I shudder when I walk past the "sugar free" desserts in the supermarket. Removing refined white sugar from our diet can only be good - but the mainstream artificial replacement is hardly an improvement. Artificial sweeteners are some of the scariest substances in North American diets today; they may aid diabetics - though even that is hotly debated - but they have also been linked to problems such as cancer, migraines, depression, birth defects, seizures, behavior changes, anemia, sexual disfunction, thyroid disfunction, and more.
Sugar replacements like Splenda, NutraSweet, Sweet'N'Low and Equal have taken supermarket aisles by storm. Their marketing calls them "low-cal" or "zero-cal" based on studies suggesting that aspartame, sucralose and others are "non-nutritive sugars" - they are impossible, or at least very difficult, for the human body to metabolize. What can't be metabolized can't be absorbed, used by the body for energy, or stored as fat. Since they are intended to pass right through your digestive tract without any impact, the calories of these artificial sugars don't "count" in terms of your diet - making them low-cal or zero-cal.
The truth hidden behind this saccharin marketing, however, is less than sweet:
- Current research conducted in Italy indicates that aspartame is carcinogenic. Dosages lower (by proportionate weight) than those considered safe for human consumption by regulatory agencies in Europe result in lymphomas and leukemia in female test animals. The same study showed no difference in weight between control subjects and those consuming aspartame - belying its marketing as a weight-loss food.
- The original safety testing on aspartame before it was released for public consumption resulted in brain tumors in animals treated with the artificial sweetener. Although no similar tumors were found in control subjects, this result was dismissed as insignificant.
- Sucralose (Splenda) is made from normal sugar which has been chlorinated, producing a host of chlorine bi-products, including dioxins and other organochlorines, that contribute to the widescale chlorine pollution of waterways. These chemicals can work their way up the food chain and into our bodies - and they stay there, lodged in fat cells. Dioxins contribute to cancers, hormone imbalance, birth defects, infertility, and they suppress the immune system. Chlorine contaminants are "so widespread, it would be difficult to find any human being who does not have detectable levels of dioxin in his/her blood," according to Stephen Ashkin, chair of the American Society for Testing and Material's Task Force, Clinton's Green Chemistry Challenge Task Force, and director of product development and environmental affairs for Seventh Generation.
- Research on sucralose in animal studies has shown effects including: shrinking of the thymus gland, enlarged liver and kidneys, reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell count (anemia), extension of pregnancy period, birth defects, and atrophy of lymph follicles.
- Sucralose is produced at 98% purity. The other two percent may contain contaminants such as heavy metals, methanol, chlorinated by-products, and arsenic.
- Rumour has it that aspartame was originally developed as an ant poison, and was only later marketed as a sugar replacement when its manufacturers realized that it would taste sweet. It reportedly works remarkably well as an ant poison - better than most commercial pesticides.
- Saccharin (the artificial component in Sweet'N'Low) appeared on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's carcinogen list from 1998 to 2000, before being removed for lack of sufficient data to meet the FDA's criteria for a carcinogen. It occurs in only one place in nature: as a component in coal tar.
- Aspartame breaks down, in the human body or outside, when exposed to heat. Its by-products include methyl alcohol, aspartic acid, and formaldehyde. Methyl alcohol is known to cause blindness; formaldehyde, used as a wood preservative and to preserve laboratory specimens, is a carcinogen and lethal in large doses; aspartic acid excites brain cells and disrupts neural function - contributing to hyperactivity, emotional stress, behavior changes, and loss of focus.
- Although Canada (my own country!) was the first to approve sucralose (Splenda) in 1991, there have, to date, been no long-term studies of its effects on humans. Sucralose has not been approved for human consumption in most European nations, where it is still under review.
I've barely scratched the surface of the information and controversy over artificial sugars. More information on the hazards and toxicity of artificial sweeteners is available at:
Dr. Joseph Mercola's website (search for his many articles on splenda, aspartame, and sugar). Another, more scientific, source of information is Dr. David Stewart's article on non-nutritive sweeteners (about 1/4 down the page - my apologies, the link in Dr. Stewart's own newsletter archives is inactive right now).
Are there other sweeteners you're curious about? Feel free to ask me in my Discussions.
Meet the entire family! Sugars: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!
Victoria Anisman-Reiner - Victoria Anisman-Reiner is a freelance writer with extensive experience in holistic health care and animal training.
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