Artificial Sweeteners 2

SUCRALOSE

Sucralose, more commonly known as Splenda® is the most common artificial sweetener used in baking today. It was discovered in 1976 by a researcher who was asked to test a substance he was working on. This researcher thought his supervisor told him to taste the substance; when he did so, he discovered that it tasted extremely sweet.


Splenda® is said to be safe because the FDA says it doesn't break down at all. However, the inventors of Splenda® have actually stated that about 15% of sucrolose consumed is absorbed into the body and that they can't guarantee how much of chlorine out of that 15% remains in your system. 


Sucralose is part of a chemical group known as organochlorides. Organochlorides are a group of substances that contain carbon and at least one chlorine atom. Some common organochlorides include carbon tetrachloride, trichlorethelene, and methylene chloride. Each of these substances is deadly if ingested, and each contains at least one chlorine atom. Chlorine is like mother nature's assault rifle; a truly nasty element used in chemical weapons, bleach, hydrochloric acid (the most potent acid known to man), and insecticides. What sucralose really is is a sucrose molecule forced to give up three hydroxyl (oxygen and hydrogen) groups and replace them with chlorine, as is shown with this picture: 

I suppose I should explain exactly what these diagrams mean. These diagrams are a method of mapping out the atoms within a molecule and the bonds between them. Each atom is represented by a letter; the lines show which atoms are connected to each other. The 'O's stand for oxygen, the 'H's for hydrogen, and 'Cl' stands for chlorine. These diagrams don't show this very well, but you can see that the molecules are nearly identical, if you reverse one of drawings. 


"Hold on Eric, isn't chlorine in table salt?" Yes, table salt, sodium chloride, does contain chlorine. But salt isn't an organochloride; when sodium and chlorine combine to make salt, there is no carbon present, which means it isn't classified as an organochloride. Table salt and and sucralose are about as similar as a tree and a laptop computer. 


Our cellular metabolism, the process by which our bodies burn food for energy, is designed to use organic molecules containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, as well as a number of other nutritional elements. Since sucralose is an organic molecule it is the perfect system to deliver chlorine, which would normally pass through the digestive system, throughout our cells. Then chlorine acts as a preservative on your cells. This may sound like a good thing until you consider that preservatives work by killing all living cells to prevent bacterial decay; your cells will be perfectly preserved, but completely dead. 


Fortunately, our liver acts like airport security for your body. It prevents toxins like chlorine from killing our precious cells. But the liver can only handle so much, especially when your body's metabolism is already being attacked by that 15% of consumed sucralose we discussed earlier. Under great stress of this sort, the body's liver is destroyed; other internal organs follow. Under 'normal' consumption, the chlorine takes the slower route through the bloodstream. Organocarbons are extremely damaging to the brain and nervous system, exactly where a lot of your blood flows. This messes up your genetics and immune system, potentially causing cancer, immune system destruction, and birth defects.