Curious why you are not losing weight despite your best efforts to eat low fat, protein enriched foods, sugar free options and exercising regularly? I was! Then I started to do some research on the sugar substitutes used in so many of the "diet" foods in today's market. Two of the biggest and most dangerous sweeteners used today are sucralose and aspartame.
Sucralose aka Splenda, is one of the most common artificial sweetener available today. It is a prime example of misleading marketing. Sucralose was discovered while trying to create a new insecticide! Splenda does a good job of making consumers think that their base ingredient, sucralose, is safe. Most consumers believe that this is a natural sweetener due to advertising that it is made from sugar and because the name of this product itself sounds like sucrose (sugar). Sucralose is made when sugar is treated with trityl chloride, acetic anhydride, hydrogen chlorine, thionyl chloride, and methanol in the presence of dimethylformamide, 4-methylmorpholine, toluene, methyl isobutyl ketone, acetic acid, benzyltriethlyammonium chloride, and sodium methoxide. Does that sound like (two syllables) su-gar? The presence of chlorine doesn't sound too appetizing either. Chlorine is considered a carcinogen and has been used in poisonous gas, disinfectants, pesticides and plastics.
On the Splenda website, you can find: Sucralose (or SPLENDA® Brand Sweetener), the high intensity sweetener used in all SPLENDA® Products is not natural. It is a no calorie sweetener that is made from a process that starts with sugar. Although sucralose has a structure like sugar’s and a sugar-like taste, it is not natural. The advertising and packaging for SPLENDA® Products do not represent the product as “natural.”
Sucralose is a calorie free substance (since your body simply cannot digest it) but Splenda has calories. This is because Splenda contains more than just sucralose! It also gives you a nice helping of dextrose and maltodextrin…mmm yummy! Did you know that there is an actual formula to help determine how much sucralose is safe for you to consume? I didn't either, but here it is: According to the FDA, the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for sucralose is set at 5 mg per kg of body weight per day. To determine your ADI, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get your weight in kg, and then multiply it by 5. Example: If you weigh 150 lbs., your weight in kg would be 68 (150 divided by 2.2) and your ADI for sucralose would be 340 mg (68 kg x 5). The average figure of "safe" to consume sucralose adds to about a six pack of diet soda. So, now that you know how much sucralose is "safe" to consume.. how much do you figure you put in your body each day?
With over 4500 products made with Splenda, it's reasonable to assume the average dieter consumes at least a cup of this stuff! When you count the syrup in your favorite sugar free coffee drink, the number of diet soda's or sparkling waters (yes, even some sparking water contains sucralose if you see Splenda proudly displayed on the label) and the "light" diet foods that we eat regularly, are you confident that you don't consume more than a six pack? Would you consume less than a cup of poison a day if the FDA said it was safe? What if it had a big skull and cross bones on it instead of a sugar sounding name like sucralose?
A recent study found that Splenda affects the absorption of prescription medications in rats. The rats were given sucralose at doses of 1.1-11 mg/kg. After 12 weeks, they found that the rats had lost half of the good bacteria in their gut flora. They had increased pH levels in their intestines and increased body weight! So, with only half of the good bacteria remaining, an increased pH and weight gain, while consuming a product that is highly addictive, are we really achieving a healthier diet? Diabetics whose medication strength is cut to 50%, metabolism is reduced and whose bodies continuously gain weight are setting themselves up to fail, and for what? An undigestible substitute to pure table sugar.
Some other researchers have stated that the rat study is not true and state that the only way to know for sure is to do long term studies on humans which hasn't been done (hasn't been done? Really?? Why is that when this product ins in so much of our food??). Common sense dictates that eating something that can not be digested, removes the good bacteria that you need in your stomach and slows your metabolism simply is not a good idea. However, taking the time to test and protect consumers is just not cost effective. So shovel it in weight loss fanatics!
Oh and just so you know, even if you aren't an avid diet soda drinker, you're going to get that sucralose injection anyway. Studies have shown that when the undigested waste comes out of your body and is flushed away (the percentage of it that actually comes out and isn't store in the bodies fat cells) it gets to the treatment plant where it continues to defy consumption! It becomes part of the water supply and is a widespread contaminant in waste water, surface water and ground water! Water samples from 19 US drinking water treatment plants serving more than 28 million people were analyzed for sucralose. The sweetener was found to be present in 15 out of the 19 treatment plants tested! Sucralose is a recalcitrant compound. Recalcitrant compounds are organic or synthetic compounds that resist being broken down by chemical processes. The average amounts of sucralose in source water was 440 ng/L and 350 ng/l in finished water. So even if your main source of refreshment is tap water, you're adding sucralose to your diet! Like it or not, this stuff just doesn't go away and its everywhere!
Trying to calculate the total mg's you are consuming each day can be impossible- especially when it's found in the least likely places (like tap water!). Don't be fooled by labels that say "less than 2%". Be sure to look at the serving size of that 20 oz diet soda and notice the 2.5 servings in your hand. That's 4.5% of 20 ounces to add to your daily consumption… per bottle.
Moving on from sucralose (with a slight shiver), another popular sweetener is aspartame aka NutraSweet. Aspartame accounts for over 75% of the adverse reactions reported to food additives to the FDA. Reactions such as headaches, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathy difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, memory loss and joint pain (phew)! DKP is a byproduct of aspartame metabolized. DKP has been implicated as causing brain tumors. When it's nitrated in the gut, it produces a compound similar to n-nitrosourea, a powerful brain tumor causing chemical. DKP has also been implicated as causing uterine polyps and changes in blood cholesterol.
Here is a list of chronic illnesses that can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame: brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia and diabetes. Wait, back up.. that last one.. it's DIABETES! This is the main targeted consumer market for this product! Diabetics are told that this is safe! That's it's better for them than sugar and to use it in every meal as a safe reliable substitute!
Why is our society seeing an increase in birth defects, fibromyalgia and diabetes? I will give you one guess! And once your diagnosed with diabetes, you're told to ingest the "light" enemy daily! You consume sugar substitute due to the problem, your problem worsens, you take more medication, add more sugar free substitutes, gain wait, your problem worsens…a vicious killing cycle!
According to the latest Autism statistics conducted 9/1/11, One in 91 children in the United States has Autism. This is up from One in every 10,000 in the 1970's. This figure does not include PDD, Asperger's and a few other spectrum disorders. More children will be diagnosed with Autism this year than AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined. Wow. Autism is the only disorder that is rising dramatically while mental retardation, down syndrome and cystic fibrosis is staying about the same. The cause is not in inability to diagnose, the problem is simply multiplying! The cause for Autism is unknown but According to Dr John Olney, the cause is aspartame. Dr Olney was the founder of the field of neuroscience called excitotxicity. He tried to prevent approval of aspartame. He said if the FDA approved this birth defects would be on the rise. It is especially dangerous when mixed with other excitoneurotixins like MSG. Aspartame changes the brains chemistry and causes psychiatric and behavioral problems. It also interacts with vaccines which can cause autism. "Children don't have a chance" said Olney.
So what is aspartame? 40% of aspartame is made from Aspartic acid. It's an amino acid. Aspartate acts as neurotransmitters in the brain by facilitating the transmission of information from neuron to neuron. If you have too much aspartate in the brain, it kills certain neurons by allowing the influx of too much calcium into the cells. It basically excites and/or stimulates the neural cells to death! Oh and it's addicting so the more you eat the more you want Our brains have something called "The blood brain barrier (BBB), which is said to protect the brain from excess aspartate getting in but it does not protect all arrears of the brain and is also damaged by chronic conditions (such as those indicated above, including diabetes!!) and therefore allows more and more seepage of the aspartate into the brain to excite your cells to death. Nice huh? The vicious killing cycle continues…
50% of aspartame is Phenylalanine. This is an amino acid normally found in the brain. People who suffer from PKU cannot metabolize phenylalanine. "Contains phenylalanine" is the only warning label on a product containing aspartame to warn sufferers of PKU. What about the rest of us? It has been shown that people who ingest aspartame, especially along with carbohydrates (which most foods have in some quantity), can have excess levels of phenylalanine in the brain even people who do not have PKU! Excessive levels of phenylalanine in the brain can cause the levels of seratonin to decrease, leading to emotional disorders such as depression. Even a single use of aspartame causes the blood phenylalanine levels to rise.
It has been shown that phenylalanine is metabolized much more efficiently by rats than humans. SO.. all those test that say "oh yeah, it's okay to ingest this stuff" by the cup full, but are testing on rats.. don't really have a clue what the long term effects on humans are! Early studies measuring phenylalanine build up in the brain have shown to cause schizophrenia and more susceptation to seizures. So not only are we hopelessly obese due to the vicious killing cycle, we are depressed about it and possibly having seizures and schizophrenic mental problems!
The remaining 10% of aspartame is methanol. Methanol is a deadly poison. It actually does have a skull and crossbones! The EPA assessment of methanol states that it is considered a poison due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed (wait, doesn't sucralose have the same problem? The "never go away" factor?)! You can absorb more of this poison into your body by way of aspartame when you heat it up or improperly store it. So, the next time you heat up America's favorite bowl of sugar-free Jello, if it contains aspartame, you are releasing a nice dose of methanol into your system! The body breaks down methanol into formic acid and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin. You know, the stuff we use to embalm our dead? The EPA says we should not consume more than 7.8 mg/day (of formaldehyde? What the?). A one-liter aspartame sweetened soda contains about 56 mg of methanol. If you are a diabetic told to eat sugar free foods, you could be consuming upwards to 250 mg of methanol daily…which is 32 times the EPA limit!
Symptoms from methanol poisoning include headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, numbness, and shooting pains in the extremities. It has also been linked to behavioral disturbances and neuritis. The most well known problems from methanol poisoning are vision problems including retinal damage and blindness, which is another symptom brought on by diabetes (how can diabetics be the target of this market??). It interferes with DNA replication and causes birth defects!
Due to the lack of a couple of key enzymes, humans are many times more sensitive to the toxic effects of methanol than animals. Studies that say it's safe due to their testing results on rats are misleading us all. The troops of Desert Storm were given large amounts of aspartame sweetened beverages that were heated over 86 degrees in the Saudi Arabian sun. Many returned home with numerous disorders similar to what has been seen in persons who have been chemically poisoned by formaldehyde. I have bought a 12 pack or two from the Safeway fuel stations warm from being in the sun all day. I just throw it in the fridge to cool before consuming! However the damage is already done and the poison at work due to the increase in methanol! No warning labels, no skull and crossbones just a warm soda needing a glass with ice right? So wrong!
Cigarettes are commonly known to cause birth defects and be extremely unhealthy for you. There is a warning label required on every pack! I recently bought a Diet 7up because it said "100% natural flavor" on the side. I read the list of ingredients and was shocked to see aspartame on the label! I did some research and found that 7up was allowed this manipulation because they didn't add the aspartame as "flavor". Are you serious? Not only is there no huge warning label, there's a "100% natural flavor" stamped right on the package! Unbelievable! In 1993 the FDA approved aspartame as an ingredient in numerous foods that would always be heated above 86 degrees. What the heck!?! This is the government that is supposed to be protecting us! Yeah.. right!
So, why is aspartame so commonly accepted? Besides the misleading research, I think it's a phenomenon of manipulative marketing and uneducated consumers. I would venture to say the drug industry has a helping hand in this since the "diet" craze sugar substitutes have resulted in an increase of the need for medications and a continued steady increase in dosages as they slowly quit working on the poisoned body!
What's the answer? We can't go without sweet in our day- especially those of us (me included) with a sweet tooth! The answer is Stevia. It's an all natural sugar substitute that does not have poison in it! Not only that but it has been proven to actually promote additional insulin production in the body! Great news for diabetics! Its helping to reverse diabetes and metabolic syndrome! The Japanese have been using Stevia for over 30 years with no adverse results. I'd call that tried and true testing on humans.. not rats! Stevia is a mix of about 240 species of herbs and shrubs in the sunflower family. It's new to the market but growing in popularity as consumers learn of all the information i've outlined here. Safeway has a brand of natural refresh soda made with stevia. It's delicious and about 50-80 safe calories. More than zero, sure, but completely digestable without brain damage and beyond.
If you can't find a stevia option for what you're after, your better off going with plane old sugar! Yeah, it may have carbs and calories..all natural things...it's what it doesn't have that matters. Look at the label, eat natural made when you gotta have some sweet...save your life! Take the time to write to the corporations that feed America like Kraft, Unilever, even Starbucks, etc. Tell them we demand a better option in our food choices! Stevia is available, we need to make a conscious effort to change- fight obesity, diabetes, birth defects, heart disease,etc. Don't be fooled by misleading labels and close eyed consumerism! We deserve better than that!
I am not a doctor, or a nutritionist, a pharmaceutical rep or scientist. I am a working mom with three children, one of which has Autism. I am a consumer fooled by the labeling integrated into the masses. I am a diabetic from a long line of diabetics. After 17 years of increased prescriptions, regular exercise and sugar free food intake with no significant weight loss, I'm making a personal choice to change!
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