SPLENDA????

hapemopirate

My mother, grandfather and sister are all diabetic, so we use Splenda in my house. Over the years, I've come to prefer the taste over sugar. I've recently come across some research, though, that says Splenda can contribute to obesity, kill the good bacteria in your gut and interfere with the absorption of prescription drugs.

Does anyone else know anything about the side effects of Splenda? I'm wondering if I should suck it up and go back to sugar.

aippolito1

Splenda has been known to cause severe headaches (my parents stopped using it because of this - they were using it because my dad was on Atkins)... the best alternative would be agave nectar, which is a naturally sweet liquid or stevia which is also natural, derived from a plant. I find stevia isn't as sweet but it's better for you.

questionablemethods

I'm sure you will get a LOT of different responses to this question. Personally, I discovered that even a tiny bit of Splenda in my coffee or tea gave me a pretty bad stomach ache. I am normally not very sensitive to food and drugs but I made this connection right away as it was the only change I had made to my diet (simply because the break room was out of regular sugar and I wanted something sweet). I was just listening to a nutrition show on the radio and they were saying that Splenda is basically sugar that has been altered so your body doesn't recognize it and doesn't digest it. I don't know all the chemical specifics, but I guess I don't think it is a great idea to put things in my body that it doesn't recognize. It just seems like a bad idea in the simplest sense. I feel like there are probably enough foreign, unrecognizable things going in my body that are beyond my control, I don't want to add things purposefully.

When you think about it, things that you add to your food should have calories, right? I mean, if you add more toppings to your pizza, you would expect it to have more calories. Why should it be any different with our sweeteners? I guess it all just creeps me out.

I have found that I have just gotten used to a lot of things without any sweeteners. I weaned myself off of sugar in my coffee. Now I just use skim milk and I love it. Same thing with my yogurt. I got used to just plain yogurt with fruit and that is quite sweet to me. I still like to have some chocolate or a cookie with dinner, so it isn't like I never eat added sugars, but when you cut back you really do find that you need less and less overall.

cmurphy04722

I vouch for the splenda headaches. I know that artificial sugars give me headaches so I always avoid them, but Splenda is sneaky with its use of "sucralose" on packages. Damn Splenda! I got fooled into trying some kettle corn last week and it had sucralose in the ingredients, totally overlooked it thinking it was just sucrose. My bad....and wound up with a terrible headache for like 3 hours.

But if you don't get the headaches and your family doesn't either...not sure. I'm fairly sure it's not good for you, but neither is HFCS or sucrose, which is half fructose also. Fructose is just not good for you. Try to get most of your sugars naturally, from fruits and such, and cut down on sugar otherwise. It helped get me over a weight loss plateau and I've been feeling so much better with less sugar in my body.

AprilChampion

ive used splenda for the past 4 years solidly and i have NEVER had any issues with it. In fact, switching from sugar to splenda originally, i lost the urge to eat sugar with my tea and or coffee and i actually cant stand the taste of sugar now.

sweetrevenge

Splenda has been known to cause severe headaches (my parents stopped using it because of this - they were using it because my dad was on Atkins)... the best alternative would be agave nectar, which is a naturally sweet liquid or stevia which is also natural, derived from a plant. I find stevia isn't as sweet but it's better for you.

Agreed, Splenda is not something that I would ever put in my body! And I also agree that agave nectar is he best alternative. Looks and tastes a bit like honey, it comes from a cactus and even diabetics use it. I wouldn't recommend going back to sugar, but I definitely woulnd't reccomend continuing to use Splenda.

July24Lioness

I don't use splenda, nutrasweet or any of those sweeteners.

My naturopathic doctor also told me to stay away from agave nectar because it is as bad for you as Corn Syrup. I am diabetic, so they market the Agave Nectar as being good for you and its not as good as they market it to be.............

I do use a bit of Sweet Leaf Stevia every once in a while, but not often. Other than that, I use a tiny bit of Raw Honey in hot tea, I don't use any honey out of the grocery store. This is raw straight from the farm.

July24Lioness

Splenda has been known to cause severe headaches (my parents stopped using it because of this - they were using it because my dad was on Atkins)... the best alternative would be agave nectar, which is a naturally sweet liquid or stevia which is also natural, derived from a plant. I find stevia isn't as sweet but it's better for you.

Agreed, Splenda is not something that I would ever put in my body! And I also agree that agave nectar is he best alternative. Looks and tastes a bit like honey, it comes from a cactus and even diabetics use it. I wouldn't recommend going back to sugar, but I definitely woulnd't reccomend continuing to use Splenda.

Not all diabetics use it. Not this one. I have been educated by my naturopathic Doctor and my endocrinologist and they both agree to stay far away from Agave Nectar. it is not all its cracked up to be!!!

cmurphy04722

Just to throw some science at ya...

The process of turning sugar into "Splenda" substitutes three atoms of chlorine in place of the naturally occuring hydrogen-oxygen groups in the sucrose molecule.

And if you know anything about the history of aspartame being approved by the FDA, I'd say it's safe to be skeptical of sucralose's approval too.

The FDA denied approval of aspartame for 16 years, then caved in to political/economic pressure when Don Rumsfeld, CEO of the manufacturer, was brought to Washington by Ronald Reagan. A new FDA Commissioner was appointed to approve it then became a consultant for NutraSweet's public relations firm for $1,000/day on a 10 year contract. One might expect FDA to be more cautious next time, yet FDA approved the toxic chlorocarbon Splenda without hesitation and without any long term testing on human subjects. For aspartame, animal studies clearly demonstrated its toxicity, and sucralose also failed in clinical trials with animals. Aspartame created brain tumors in rats. Sucralose has been found to shrink thymus glands (the biological seat of immunity) and produce liver inflammation in rats and mice.

krislew

I can only speak for the effects it's had on me. Splenda also gives me severe abdomin pains. Aspartame irritates my bladder and makes me have to go, go, go all the time. So I stay away for those reasons. Well, that and I hate the taste. I have found you can be successful with dieting with eating regular sugar in moderation. I'm pretty sure you can be a successful diabetic without using it too, if you choose to do so.

ka_42

I know that splenda is most likely not good for you. I consume it almost daily anyway. I like to add it to my yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit. I also use a splenda/sugar combo when baking. I haven't suffered from any side effects. I agree with Kaitlin.. it just seems like a bad idea to consume something chemically altered and unrecognizable by your body. and I like the thought of eating cleaner... I have researched this subject a little as well and read that Splenda is derived from a chlorine salt! Weird! Yet with the way I live I prefer convenience. Convenience comes in packages with ingredient lists as long as my arm. It's unfortunate that I can't pronounce some of the names of things that are going in my body. Just attempting to read the nutrition labels and make efforts towards good choices is enough for me right now. I just don't think it's always realistic to eat and live the way maybe we "should" be. I can't afford special foods. I can't afford the time to prepare them. So-- I guess what I'm saying is... I'm eating that bad stuff anyway! I'm perfectly healthy (as far as I know). I very rarely get sick and I haven't seen any side effects from my eating habits as of lately.

Best of luck!

hapemopirate

Thanks friends! Looks like I'm switching to sugar in my coffee, honey in my tea. I don't feel the need to cut sugar out completely, but I will use EXTREME moderation when it comes to adding it to my foods.

The real reason I posed this question is because my stomach has been giving me trouble. I pretty much was told that I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Hopefully, I'll notice a difference when I get rid of the Splenda. I don't know that I've ever experienced a "Splenda headache" like some of you have mentioned, but ya never know. I may feel like a new woman!