (the ingredient in Sweet ‘N Low), aspartame (the ingredient in NutraSweet and Equal) and acesulfame potassium (the ingredient in Sunett and Sweet One). And now comes the news that the group has downgraded its rating for sucralose (better known as Splenda) from “safe” to “caution.”
The change is due to some potentially troubling results found by a group of Italian researchers. An independent lab in Italy has released an as-yet-unpublished study that calls into question the safety of sucralose. According to CSPI, the only long-term studies done previously on the sweetener were conducted by the compound’s manufacturers. In the Italian study, the researchers found that sucralose caused leukemia in mice. Since the study has yet to be vetted by other scientists, we don’t know all the details yet, but it was enough for CSPI to sound an alert.
This is not to say that if you continue to down the occasional Splenda-infused beverage you will inevitably end up with leukemia. Even the notoriously cautious CSPI isn’t saying that. In a statement, CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson put it this way: “Sucralose may prove to be safer than saccharin, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium, but the forthcoming Italian study warrants careful scrutiny before we can be confident that the sweetener is safe for use in food.”
So what’s a diet-conscious consumer supposed to do with this information? Well, you could avoid the issue all together by drinking things—like water, unsweetened iced tea or seltzer mixed with unsweetened fruit juice—that skip both high-calorie sugars and high-risk artificial sweeteners. But yes, that does mean that you don’t get to have a soda.
Is sugar really that bad for you?
10 sneaky names for sugar
The effects of high-fructose corn syrup
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