Without doing any research, I can't really tell you, but my DH says Splenda is made from sugar, changing only 1 carbon. He has some chemistry in is background.

I know aspartame turns into formadahyde. Children and pregant women should not use it.
Like you said, we really do need to investigate any new product.

Don't be an alarmist. There is a backlash against Splenda from the sugar industry and the other sweetener companies, with lawsuits being filed and such. Splenda is not a pesticide, please. Remember that there is good information on the web, but there is just as much bad, erroneous info and opinions.

Hope it's safe because i just made rhubarb compote using splenda. lol

The more artificial sweeteners are used, the fatter everyone gets. Why don't we just use the real stuff and stop overeating everything. It's shocking to see how much "diet" soda is consumed and you're right, skinny people don't eat diet food. Eating noncalorie food only teases your appetite, helps stretch your stomach so you can eat bigger quantities when you do eat. Think quality, not quantity.

Amen Terrapots!! I know people who've never been overweight and they don't drink diet sodas (maybe an occasional one, but not all day long) and they eat desserts. Yes, desserts! They don't snack on junk all day, go on "diets", etc. They eat balanced meals, healthy snacks, get regular exercise, stop when they are full, and all the other common sense behaviors that lead to weight loss and weight maintenance. Eat real butter, real sugar, and flour..... just don't overdo it. The diet industry has brainwashed us into thinking there is a magic formula, pill, diet, ingredient, or whatever that is the secret to weight loss. The answer lies in each individual to eat the right foods in the proper proportions, and to stop thinking that a dessert, snack, butter, or other "bad" food means they've "blown it" and have to go back on their diet tomorrow. Those are real foods that can be incorporated into any healthy eating plan.

For those interested in additional information...

Here is a link that might be useful: sucralose information

I have a friend who is sensative to all artificial sweeteners, especially Splenda. She attended a church get-to-gether and was served ice cream sweetened with Splenda (although she had informed their small church group she couldn't eat Splenda and some busybody thought it was "all in her head") and was soon carted off to the hospital. Although that's not a normal reaction, and many people do just fine with it, she now has to be very careful what she eats after the near-death Splenda experience because so many people are using Splenda and don't say anything to people they serve it to. So yes, for some individuals Splenda is dangerous.

Grainlady

Well anything in large amounts can be dangerous and also depends on the person. SUGAR is dangerouos to me!! Yes skinny people do drink diet sodas. I'm 5'7 and weigh 140lbs. No not super skinny (but within my weight range), but when I weighed 110 lbs (10 years ago) I still drank diet sodas. I have about one or two a day. I want soda and being type 1 diabetic it means I don't have to skip a meal just because I wanted something sweet to drink.

The internet is a great resource but it also allows anyone to publish websites and claim they are factual or stear you in the wrong direction. I have seen sites that claim you will get cancer from leaving the numlocks on your keyboard on. Or one the one that says all this white on your screen will give you cancer (this site was done with black pages and light colored text).
It's almost to the pick an item and you can find several websites that claim to prove it.

I used to read all the information from Mercola. I believed him about Splenda but one day I opened a part of his site that had Splenda advertised. I was sure I was seeing things but nope.............there it was. Clear as day. Splenda advertising. I no longer read anything from his site. I used to order from him also. If Splenda is so bad for u and he is such a good and helpful health watcher what was he doing with that on his site???????? Money talks. I don't know if Splenda is safe or not. I don't use much of it myself. I can live without soda and most sweets. I do know that Aspartame is bad. Had a bad experience from it but so far not from Splenda. Only time will tell. It is not the only dangerous thing one can injest. What about all the pesticides that is sprayed on our foods. The things that is fed to cows and such. No wonder cancer is so well known. I never heard of anyone having cancer when i was growing up but we ate all natural foods. I grew up on a farm and we ate what we grew. Good tasting foods.
I lived in Florida for 21 years. The tomatos get sprayed all the time for pest and also liquid fertilizer. When u go and pick your own your hands r coated with all this stuff and it does not stay on the outside of the tomato. There r so many things wrong with our foods these days so what is wrong with one more thing...........if Splenda is truely bad for us.

I found a good website a couple of years back where the group tests and checks out bizarre and outlandish claims and beliefs: www.snopes.com, also known as "urban legends".

When I hear something that just seems a little too "area 51" for me, I go and check it out there. I'm a bit thin & have drank diet sodas for 20 years now, otherwise I'd be a bit thicker and once was. Haven't checked my pulse lately, if I'm dead I'm still typing ...

I am a sugar addict. I have to be EXTREMELY careful about consuming sugar. I am trying to lose weight and at times really want something sweet. If I do not have something that tastes sweet then I will eat real sugar and then I won't be able to stop. Call it a lack of self-control or whatever all I know is that if I want to lose weight, real sugar is out for me. I have used every form of fake sugar out there. I love the taste of Splenda but, any fake sugar screws with my system because I have IBS. So I have just started using Stevia. It is all natural from the Stevia plant. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar. To sweeten 2 quarts of beverage, 1/3 teaspoon of Stevia is all you need. Directly from the bottle of Stevia I have under ingredients: "100% pure Stevia leaf extract standardized to a minimum of 90% Steviousides, including 40% Rebaudioside A." I have been looking for some recipes but have not had the time to do much browsing but have found 2 websites I like and will go back to. www.wisdomherbs.com and sweetleaf.com

oops. it is not sweetleaf.com. Sweetleaf is at the wisdomherbs website. The other website I like is: www.healthy.net/

I Love Stevia, agave nectar and RAW honey! But def NOT splenda they take out oxygen molecules and add chlorine! I don't need anymore chlorine in my body thank-you!

FYI: Sucralose is the fancy name for Splenda.

This is word for word from PUBMED the Medical Journal: "Sucralose is a chlorinated carbohydrate nonnutritive sweetener of food and beverage products. The determination of sucralose in food and beverages is important to ensure consistency in product quality. Sucralose was determined in two commercial products without sample preparation using high-performance anion-exchange (HPAE) chromatography coupled with pulsed amperometric detection (PAD). Sucralose was determined with a 10 min isocratic separation."

here is the link: ****://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez
/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retr
ieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_ui
ds=15237939&query_hl=1&itool=p
ubmed_docsum

Also in another PubMed article about artificial sweetners it said:
For new generation sweeteners, it is too early to establish any epidemiological evidence about possible carcinogenic risks. As many artificial sweeteners are combined in today's products, the carcinogenic risk of a single substance is difficult to assess.

So maybe they do & maybe they don't pose carcinogenic risks, don't risk your health or your baby's health for a little sweetness in your diet, go without it!!!!!!! Just wait a few years from now they will be saying to stay away from Splenda just as they are saying it about sachrin. And let me conclude with saying nobody is perfect, just because the FDA approves something doesn't mean it is soooo great, look at all the prescription drugs the FDA approved and then they took off the market because they caused liver damage and even death. I am sorry to say that money makes this world go round and there are tooo many peopel who are only interested in making more and more money even if it means compromising someones health! Holistic & Naturopathic doctors & nutritionists seem to be the best source of preventative natural HEALTHY INFO!

*Splenda has not been around long enough to know the dangers, and I refuse to be their guiny-pig! Splenda is a chloricarbon and I do not want anymore Man-Made chlorine in my or especially my childrens delicate bodies. Pregnant or not, it is not worth it to me to need this synthetic chemical!

To the person who dismissed the claim that Splenda is a pesticide -- it was in fact developed by a British chemist who was trying to create a more effective ant poison. It is a chemically chlorinated sugar molecule, which turns it into a chlorocarbon. DDT and Lindane are two chlorocarbons you may have heard of. My DH is also a chemist, and when I explained to him how Splenda is made, he was totally shocked that the company would be allowed to sell it for human consumption.

Anyone who thinks that all the chemical garbage in their food is harmless should look at the skyrocketing rates of obesity, heart disease, cancer, ADD, and autism. Did you know that 1 in every 66 boys born today is diagnosed with autism? No other country on earth has an autism rate like that. There is a big article on autism in the April issue of Discover magazine and scientists say there is little question that our toxic environment and diet are the cause of this nationwide epidemic.

To everyone who keeps eating the stuff, despite health warnings: Monsanto and Searle and all the chemical companies that make faux "food," the advertising companies that convince people to eat it, and the medical/pharmaceutical/insurance companies who get rich from "curing" the problems caused by fake food, all salute you. You keep their stockholders very happy.

I would not trust any artificial sweeteners. I tend to agree with Jack La Lane - fitness guru "If God didn't make it - I don't eat it!" I think he's in his 90's now or pushing 90 and still going strong on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds and at least 80% raw.

I discovered Agave Nectar while visiting my daughter in CO. It is a raw, all natural sweetener that is not as strong flavored as honey and has a low glycemic index making it suitable for diabetics. I like Agave because it is much easier to use than STevia - and blends better requiring no special recipes - just use 1/2 - 2/3 cup where a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar. Stevia would be my 2nd choice if I couldn't have sugar.
I also use natural sugar - turbinado or cane sugar that is usually brown and not the overprocessed white sugar.
It is a little more expensive than white sugar, but with lifestyle and dietary changes, we find we do not need to consume as much sugar as we used to when we ate less healthy so it really lasts a lot longer.

Once you start cutting down on soft drinks, your taste buds will begin to appreciate the pure natural flavor of foods. We drink mostly steam distilled water, sometimes with a little lemon, or fruit juices whereas we used to drink a lot of pop.
I quit drinking soda pop when I learned that the amount of sugar in one can of soda is enough to shut down your immune system for an entire day. Then also the benzene or whatever the stuff they put in it as a preservative is carcinogenic. I have the article somewhere. Anyway it sure made us not want to injest any more of that stuff!
I think it is criminal what chemical companies have done to our world. And I too, cringe at the commercials showing children eating splenda or anything with nutrasweet! SHUDDER!!! One does not have to research very far to be horrified at the effects of chemicals on our children - from poisoning them with vaccines [the most suspect in causing Autism] to food additives, pesticides, herbicides + chlorine and fluoride in our water - I could go on and on but I'll let you do your own digging.
"It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man". How many times have you see medicine commercials touting their wonders only to find a little further down the road, law offices ads offering aid to those who have been damaged by those same meds?

I've been using Sweetleaf for about 6 months now and I absolutely love it. Apparently, it's been used in Japan since the 60s and there have been absolutely NO complaints. That definitely speaks volumes. I have turned by back on the unhealthy artificial sweeteners. Here is a recipe for my daily morning smoothie. My kids love it too :)

Strawberry-Yogurt Liquado
10 frozen strawberriesâ¨
1 cup unsweetened yogurtâ¨
1/2 cup orange juiceâ¨
1 packet SweetLeaf® SteviaPlus (or to taste)
A liquado is a cold, blended fruit drink served in Mexico. Make this thick, refreshing, bright pink version any time of year. The secret is frozen strawberries that have not been defrosted. They make it extra creamy and luxurious.
â¨â¨Combine all ingredients in a blender and whip until smooth. Taste to correct sweetening - you might wish to add an additional packet of SteviaPlus.
Serve immediately.

herbalistic-"I would not trust any artificial sweeteners. I tend to agree with Jack La Lane - fitness guru "If God didn't make it - I don't eat it!"

I agree. Here is another vote against aspartame and splenda. I also try to avoid foods that have corn syrup.

Links that might be useful:

Aspartame
www.janethull.com/askdrhull/category.php?id=5

Splenda
www.janethull.com/askdrhull/category.php?id=6

High Fructose Creates Obesity
highfructosemakesyoufat.blogspot.com/

There are people who find a reason, no matter how unreasonable, to bash every product on the market. Years ago we heard how bad Saccharine was and it should not be used as a sugar substitute. My mother used it nearly all her life and she died of old age, not poisoned with saccharine. She lived 96 years and 8 months.

Well I have heard from many sources that Splenda is not safe, however......... It has an aftertaste, and I hate it!! Safe or no, I don't like what it does to my recipes. Agave Nectar rocks! Gives the sweetness without aftertaste!!