Red Mountain Spa
In 1998, a new diet sweetener made its grand debut in American supermarkets. Called “Splenda”, it quickly made a significant niche in the multi-billion dollar diet sweetener market as it tasted good – like sugar, only sweeter. You could bake with it. And, it was untainted with aspartame - or acesulfame-k-like controversy – no floods of consumer complaints or reports of greased regulatory palms. The day that it was approved (April 1st), the Food and Drug Administration released an FDA Talk Paper entitled “FDA Approves New High-Intensity Sweetener Sucralose”(1). With regard to health, the paper stated, “In determining the safety of sucralose, FDA reviewed data from more than 110 studies in humans and animals. Many of the studies were designed to identify possible toxic effects including carcinogenic, reproductive and neurological effects. No such effects were found, and FDA’ s approval is based on its finding that sucralose is safe for human consumption”.
The development of sucralose began in 1976 when scientists working for Tate & Lyle, Ltd, a huge British sugar refiner (who at one time owned Domino Sugar), found that replacing 3 hydroxyl groups on the sucrose (table sugar) molecule with chlorine resulted in a highly palatable, intensely sweet product -600 times sweeter than sucrose. Fifteen years later (1991), Canada became the first country in the world to approve sucralose. Since its introduction in the U.S. five years ago, sucrolose has worked its way into hundreds of commercial beverages, sauces, and other foods (including Diet Rite Cola, Diet V8 Splash, Gatorade, Log Cabin Sugar-Free Syrup, Atkins Diet Advantage Bar, Gerber’s Oral Electrolyte Solution, Sundown Pokemon Vitamins Complete, Blue Bunny Ice Cream, Musselman’s Unsweetened Applesauce, and others). Splenda is now manufactured and marketed by McNeil Specialty Products, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson – the world’s largest health care company.
Up until the past 2 years, European countries have been hesitant to accept sucralose. However, a positive 25-page review by the European Commission, Scientific Committee on Food(2) is beginning to change that. The Commission recommended an ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) of 15 mg per kg of bodyweight per day which has a 100-fold built-in margin of safety (i.e. the rats began to experience noticeable signs of ill health when given 1500 mg /kg /day). For a 160-pound human (who responds like a rat), an off-the-wall total of 1,745 12-ounce cans of Diet Rite Cola would have to be consumed per day before carcinogenic, teratogenic, neurological, and other ill effects could be observed! But since we have a 100-fold margin of safety built inherent to the ADI, a very, very small number of individuals might be at risk if they could manage to “wash down” 17 or more 12-ounce sucralose soft drinks per day. Assuming that the Committee is right on target, I have no reluctance in recommending Splenda (sucralose) as an alternative sweetener.
1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 1998. FDA Approves New High-intensity Sweetener Sucralose. FDA Talk Paper. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/tpsucral.html. FDA, USDHHS, Rockville, MD 20857
2. Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food on Sucralose. 2000. European Commission, Scientific Committee on Food. SCF/CS/ADDS/EDUL/190 Final 12/9/00. Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels.
