The Bitter Truth About Artificial Sweeteners

Many of the foods that are naturally sweet in nature contain rather large amounts of calories and carbohydrates-the most dreaded words in the modern world. Food makers are rushing to meet demand from consumers more concerned with their waistlines than with healthier eating. The result is, now you can find artificial sweeteners not only in sodas, but also in breads, cereals, ice cream, fruit juices and cookies.

Though it is true that many sugar substitutes have almost zero calories per gram (each gram of refined table sugar contains 4 calories), there is no nutrition either.

No artificial sweetener on the market can claim to be safe for humans to consume. Saccharin, cyclamate and acesulfame-K have all been show to cause cancer in animals. Even the family of relatively benign sweeteners known as polyols, such as sorbitol and mannitol, can cause gastric upset.

Aspartame is the most widely used artificial sweetener in the world, and found in a host of soft drinks and beverages too. It is marketed under popular brand names including the Equal and NutraSweet.

Research shows that the continuous consumption of aspartame can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, and even fatigue. It can also cause certain cancers.

People who have a genetic condition known as PKU (phenylkenoturia), a disorder of amino acid metabolism, should avoid aspartame. Such people need to keep the levels of phenylalanine (used in the making of artificial sweeteners) in the blood down in order to prevent mental retardation as well as neurological or behavioural disorders.

Another popular sugar substitute, sucralose (sold under the popular brand name of Splenda), is simply chlorinated sugar; a chlorocarbon. Sucralose is a molecule of sugar chemically manipulated to surrender three hydroxyl groups (hydrogen + oxygen) and replace them with three chlorine atoms. Natural sugar is a hydrocarbon built around 12 carbon atoms. When turned into Splenda it becomes a chlorocarbon, in the family of Chlorodane, Lindane and DDT. Sucralose has been shown to shrink the thymus gland and enlarge kidneys and liver.

The power of the profit-making industries in the world’s legislating bodies is such that that Stevia rebaudiana – a herb which is used across South America as an alternative to artificial sweeteners like aspartame – is being denied use in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia, though it is a harmless. Strangely enough, India also does not allow the use of this natural sweetener. (Ref: Center for Science and Environment, India)

People drink diet sodas that use artificial sweeteners so that they don’t gain weight, but they invariably do. The reason is they feel so smug with their efforts that they increase the intake of the coke! Well, the sweetener has zero calories, not the coke!!