• Sucralose and your health"melting" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: oskay (Windell Oskay) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Function

• Sucralose has zero calories."Calculator" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Leonid Mamchenkov (Leonid Mamchenkov) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  Sucralose is an artificial sweetener used most commonly as a substitute for sugar. According to the IFIC, "[sucralose] is not a sugar nor does the body recognize it as a carbohydrate. Sucralose is not broken down for energy in the body so it has no calories. The sucralose molecule passes through the body unchanged, is not metabolized, and is eliminated after consumption."
  
  

Common Uses

• Sucralose can be substituted for sugar in many recipes."strawberry cake" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Kanko* (Kanko) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  Sucrose, marketed as Splenda, is a common beverage sweetener. According to splenda.com, it works best in recipes where it directly replaces sugar. Examples include pies, cheesecakes, cookies, quick breads, muffins, and glazes.
  
  

Production

• Splenda is a processed food additive."The slanted shot" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Hey Paul (Hey Paul) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  The FDA's 1999 ruling on the safety of sucralose noted that it is manufactured in a five-step process that replaces three hydroxyl groups on sugar molecules with chloride atoms. The final product is 320 to 1,000 times sweeter than sugar, depending on how it is used.
  
  

FDA Findings

• Sucralose is facing controversy in spite of research-based government approval."Does anybody have any...." is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Streetsim (Ethan Long) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  Controversy over the safety of sucralose is growing. The makers of Splenda brand sweetener maintain the safety of sucralose. FDA Talk Paper T98-16 says the FDA reviewed more than 110 studies into sucralose safety, but found no toxic effects.
  
  

Other Experts Weigh In

• Are there unacknowledged risks?"Needle Exchange" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Todd Huffman (Todd Huffman) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  Despite the FDA's decision, debates over sucralose continue to arise. Studies not funded or backed by McNeil Specialty Products, the maker of sucralose, tend to be more negative. Duke University researchers M. Abou-Donia, E. El-Masry, et al. found that "a twelve-week administration of Splenda exerted numerous adverse effects, including [a reduction in beneficial bacteria in the stomach]" and [. . . enhanced expression levels of P-gp, CYP3A4, and CYP2D1, which are known to limit the bioavailability of orally administered drugs." In other words, according to their findings, sucralose may interfere with the body's proper use of medication. In other studies, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola, "research in animals has shown that sucralose can cause [. . .] enlarged liver and kidneys, reduced growth rate, decreased fetal body weights, and diarrhea," among other problems.
  
  

Speculation

• Is it too soon to tell?"timepiece prime time clock closeup watch" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: zoutedrop (Bart Hiddink) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  In Oxford Journals's "Annals of Oncology," M. R. Weihrauch* and V. Diehl conclude that, "For new generation sweeteners, it is too early to establish any epidemiological evidence about possible carcinogenic risks." To qualify, they concur that "according to the current literature, the possible risk of artificial sweeteners to induce cancer seems to be negligible." Most studies acknowledge that sucralose is a relatively new product. Long term health effects of using sucralose are, at best, uncertain.