What’s in Your Artificial Sweetener? A Look at Splenda

An article scrutinizing the safety of the manufactured sweetener sucralose (branded as Splenda), which appeared in the journal Toxicology and Environmental Health, contests common fallacies about this universal artificial sweetener’s assumed safety.

Present in countless goods and consumed by millions of individuals worldwide, sucralose’s extraordinary solubility in water, alcohol, and methanol makes it the most adaptable and thus the most popular artificial sweetener in current production. However, its prevalence does not automatically ensure its safety, as shown by the widespread use of other artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which, despite being approved as safe in 90 countries, has been associated with numerous severe health issues including potential neurotoxicity.

But the perception is shifting…

In 2013, the Center for the Public Interest in Science lowered Splenda’s rating from “safe” to “caution,” attributing this decision to their need to assess an impending Italian study associating the artificial sweetener with leukemia in mice.

A human study published around the same time associated Splenda with changes related to diabetes, questioning its merit as a non-caloric sweetener for those suffering from or seeking to prevent blood sugar issues.