Health Tip #31: The Dangers of Splenda

Everyone keeps talking about the dangers about aspartame (equal) but no one is talking about sucralose (splenda). Sucralose is made by taking real sugar and processing it so that the sucrose (sugar) is taken out and leaving the sweet part that cant be metabolized by your body. (Sucralose does contain calories but because your body doesnt metabolize it the calories have no effect...apparently) During the process chlorine is added to help remove the real sugar part. Yup you read that right, chlorine. The stuff you put in pool, the stuff you wash your whites in. Aspartame has shown to cause many bad side effect when drank in soda regularly and sucralose is no different. common side effects associated with the use of Splenda include headaches and migraines, nausea, upset stomach, digestive issues and dizziness. You may be getting it somewhere you didn't even know. Of course there is Diet Coke with Splenda, Pepsi ONE uses it, Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Lipton iced teas, regular and with lemon. All Diet Rite drinks contain it as well as Hansen's Diet Sodas.  Nabisco-brand Snackwells sugar-free sandwich cookies, sugar-free yogurts and ice cream, canned fruits and fruit gels, sugar-free jelly, Crystal Light, Ocean Spray Light Juice Drinks, Arizona Diet Iced Teas all use Splenda. Even some Nutrition bars use Splenda instead of sugar to reduce calories.

You may think you are doing good by replacing Aspartame with Splenda but your not. It is an easy jump to say, "I should stop drinking Diet Pepsi and switch to Pepsi One" but your only opening yourself up to other problems. The best way to maintain a healthy life style and feel good is to stop drinking pop all together. Don't replace one bad thing with another. I use Stevia (Truvia) which is a Natural sweetener because it is derived from the plant and doesn't involve chemicals to make it low calories. It has also been shown to help decrease hypertension and lowers blood sugar levels in diabetes patients. It was also been used by South American Natives to prevent pregnancy, apparently.  As with all sweeteners even Stevia should be avoided during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, mainly because there hasn't been enough research involved.