Artificial Sweeteners

You want to cut down on sugar, so you try artificial sweeteners. The shelves are lined with pink, blue and yellow convenient packets, even recipe books are filled with information that can that help you to successfully find and use a sugar substitute.  

However.... are they a healthy alternative? Artificial sweeteners may not be such a sweet deal!

Zero Calorie Sweeteners

Advertising tell us that chemical substitutes are made from sugar and even taste like sugar.  But if its NOT sugar, than what is it?  Is it really a healthy alternative to sugar?  As you take a closer look you may find that its not such a “sweet” deal after all. 

The use of non-nutritive sweeteners began as early as 1879.  The possibility that we could have our cake and eat it too was a very tempting proposal. This discovery created the idea that we could eat sweets without gaining weight or cavities!  Successful new fads and diets sprung up - focusing on ZERO calorie packaged foods. However, people on these diets were left with very little information about the possibility of severe cravings and other long term health challenges that would come with that decision. 

Is your brain craving nutrition?

Glucose is brain food. If we cut essential sugars from our diet the brain starves, leaving us feeling tired, foggy, and filled with intense cravings. When we substitute with artificial sugar we trick the brain into thinking that it will be fed.  Statistically, people eat more calories and put on more weight when they replace sugar with artificial sweeteners.

So what's a healthy and safe approach to cutting back on sugar? Can we trust the FDA to decide safety and solutions for optimal health?

If you'd like a consultation for support and guidance on how to feed your brain and reduce cravings, I'd be happy to talk with you. 

FDA Approved Artificial Sweeteners

Saccharin: AKA - Sweet'n Low, Sweet Twin, Necta Sweet, Approved, then removed, then approved again in 2000 after the National Toxicology Program determined it was no longer a cancer causing agent.

Aspartame: AKA: Equal, Nutra Sweet, Canderel (UK version) FDA approved 1981- Name Change to AminoSweet in 2009

Acesulfame Potassium: AKA - Acesulfame K, Ace K, Sunett, Sweet One. FDA approved 1988 

Sucralose: AKA - Splenda FDA approved 1999

Neotame FDA approved 2002

Each of these are approved as a food additive in the USA.  They are often combined with other nutritive and/or non-nutritive sweeteners to provide the volume and a desired flavor. 

Currently, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the safety of non-nutritive sweeteners. For every compelling positive argument in favor of using artificial sweeteners, there is an equally compelling negative argument opposing their use. 

Whether you want them in your body or not...may not be for you to decide. Artificial sweeteners are hidden in many foods that are not even labeled "sugar-free".  Manufacturers are saving millions of dollars by using these chemical substitutes. 

The History of Chemical Sweeteners

Aspartame

Also known as:

• Equal by: Merisant Co. 
• NutraSweet by: J.W. Childs
• AminoSweet, Avantame by: Ajinomoto Pharmaceuticals Co.,Ltd.-Tokyo

Discovered in 1965 by the chemist Jim Schlatter, at G.D Searle while working on a project to discover new treatments for gastric ulcers. One of the steps in the research process was to make a dipeptide intermediate, aspartyl-phenylalanine methyl ester. He accidentally and unknowingly spilled some on his hand. Later he licked his finger and noticed the sweet taste. 

Sourced from: Phenylalanine, Aspartic Acid, Methyl Esther

Sweeter than sucrose:  200 X

AminoSweet - Ajinomoto Pharmaceuticals Co. changed the name of Aspartame to AminoSweet with the hope of re-branding their product. Using persuading advertising that aspartame tastes just like sugar, and is made from amino acids, consumers are led to believe that AminoSweet might be a healthy alternative to sugar.

Neotame - A new version of Aspartame by the NutraSweet Company that was discovered (invented): 1990 and found to have a reduced danger of PKU. It is sourced from: Phenylalanin, Aspartic acid, Methanol (methyl alcohol or wood alcohol) Structurally similar to aspartame.  Neotame is sweeter than sucrose: 8,000 – 13,000 X

Controversy continues over the safety of Aspartame as the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control continue to receive a stream of complaints from the population.

Sucralose

Splenda - McNeil Nutritionals, Ft. Washington, PA.

• Discovered: 1979 accidentally by Tate & Lyle, a British sugar company, looking for ways to use sucrose as a chemical intermediate. A foreign graduate student, Shashikant Phadnis, misunderstood a request for "testing" of a chlorinated sugar as a request for "tasting," leading to the discovery that many chlorinated sugars are sweet with potencies some hundreds or thousands of times as great as sucrose. 
• Derived by substituting three chlorine ions for hydroxyl groups on an ordinary sucrose molecule makes Sucralose.  
• Sweeter than sucrose: 600 X

Saccarine

Sweet'n Low - Benjamin and Marvin Eisenstadt, Cumberland Packing Corporation                                                                 

• Discovered by accident in 1879 by Constantine Fahlberg, while working in the laboratory of Ira Remsen.  Fahlberg spilled a derivative of coal tar on his hand and later licked his fingers.  The chemical saccharin was discovered.  
• Source: Coal tar
• Sweeter than sucrose: 300 X
• Banned in Canada over the 1960’s test results linked to bladder cancer

Acesulfame Potassium

• Discovered by a German chemist, Karl Clauss, in 1967 when he licked his fingers to pick up paper.
• Derived: acetoacetic acid 
• Sweeter than sucrose: 180-200X

Some Health Professionals are not ready to agree with the testing results of Acesulfame.  Nor, are they convinced that adequate testing of its carcinogenic potential has been assessed.

Pending FDA Approval

Cyclamate - Trade name: Sucaryl, Assugrin, Sugar Twin

• Banned in the U.S. in 1970 after testing linked Cyclamate to bladder cancer
• Current ingredient in the Canadian Sweet’n Low product 
• Outside the USA: Found in Coca Cola Zero and Coco Cola Light
• Discovered in 1937 by Michael Sveda, a graduate student at the University of Illinois,  while working on the synthesis of anti-pyretic (anti-fever) drugs in the laboratory.  His cigarette came in contact with the powder on the lab bench. When he put it back in his mouth, he discovered the sweet taste of cyclamate.
• Derived from cyclohexylsulfamic acid; the sodium or calcium salt of cyclamic acid
• Sweeter than sucrose - 30 X

Cyclamate is approved for use in more than 100 countries including Canada, Mexico and Australia. It is used alone, with aspartame, or in blends with other low calorie sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame K, and saccharin.

Alitame - Trade name: Aclame™   

• Derivative of aspartame
  
• A petition for its use in a broad range of foods and beverages has been filed in the U.S.
• Sweeter than sucrose - 2000 X

Discovered by Pfizer, Inc. Alitame - brand name Aclame™ is a sweetener formed from the amino acids L-aspartic acid and D-alanine, and a novel amine.

Thaumatin - Trade Name: Talin™

• Derived from a mixture of proteins from a West African fruit.  In the U.S., it is approved as a flavor enhancer for beverages, jams and jellies, condiments, milk products, yogurt, cheese, instant coffee and tea, and chewing gum.  Leaves a licorice aftertaste.
• Sweeter than sucrose - 2000 X

Your body doesn't need or want artificial sugar. Real solutions start with real food that balances blood sugar, nourishes the brain and heart and cells, and builds a strong immune system.  Isn't it time to live the life you have imagined?