Splenda - safe or unsafe? Opinions or stories

okay..not gonna lie. i've become an ADDICT! i add it to everything i eat from coffe to tea to fruits ... but im hearing its horrible for u?.. any comments?

Why would you add it to fruit?

i sprinkle it over strawberries and such

I've heard that it's really good for you since it doesn't spike your blood sugar.  I've also heard that it's really bad for you since it's make with chlorine (similar to the kind in salt).  My take is, if it really appeals to you and you're not gaining while using it, then use it! 

If you want to go for a more natural (unprocessed) flavor in your foods then start weaning yourself off of it and start looking for white sugar alternatives, like blackstrap molasses which has lots of vitamins and minerals.  I use splenda in my tea, but for cooking and french toast it's molasses or organic maple syrup.  It all depends on what your goals are and what you want from what you're eating. 

thanks a bunch! :)

That Splenda contains chlorine does not mean jack squat unless your body can separate the chlorine atoms out of the sucralose molecule, which it cannot—the stuff passes right through you.

Splenda has been a boon for me—from diet soda to cooking to my tea to my breakfast cereal. The fact that it does not break down when heated at cooking temperatures (unlike aspartame) is utterly wonderful.

behanna is right Splenda leaves your body in the condition it enters. No breakdown, no build up, just in and out. My sister in law did her masters thesis on artifical sweetern and she banned aspartame from her house, but she will allow Splenda, though she discourages sugarfree drinks because studies show they make you crave sweets.

I have heard that it is bad on the stomach.  I have not had any issues at all and have not been able to find any research on the internet that supports this.  The claim I heard was that a group of women who were "addicted" (at it on everything and baked with it" developed "holes" in their stomachs.  As if the splenda was eating away at their stomach lining.  As I stated I have not read anything to support this claim.  I still use it but I think in moderation it is ok.   If anyone can find support of this claim I would love to see it.

Now I can only safely talk Canderel here, but from my experience the problem with artificial sweeteners is the same as with diet coke: they contain aspartame, which has been linked to cancer in some research in the past. It definitely affects your appetite, and there are other sources that say it can give you  pretty bad headaches if you overdo it. As with ANYTHING, the rule is: use in moderation. The tip about blackstrap molasses is brilliant, especially when you consider that artificial sweeteners aren't even entirely calorie-free.

It's so confusing!! There is so much info, and I don't know what to believe anymore.  Someone told be about a website which is full of all kinds of info on how bad it is.  Then I realized that the site was created/run my the sugar growers of america or some such group.  My diabetic father in law lives with us so I need to use something!!  I try to use it in moderation though.  I'll have to check out the blackstrap molasses too!

Have you tried an all natural sweetner like stevia? It is an all natural herbal product that comes from a small green shrub. It is sold in health food stores and you can get it in either a liquid form or powdered. It has no calories, does not raise the sugar levels in your blood stream, and the kind I have has soluble fiber in it. I've been told that the liquid tastes better then the powder, but I won't buy any until I'm done with the packets I have. Maybe someone else could put their 2 cents in about this? The brand I use is sweetLeaf. They do have a website you can check out at www.sweetleaf.com Hope this helps. I'm not a dietician or anything this is just my opinion, and it works for me. There are many other brands out there you can check out too!

Hmmm Steia doesn't see, like the answer to me, wikipedia article on stevia.

I hate stevia.  It has an utterly awful aftertaste.  And, Blurred, recent research has shown that aspartame doesn't cause cancer.

I personally love splenda. I add it to anything I'd ever use sugar with.  It really is the cadillac of artificial sweeteners and is one of the reasons I've lost as much as I have.

I really don't know where this whole "diet drinks make you hungry" thing came from....cause they don't do jack to me.  I drink diet pepsi all day long and I've got no abnormal food cravings.  Maybe some people have a weird side effect, but for me...no.

This is my story with Splenda:

I drank it in my morning tea for about 2 years with no problems.  Then I started drinking flavored water (it was sweetened with sucralose, which is splenda).  After a few weeks I started having panic like attacks, terrible hot flashes (all day and all night) and I lost my period, not to mention I put on about 5 lbs in afew weeks.  The more the hot flashes increased, the more flavored "water" I would drink, which would make it worse.  Finally, I saw the connection (after 2 months) and stopped using anything with sucralose.  In 3 days I was back to normal. 

Am I just allergic?  I don't know.  All I know is that after this happened I started researching the company that makes it and found their "studies" to be very lame.  I also found that this stuff is a chlorocarbon (like DDT, a pesticide), NOT like table salt (NaCl), which is not a chlorocarbon.   Stevia, on the other hand, is natural and has been used for the past 30 years in Japan.  I've read studies that deem it safe.  I do believe that we will see sucralose banned someday, since more products are using it and, consequently, more people will have problems.

Some people have adverse reactions to it. In fact, ANY artificial sweetener can be bad for you if you add it to everything... some are supposed carcinogens.. some give you headaches.. and Splenda makes my mom's entire BODY ache. Be careful!

And some people are allergic to peanuts, doesn't mean we should get rid of them too.

I'm another splenda fan. As far as artificial sweetners go it is the best in my opinion. I've tried stevia. First off I didn't really like the taste, secondly it made me break out in hives all over my face and neck. Yuck!

I tend to have rather bad luck with herbal things. I have too many allergies.

I love it, but I don't use it that often...  Take that as you may!

Here's some info I found: (I googled Splenda)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenda

http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_d angers.htm

http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/ recipes/library.inc

http://www.splendaexposed.com/

http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/

http://www.womentowomen.com/nutritionandweigh tloss/splenda.asp

http://www.sweety.com/

shygirl,

yep, I've read those sites in doing my "research".  I know people here don't want to give up what they think is a good thing.  Maybe in small amounts it's okay, but watch out.  They're putting sucralose in a lot of products...and before you know it, if you consume these products you may have a reaction and wonder for months what is wrong with you.  Just read the labels, they really sneak it in, so be careful.