<p>I usually don’t use artificial sweeteners, but some might have noticed that in the Northwest we are having a heat wave- and at the grocery store all the popsicles that were left were sweetened with Splenda. </p>
<p>I have bad arthritis, to the point that I stopped eating dairy in the hopes it would help.
It has, but the other day I ate about 6 popsicles cause it was too hot for anything else and the next day I was in extreme pain and wondering what had happened.</p>
<p>I don’t use artifical sweeteners that I’m aware of, but they may creep into processed foods I eat on occasion. Is Splenda the same as aspartame? If so, I’ve heard aspartame turns into formaldehyde as soon as it’s ingested because once it reaches the right temperature (a temperature lower than body temp), it changes chemically. Sorry. I know I just asked a question instead of answering yours.</p>
<p>Aspartame is a dipeptide - two amino acids linked together. Long chains of amino acids are proteins. So in that sense you might consider aspartame to be a very short protein. This particular dipeptide mechanically rather than chemically fits into the sugar receptors in your tongue thus sort of “tricking” the taste buds into sensing sweetness.</p>
<p>Splenda, on the other hand, is a sugar that has had some chlorine atoms substituted for some of its hydrogen atoms. Thus it retains many of the properties of sugar - like sweet taste. But the enzymes in your body cannot break it down due to the chlorine atoms, and thus you cannot get any food value, including calories, out of it.</p>
<p>Emerald, by all means avoid all foods that apparently worsen your symptoms or otherwise disagree with you. But at the same time I tend to be very suspicious of organizations or websites that have a biased agenda and are clearly out to get someone or something - especially if there is a financial or political advantage to be gained. And leading with a title like “The Truth About…” is almost always a tip-off that what follows is a very biased, distorted, and one-sided version of the the “truth.”</p>
<p>^^It could vary by person depending on whether you are more beset by weight problems or by some sort of adverse sensitivity to artificial sweeteners. But one thing to keep in mind is that a 12 oz. can of coke or pepsi contains 10 (ten!) teaspoons of sugar - which is why I stick to drinks with artificial sweeteners. I don’t have a weight problem, but I would acquire one in very short order if I drank sugared soft drinks. I like sodas but I just don’t need all that sugar in my diet.</p>
<p>coureur, as a chemist by training, I’m not too fond of compounds of R-Cl structure; some of them can be alkylators, which means they can “attach” themselves to amino (and other nucleophilic) groups of other molecules (e.g., proteins) and change the properties of those molecules. It is highly unlikely that splenda’s hindered secondary chlorine is reactive, but I would not take my chances.</p>
<p>My H’s GE doc keeps saying that sweeteners of sugar-like structures should be avoided, because they might cause all sorts of problems in the intestines. The human body may not be able to absorb/break them down in the stomach and/or small intestine, but to some bacteria down the GI tract these sugars are yummy food. Would you like to feed and breed nasty bugs in your colon? This doc thinks that aspartame is the best sweetener if one wants sweet stuff without the calories AND does not have phenylketonuria. I agree with him.</p>
<p>my brother has arthritis in his knees, if he drinks diet coke he is crippled with pain. Don’t drink soda myself, so not sure if diet coke is nutrasweet or splenda. A friends husband has the exact pain issue with diet sodas but his ankles are what pain him.</p>
<p>This is very interesting. I also have severe arthritis (started in my 30s but is not RA). I almost wish I did drink diet sodas so i could give them up and see if it helps!! But I already avoid stuff with artificial sweeteners mainly because I loathe the taste. The couple of times I did try diet soda I would get a headache. I do have weight problems but would rather do without soda than drink diet soda. I noticed than when I drank coke regularly I got to craving it and drinking it more and more. Once I managed to break the habit I now drink very little soda - probably not even once a week. Now if I could only break my chocolate cravings!</p>
<p>The artificial sweeteners pop up in a lot of things though. Popsicles, yoghurt etc. maybe I will start reading labels more - though i can usually tell from the yucky taste.</p>
<p>I am allergic to artificial sweeteners. They actually create sores and bumps on my tongue that last from hours to days. I’ve had people (well meaning UNfriends) try to “trick me” into eating the stuff and within minutes I get a reaction (or can taste it). I’d rather eat sugar or honey.</p>
<p>Now to go read the article emeraldkity4 posted.</p>
<p>I am ashamed to admit I still like hte taste of saccharin from the 70s. I don’t drink sodas at all, but I have always liked my iced tea with lemon and S&L. I went to drinking it plain rather than sugared, but I do like the taste of the other.</p>
<p>I have to admit to having an unsubstantiated suspicion of artificial anything, in general, I would rather use butter than margarine, sugar than sweetener, dairy than artificially processed whatever white powder. It just seems like it would be better for ones body to eat what was naturally made in moderation than to fool my body into letting me eat more bad stuff by using fakes??</p>
<p>Just a mom- that is down right evil, it shows they really did not believe you, how cruel. My FIL cannot believe we don’t like bananas in our smoothies like he does. Every year or so he will sneak one in saying it is not there an is amazed when I can taste it :D</p>
<p>As an immunologist by training, it sounds like a pretty remote risk to me. As you well know the electron shells of halogens are physically huge, so any enzyme designed to metabolize sugars, even a bacterial enzyme, is almost sure to gag on that chloride. I doubt that normal gut bacteria can make much use of chlorinated sugars either. And if they could the very likely symptoms of Splenda (sucralose) ingestion would be gas, bloating, cramps, and diarrhea - none of which are commonly associated with sucralose. And indeed, I believe that metabolism studies of sucralose showed that it passed through the gut unmetabolized and is excreted in the feces.</p>
<p>The risks of eating sucralose are theoretical and obscure. The risks of eating a lot of sugar are real and well-known. I’ll take my chances with the far-fetched, hypothetical risk over the real, here-and-now risk.</p>
<p>Artificial sweeteners weird me out. As does oleo. I don’t get the “but real sodas have so much sugar in them” argument. If that’s a concern, better not to drink soda. I gotta believe it’s better to cut back on butter than use some artificial spread thing. I am no health nut (not by a long shot), but at the ripe old age of XX, I’m thinking it’s better to <mostly> put things in your mouth that your body will recognize.</mostly></p>
<p>Yes, that’s another successful approach and perhaps the simplest one. But the problem is that I <em>like</em> the sodas and I want to keep drinking them and eating sweet things. So for me that’s not a workable solution. So I take the next best approach and switch to low-cal sweeteners.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom - actually I guess these UNfriends consider my allergy non-life threatening, so they figure what the heck, lets’ see if she can TASTE THIS! HA!</p>
<p>somemom - I’m like you, I prefer the whole fat version, the sugared version, over the “fake” new version of everything. I use real mayo, butter, sugar (or honey) and real eggs. Oh and coffee.</p>
<p>I don’t usually eat diet anything- and when we do buy pop, it is always sweetened with sugar- some local stores don’t even carry anything with fructose.
The only reason we had the ones with splenda was cause it has been in the 100’s in Seattle- we didn’t have a fan that worked , I can’t eat ice cream :(, and the pickings were slim in the freezer section.
it was very sad-( however it felt good to stand there for a while …staring.</p>
<p>But I did find my molds so now I can make my own.
:)</p>
<p>Most soft drinks nowadays, at least the non-diet variety, are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, which is another controversy in and of itself. I tend to avoid all soft drinks anymore in favor of good old H20. For one thing, I’m a diabetic, and for another, I trust neither artificial sweetners nor the high fructose stuff. I’m buying fewer and fewer items from the middle of the super market, too. Amazing numbers of convenience and pre-packaged foods contain either one or the other of these things.</p>
<p>I just remembered what it was that was fed to me with aspartame in it…Fiber One cereal. Really. I guess manufacturers are slipping the stuff into everything these days.</p>