Vegetarian Times, You Disappoint Me

I read health magazines and nutrition journals every day. Each month, I look forward to one of my favorites, Vegetarian Times, for the yummy recipes and information on food. The magazine doesn't necessarily eliminate white sugar and flour from its recipes, but overall they are usually healthy and loaded with colorful vegetables. However, I was thoroughly disappointed by the article titled "What's the Latest on Sugar Substitutes?" in the February 2007 issue.

They reported that Splenda (patented name Sucralose) has never been shown to cause any biological or pathological problems in studies. Furthermore they quoted a Drexel University weight control specialist as saying that sucralose is "completely unmetabolized in the body, which means nothing is broken down, added, or taken away. If something goes in and comes out unchanged, it's much less likely to cause problems." They basically gave the thumbs up for Splenda use, which in my opinion is the same as misleading their readers.

Shortly thereafter, I read that Dr. Mehmet Oz, the revered surgeon who regularly appears on the Oprah show recommends the use of Splenda in his new book You On A Diet. He says that Splenda has not been proven to be dangerous.

This normally would not bother me except that both of these recent proponents of Splenda do not give the whole picture. First let me say that I love what Dr. Oz is doing on the Oprah show. I commend him for educating the public on some serious health issues and expounding on the dangers of processed foods, but I must disagree with his stance on Splenda.

Splenda is an artificial sweetener that is created in a laboratory using a complex process involving many caustic chemicals. Although the starting substance is sugar (sucrose), it undergoes a chemical process which selectively substitutes three atoms of chlorine for three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sucrose molecule. This chemical reaction essentially forces chlorine atoms to form an unnatural bond with the sugar, resulting in a “polychlorinated compound”, also known as an organochlorine compound. Splenda shares many similar molecular characteristics to other polychlorinated compounds like pesticides that can accumulate in your body fat and tissues. It is impossible to predict the long-term consequences of ingesting Splenda over many years, however polychlorinated compounds have long been known for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage.

Sucralose research on lab rats showed up to forty percent shrinkage of the thymus gland, a gland that is the very foundation of our immune system. Animal studies also showed sucralose can cause many other problems such as:

• Inflammation and swelling of the liver and kidneys
• Calcification of the kidneys (kidney stones)
• Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
• Reduced growth rate
• Decreased red blood cell count
• Extension of the pregnancy period
• Aborted pregnancy
• Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights
• Diarrhea

As a chemist and a concerned citizen, I am very dubious about the safety of Splenda. With so many problems associated with the studies, I find it hard to believe that Splenda can be safe. More than that though, sucralose is patented as a manmade “chlorinated sucrose sweetener” and it is registered as “chlorinated sucrose.” Chlorinated sucrose does not exist anywhere in nature. It is foreign to our human DNA and our bodies do not recognize laboratory-synthesized, artificially-made compounds. Our bodies are designed to eat real foods that derive from the natural world. Splenda does not fit into that category.