Nutrition Bytes

The new noncaloric sweetener Splenda has recently gained incredible popularity. Splenda’s sweetness comes from the compound sucralose, a tri-chlorinated version of sucrose that is about 600 times sweeter. Sucralose has many advantages over older noncaloric sweeteners, such as saccharin, cyclamate, and aspartame. It has a taste profile very similar to sugar, and its stability at high temperatures allows for its use in industrial food processing and home baking. In spite of numerous experiments in both model systems and human subjects, the safety of sucralose consumption has not been adequately assessed. We know that sucralose is largely unmetabolized in the human body and is well tolerated in both healthy and diabetic people. Currently, there is no direct clinical evidence that sucralose consumption is unsafe. Since sucralose is such a new product, there have been no long-term studies on the safety of its consumption. Due to the continuously increasing presence of Splenda-containing products, a long-term assessment of safety is imperative. As with any other food additive or nutritional supplement, the sweetness of Splenda can still be enjoyed safely in moderate quantities.