Today Orangeclouds115 did a great diary on high fructose corn syrup, which inspired me to write this one. If the HCFC diary isn't on the recommend list anymore, check it out here.
Orangeclouds115 established that our increasing ingestion of high fructose corn syrup is responsible for a variety of health problems, including diabetes, obesity, and high triglyceride levels (check the diary for more on that).
Since I've recently been made aware of some problems with Splenda, the diary made me wonder whether some people would react by switching to artificial sweeteners. The answer: choosing artificial sweeteners over HFCS seems to be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
So, if you're currently eating anything with sucralose (aka Splenda) on the label, including most whey protein powders, meal replacement shakes, diet soft drinks, and even some toothpaste, or anything with aspartame (aka Nutra Sweet etc), and having health problems that you can't seem to diagnose or cure, read below the fold.
Lets start with aspartame, the older of the two sweeteners I want to discuss here (saccharin is the oldest, but since it's not in widespread use, I won't include it. However, it may turn out to be safer than the two other ones in the end).
According to Dr. Mercola, who has a health and nutrition products newsletter and practice in Illinois (see the link for citations):
Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.
According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses 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.
Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol
Good grief, methanol!!
The breakdown is 40% aspartic acid, 50% phenylalanine, and 10% methanol, the last of which breaks down into formaldehyde and formic acid in the body. Moreover, aspartame also breaks down into methanol when it is heated to temps over 86 degrees. So what happens to this stuff during the summer when it is transported to your grocery store?
I won't even go into the side effects of the other two components, this one is enough. Suffice it to say, problems reported to the FDA have included:
* Headaches/migraines
* Nausea
* Abdominal pains
* Fatigue (blocks sufficient glucose entry into brain)
* Sleep problems
* Vision problems
* Anxiety attacks
* Depression
* Asthma/chest tightness.
The same article had a case study:
One account of a case of extremely high phenylalanine levels caused by aspartame was recently published the "Wednesday Journal" in an article titled "An Aspartame Nightmare." John Cook began drinking six to eight diet drinks every day. His symptoms started out as memory loss and frequent headaches. He began to crave more aspartame-sweetened drinks. His condition deteriorated so much that he experienced wide mood swings and violent rages. Even though he did not suffer from PKU, a blood test revealed a phenylalanine level of 80 mg/dl. He also showed abnormal brain function and brain damage. After he kicked his aspartame habit, his symptoms improved dramatically.
There's even a movie on aspartame, called Sweet Misery
By the way, Donald Rumsfeld was involved in getting aspartame through the FDA. Here's part of the history from a 2005 article in The Guardian
In 1977 Donald Rumsfeld, now George Bush's defence secretary but then chief executive of the pharmaceutical company GD Searle, publicly stated that he would "call in his markers" to win a licence for aspartame, the sweetener that had been discovered by chance in Searle's laboratories, according to Roger Williams in the Commons yesterday.
Mr Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, said in an adjournment debate that there was much controversy about aspartame's safety at the time but "Rumsfeld appears to have honoured his pledge". In fact, "the history of the approval of aspartame puts public health regulators and politicians to shame".
...snip...
On the day of his inauguration as president in 1981, with Mr Rumsfeld on his transition team, Ronald Reagan personally wrote an executive order suspending the head of the US Food and Drug Administration's powers on aspartame, Mr Williams further claimed. One month later Mr Reagan appointed a new head of the regulatory authority, Arthur Hayes, who granted a licence for the sweetener.
"The history of aspartame's approval is littered with examples showing that if key decision makers found against aspartame's safety, they were discredited or replaced by industry sympathisers, who were recompensed with lucrative jobs."
Enough said for this audience, I'm sure....wasn't there a movie from the 60s or 70s whose plot was having an entire population addicted to a type of food by the addition of a certain additive?
OK, so now, you're thinking, maybe I should use Splenda instead. In fact, if you check the label on WAY too many items these days, on things like whey protein powder, toothpaste, bread, Ensure, meal replacement shakes, diet sodas, etc., you will find sucralose as an ingredient. So, even if you're not looking to eat the stuff, you probably are anyway.
Are we guinea pigs for sucralose?
The FDA did no long-term studies before approving sucralose (Splenda) for consumption.
The national Parent Teachers Organization has also cut a deal with the makers of Splenda - will corporate America ever stop compromising our physical and financial health for the sake of a buck?
According to Women to Women,a natural health website aimed at women:
The manufacturer’s own short-term studies showed that sucralose caused shrunken thymus glands and enlarged livers and kidneys in rodents. But in this case, the FDA decided that because these studies weren’t based on human test animals, they were not conclusive. Of course, there are countless examples of foods and drugs that have proved dangerous to humans that were first found to be dangerous to laboratory rats, and then again, countless others that have not. So the reality is that we are the guinea pigs for Splenda.
And now, are our children the next trial group? Thanks to an agreement between McNeil Nutritionals (makers of Splenda) and PTO Today, which provides marketing and fund-raising aid to parents’ associations, your elementary school’s next bake sale may be sponsored by Splenda — complete with baked goods made with the product.
What really bothers me about Splenda is exactly how much the "it's made out of sugar" advertising slogan, which has thoroughly penetrated our minds, is really a huge lie.
Here's what it's made of, according to the Women to Women site, which I also have read other places as well.
While some industry experts claim the molecule is similar to table salt or sugar, other independent researchers say it has more in common with pesticides. That’s because the bonds holding the carbon and chlorine atoms together are more characteristic of a chlorocarbon than a salt — and most pesticides are chlorocarbons. The premise offered next is that just because something contains chlorine doesn’t guarantee that it’s toxic. And that is also true, but you and your family may prefer not to serve as test subjects for the latest post-market artificial sweetener experiment — however "unique."
Perhaps this chlorine molecule is what is responsible for some of the side effects. We should be questioning the safety of this sweetener too. You can read another good article on that here. A compilation of complaints is also listed here and in a blog called Splenda sickness
OK, so after looking at all of this, there is NO WAY I'm going near any artificial sweetener.
What are the alternatives?
- Of course, we could go back to eating limited quantities of real sugar. Again, if we limited our quantities, type II diabetes would probably be at bay right now in this country, even without using artificial sweeteners. Honey is another option. Both of these things elevate your blood sugar, but if you limit your intake they probably won't wreak havoc with the rest of your system.
- If you're diabetic, or really need some sweet taste in your coffee, there are a couple of other sweeteners that are natural - i.e. no added cholorine molecules. One is stevia,an herb native to South America. The other is xylitol, which is also plant-based. Nothing is perfect, but I'd say better that than poisoning yourself with chemical sweeteners.
- Wean yourself off of sweetened sodas, etc. It's easier than you think. Lemon seltzer is great, for example. I had to wean myself off of sugar in my coffee while in grad school because it was wreaking havoc with my energy levels.
There is a ton of information out there on this stuff. I just wanted to bring some of it to your attention. I'd bet more than one person reading this is having some mysterious health problem that can be cured simply by cutting out the artificial sweeteners. Try it for a week and see how you feel.