January 26, 2011 Wednesday
Final Edition
Questions remain about Splenda
BYLINE: Eric Akis, Postmedia News
SECTION: FOOD; Pg. C3
LENGTH: 464 words
Q I have a question about Splenda. My dietitian at the Cancer Agency said to use it, not sugar. A vegetarian friend told me Splenda was just chemicals, and was very bad for us. Do you have you information about Splenda? -- Vicki Sharp
A Splenda is the brand name for a group of products made from a non-nutritive (no-calorie) substance called sucralose. Sucralose is a synthetic compound stumbled upon by scientists in England that eventually came to be used in sweeteners, such as Splenda.
According to its Canadian website, splenda.ca,Splenda is made from sugar, tastes like sugar, but is not sugar.
It sounds a bit eerie, but to make sucralose you do start with sugar (sucrose). According to Marlene Koch's book, 375 Sensational Splenda Recipes, the sugar goes through a multistep process that selectively replaces three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule with chlorine atoms. The resulting product is exceptionally heat stable and intensely sweet and cannot be metabolized for energy because it lacks sugar's calories.
Sucralose was approved for use in Canada in 1991. Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration have approved sucralose as a product that's safe for everyone, including children, pregnant women and the elderly.
It must be noted that studies tested sucralose, not Splenda, which contains more than just sucralose. For products such as Splenda granules, which are used for cooking and baking, and Splenda packets, which are used to sweeten such things as coffee, sucralose is mixed with maltodextrin and/or dextrose. Maltodextrin, which is made from vegetable starch, such as corn, and dextrose, a form of sugar, are commonly used food additives. They are added to the sucralose, which is much sweeter than sugar, to give Splenda a degree of sweetness and texture similar to those of sugar.
These ingredients, which are listed before sucralose on a package of Splenda, do have calories. However, because they contribute less than five calories per teaspoon serving, Splenda meets Health Canada's standards for no-calorie foods, and therefore some of its products can be labelled as no-calorie sweeteners.
Splenda does have its detractors, and not surprisingly one is the Sugar Association, which represents American sugar beet and sugar cane farmers. They call Splenda a non-natural, chlorinated artificial sweetener. The website says that no long-term human studies have been done on the safety of Splenda, but that issues have been raised about Splenda in a study from Duke University, which is linked from the association's website, truthaboutsplenda.com.
Whether you use a sweetener such as Splenda or sugar, as with many foods, moderate consumption and careful consideration of how to make them fit in a well-balanced diet seems paramount.
GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images Files; Sucralose is the key ingredient in Splenda.;
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: News
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
|
No comments:
Post a Comment