Warning: Artificial sweetener Splenda linked to leukemia
Don’t let the name fool you. There’s nothing splendid — or safe — about Splenda.
Ever since this artificial sweetener came on the market, I’ve been warning you that it’s not a healthy substitute for sugar.
We’ve been promised that Splenda (aka sucralose) is made from natural ingredients, but it’s a dangerous chemical cocktail that’s been linked to seizures and can send your blood sugar haywire.
But what a new study just learned about sucralose is a lot more worrying than whether its advertising department is stretching the truth.
In fact, scientists are now saying that these little packets being dumped into our coffee could cause cancer.
We’ve known for a long time that fake sweeteners aren’t good for us.
But sucralose was supposed to change all that.
It starts out as a sugar molecule. But by the time they’re done with it, sucralose has the type of chlorine structures you’ll find in chemicals like DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange!
And trust me — it’s every bit as dangerous as it sounds.
So before you have that diet V8 drink, low-cal Dannon yogurt or open those yellow packages for your morning coffee or tea, here’s what you need to know.
A study done by the Ramazzini Institute, a nonprofit watchdog group out of Italy, found that sucralose was responsible for causing leukemia and other blood cancers in laboratory mice.
The animals were given the sweetener their entire lives. And the more sucralose they had, the more tumors they developed.
Now, I don’t need to tell you what happened next. Since the minute Dr. Morando Soffritti, the director of the institute, announced the findings, he’s been under attack from the billion-dollar sweetener industry.
I guess cancer isn’t too good for business.
But these guys have had their heads buried in the sand for years. Dr. Soffritti has been studying the connection between sucralose and cancer for a while now, and four years ago he started sounding the alarm at the Childhood Cancer conference in London.
Ajinomoto, which makes an aspartame product — another dangerous, cancer-causing sweetener Dr. Soffritti has previously warned about — accused him of “scaring” consumers.
Scaring? We should be scared!
We’ve known for ages now that the side effects caused by sucralose are as long as your arm. For example, consuming sucralose has also been linked to:
- Seizures and migraines
- Blurred vision
- Serious allergic reactions
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Blood sugar spikes…
And now, cancer.
Dr. Soffritti, however, isn’t fazed by all these attacks. He said that his findings don’t support previous claims that sucralose is safe — and he wants more studies done right away.
But Splenda’s new owner, Heartland Food Products Group, didn’t seem to have any comment on the cancer findings.
The only announcement it made is that it’s planning to change the familiar yellow package to one with stars and stripes just in time for the 4th of July.
And that we should “think sugar, (but) say Splenda.”
Hmm, how about “Say Splenda and think cancer?”
Sources:
“CSPI downgrades sucralose from ‘caution’ to ‘avoid'” Center for Science in the Public Interest” February 8, 2016, cspinet.org
