The Not So Splendid Health Effects of Splenda

The Negative Health Effects Of Sucralose And Other Artificial Sweeteners

The time has come for America’s longstanding love affair with artificial sweeteners to end. For over a century, we’ve been madly attracted to the promise that we could have our proverbial cake and eat it too. Artificial sweeteners have been added to everything from cookies and gum to ice cream and soda. Restaurant tables display colorful packets of fake sugar ready for your coffee or tea. These substitutes seemed to offer a short cut around the greater problem of the massive overconsumption of ultra-processed, non-nutritive food products.

Touted as zero-calories, safe for diabetics, and encouraged for weight loss, we fell head over heels for the fantasy of indulgence in sugar-free treats without guilt or risk to our health.

The first artificial sugar, saccharin, was discovered in a lab at Johns Hopkins in 1879 and is 300 times sweeter than sugar. The FDA banned saccharin in 1981 due to reasonable suspicion of it being a human carcinogen from evidence that it caused cancer in laboratory rats. The ban was later reversed in 2000 and a warning label was implemented instead. Over the years, the rise and fall of competing products has included cyclamate (1951- later banned for bladder cancer), aspartame (1981), sucralose (1998) and neotame (2002), the latter being 7,00013,000 times sweeter than sugar. Of these, sucralose, commercially known as Splenda, has dominated the market receiving accolades for its new generation flavor and purported safety profile.

While the FDA still claims that sucralose is safe, a recent study conducted by a cohort of researchers at UNC Raleigh, NC State University and UNC Chapel Hill proved otherwise. Published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health their study found sucralose to actually be genotoxic, meaning it damages human DNA and increases cancer risk. The researchers also observed that sucralose directly causes leaky gut. Intestinal permeability has been implicated in the development of many chronic diseases including autoimmune, neurological, oncological, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal disorders.

For fellow science geeks, here’s the details… the study explored the effects of sucralose-6-acetate which is produced in the manufacturing of sucralose and retained in the final product. The researchers tested this chemical and discovered that it caused DNA strand breaks. One sucralose-sweetened drink has enough sucralose-6-acetate to induce this gene-damaging effect. Another part of the study exposed the cells that comprise our gut lining to sucralose-6-acetate and found that the compound significantly increased the expression of genes associated with inflammation, oxidative stress, and cancer. Additionally, both sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate impaired gut barrier integrity by disrupting tight junctions plus inhibited the function of two enzymes involved in detoxification of harmful substances through the liver, potentially resulting in increased exposure to toxins.

In light of the mounting evidence against its safety, check labels of all processed food and beverages, toothpaste, mouthwash, chewing gum, breath mints, and OTC medications, and rid of products containing sucralose. Prescription drugs may also contain sucralose and you’d need to ask your doctor about an alternative. Although the industry may continue to sugar coat the negative effects of artificial sweeteners, as consumers, it’s time we end the bad romance.

Written by Angela King, AP, DOM Photography by Mathilde Langevin