A Spoonful of Sugar Sucralose!
By: Persia Nikou Sichani
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Did you know there are sweeteners out there that taste like
sugar, but are not actually sugar? As well, did you know that not everybody can
enjoy sugar, like people with diabetes. Diabetics have difficulty releasing
insulin which is responsible for collecting the sugar that ends up in your
blood so you don’t end up with high blood sugar. Therefore some diabetics needs
to be careful with how much sugar they consume. There is a common alternative
to sugar, and it’s known a sucralose. Sucralose is a man made compound that is
600 times sweeter than regular sugar 3. It can be enjoyed by people
who have diabetes because it doesn’t get absorbed into your blood system when
you eat it like regular sugar 4. Instead it just passes right
through your digestive system and ends up in your poop 2,5. The
strong sweetness that sucralose has was actually discovered by accident by two
professors named Hough and Phadnis. The professors were looking for other ways
to use sugar, also known as sucrose, besides eating it. They were thinking it
could be used in antibiotics and pesticides 1. After alterting the
sucrose into sucralose via a proccess called chlorination 5,
professor Hough told professor Phadnis to “test” the compound. However, there
must have been some miscommunication and Phadnis heard “taste” the compound.
Which he did and described it as ‘achingly sweet’ 2.
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| Sucralose [2] |
Today we can
use sucralose in our teas and coffees in the form of a brand called “Splenda”. Splenda is actually
made of 1% pure sucralose and 99% neutral filler 2. The reason for
the small amount of sucralose and the addition of neutral fillers is to tone
down the sweetness of sucralose 1. You will commonly find that
products that contain sucralose are low calorie or low sugar items like diet
drinks, protein bars and low carb desserts 6. While sucralose is
benefical for those who can’t consume as much sugar, there are some
controversies surrounding it. There has been a study done that links sucralose
use to increased incidences of leukemia 7,8. Some other problems
found with sucralose is that is decreased the good bacteria found in your gut
by 50%, it increases the pH in your stomach and it interferes with the
absorption of some medications into your body 9. The verdict on
whether sucralose is good or bad for you has not been decided. So when deciding
what type of sweetener you should be consuming you need to think about your
current health condition. If you have diabetes, are obese or have heart disease
you may want to cut back on sugar completely or look into sucralose as an
alternative. The diabetes, obesisty and heart disease are problems you have to
deal with now, and currently far outweigh a possible risk of cancer that hasn’t
even really been proven yet 8. If you are perfectly healthy, then
maybe sucralose isnt necessary for you, but still remember to not go crazy with
the sweets.
References
March 7, 2016).
2 Fraser-Reid, B. From
Sugar to Splenda; Springer-Verlag: Berlin Heidelberg,
2012.
3 Hagelberg, G.B. Encyclopedia of Food and Culture;
Charles Scribner’s
Sons: New York, 2003.
(accessed March 7, 2016).
calorie-sweetener (accessed
March 7, 2016).
6 Livestrong. Foods
Containing Sucralose.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/323755-foods-containing-sucralose/ (accessed March 7,
2016).
7 Medical News Today. How Safe Is Splenda? Is Splenda Bad For
You?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/262475.php (accessed March 7,
2016).
8 Center for Science in the
Public Interest. CSPI Downgrades Sucralose
9 Mercola. New Study of Splenda (Sucralose) Reveals Shocking
Information About
Potential Harmful Effects.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/10/new-study-of-splenda-reveals-shocking-information-about-potential-harmful-effects.aspx (accessed March 7,
2016).
Image Reference
[1] https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/03/25/16/53/candy-
297538_960_720.png
[2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Sucralose2.png
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