Artificial sweetener usage in America is skyrocketing. The number of Americans using these products was estimated to be in excess of 160 million in the year 2000 — more than half the population. Most Americans apparently know there are health problems associated with sugar consumption (see “59 Reasons Why Sugar Ruins Your Health” in Better Health Update #9 — Sugar Sabotage”). Regrettably, they are “solving” the problem by switching to artificial sweeteners — in effect, jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
SORDID HISTORY OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
There are four big names in the sullied history of artificial sweeteners — cyclamate, saccharin, aspartame and sucralose. The history of these products vividly demonstrates that you can’t mess around with nature. Man-made food invariably produces some kind of health problem. Let’s look at these individually:
CYCLAMATE
Cyclamate was the controversial artificial sweetener of the 1960’s producing probably the first major food additive scare. It was banned in 1969 after studies showed it caused cancer in lab rats fed large doses. British studies showed shrunken testicles and lowered the sperm count in laboratory animals. Though the food industry denied the cancer risk in humans, Stanford University geneticist, Dr. Joshua Elderberry, said that if cyclamate were as toxic to humans as it is to rats, it may have caused one million cancer cases during the 10-year period it was used.1
Cyclamate was also banned in 1969 in the UK, but was reinstated there in 1997. The European Commission has declared it safe, though it continues to be banned in the U. S. and Canada. Many in Europe are again trying to ban it for health reasons.
SACCHARIN
Saccharin became the primary artificial sweetener after the ban of cyclamate. The popular artificial sweetener Sweet’N Low is primarily saccharin. This sweetener has a reputation for leaving a bitter after taste — one imprinted in my memory as a child drinking iced tea sweetened with saccharin for the benefit of my diabetic brother. Though saccharin has been in use for over 100 years, it has been under suspicion as early as 1953 when FDA pathologist A. A. Nelson announced his suspicion that saccharin might cause cancer.
Saccharin has been shown to cause kidney lesions, eye deformities, metabolic interference and bladder cancer in animals. Up to 30% of the chicks hatched from saccharin-injected eggs died within 48 hours of hatching. There are many studies pro and con on the sweetener with the battle still raging.
In February 1972 the FDA removed saccharin from its GRAS list (generally recognized as safe), but didn’t prohibit its use. A year later that same agency announced that saccharin had caused bladder cancer in rats fed it for two years.2
In 1997 a board of independent experts recommended that saccharin remain on the government’s list of suspected carcinogens. Products with saccharin are required to have the following warning label:
USE OF THIS PRODUCT MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS SACCHARIN WHICH HAS BEEN DETERMINED TO CAUSE CANCER IN LABORATORY ANIMALS.
ASPARTAME
Aspartame, trade-name Nutra-Sweet, was first approved for limited use in food in 1974. It was discovered by accident during research for an ulcer drug in 1966 when a researcher licked his finger and noticed the sweet taste. Literally years of legal and political maneuvering took place questioning the validity of the testing on aspartame by manufacturer, G. D. Searle Company (purchased in 1985 by Monsanto). Numerous neurotoxic effects were found and according to many authorities, covered up. Aspartame is used in over 1200 foods. It is reportedly responsible for 75% of the food additive reaction complaints by consumers to the FDA.
METHANOL IN ASPARTAME
Nutra-Sweet is composed of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, plus being 10% methanol (commonly known as “wood alcohol”). Methanol breaks down into the well-known carcinogen, formaldehyde, formic acid and a brain tumor producing substance called diketopiperzine (DPK). The consumption of wood alcohol has been known to cause blindness or even death. Because the body lacks an enzyme necessary to detoxify methanol, its elimination rate is five times slower than ethanol, as found in whiskey, beer and wine.
A 12 ounce aspartame-sweetened soft drink has about 10 mg of methanol. People consuming lots of soft drinks or other aspartame-sweetened products could easily consume over 100 mg per day — 13 times the EPA recommended limit!
Though I recommend avoidance of aspartame by anyone at anytime, there is one time in particular you should absolutely avoid it — when flying on an airplane. Methanol can lead to oxygen deprivation, which is definitely not a good thing at high altitudes where it can lead to memory problems, dizziness and even epileptic seizures.
PHENYLALANINE
One of the other three ingredients in aspartame is the amino acid phenylalanine. The 1 in 15,000 people with the genetic disease, phenylketonuria (PKU) can experience seizures and mental retardation from consuming foods with this amino acid. Diagnosed PKU sufferers, of course, are careful to avoid phenylalanine. The problem is that about 2% of the U. S. population has one of the two genes necessary for PKU — they don’t develop the disease, but they can still be sensitive to phenylalanine.
Dr. Richard Wurtman, Professor of Neuroendocrinology at MIT, has challenged the FDA’s approval of aspartame on safety grounds. He notes that an adult drinking four to five aspartame-sweetened soft drinks a day is getting enough phenylalanine into the brain to disrupt neurotransmitter function, which can produce depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, headaches, high blood pressure, increased appetite and possibly seizures.
Both the phenylalanine and aspartic acid in aspartame are at very high levels as compared to their presence in the foods we eat. That, and the fact that they are released much quicker than from foods, creates further disturbance in the brain chemistry.
ASPARTAME HAZARDS
Perhaps the most significant health concern with aspartame is a possible link with increased brain tumor incidence. A 1996 study suggested such a causal relationship. In 1991 the National Institutes of Health listed 167 possible side-effect symptoms of aspartame. H. J. Roberts, M.D., in a study of 500 cases of aspartame-caused illness, found the most common complaints (in descending order) were headaches (45%), dizziness (39%), memory loss and confusion (29%), decreased vision (25%), severe depression (25%), extreme irritability (23%), severe anxiety attacks (19%) and more.
THE NEW ONE — SUCRALOSE
There’s a new artificial sweetener lots of people are asking about — sucralose (trade name Splenda). It’s about 600 times sweeter than sugar, and it’s a white crystalline powder that tastes a lot like sugar, only stronger in flavor. Sucralose was discovered in 1976 and was developed by Johnson & Johnson. Canada approved it in 1991, the U. S. FDA approved it for certain foods in 1998, and most European countries are still reviewing it.
WHAT IS SUCRALOSE?
Sucralose is manufactured by chlorinating sugar. What that means is that sucralose is a chlorocarbon — like a pesticide. Some of the health hazards of chlorocarbons include organ, genetic and reproductive damage. Chlorine, as discussed on our Better Health Update #3 Water & Your Health and #50 Shower Water Toxicity, has many ill-health side-effects associated with it, including increased cancer and heart disease risk. This unnatural adding of chlorine molecules to sugar presumably could produce the same health problems.
One of the biggest concerns relates to effects on the thymus gland, where up to a 40% shrinkage has been noted in laboratory animals consuming sucralose. The thymus, of course, is key to the immune system, so this finding could have far-reaching effects on health. Other side-effects noted in lab animals include enlarged liver and kidneys, calcification of the kidneys, spleen and thymus, lymph follicle atrophication, lowered growth rate, increased red blood cell count, pelvic hyperplasia, lengthening of gestation period, aborted pregnancies, decreased fetus weight and diarrhea.
RESEARCH ON SUCRALOSE
There is a surprisingly small number of scientific studies on sucralose as compared to other artificial sweeteners. A Medline search reportedly found 2374 studies on saccharin, 598 on aspartame, 459 on cyclamates and just 19 studies on sucralose, though the manufacturer claims there are hundreds of studies.3 According to the Medical Letter of Drugs & Therapeutics, the long-term safety of sucralose is unknown.4
Though the manufacturer indicates sucralose is not absorbed or metabolized into the body, the FDA’s “Final Rule” report indicated 11% to 27% absorption in humans. The Japanese food Sanitation Council found up to a 40% absorption rate. This cannot be good with such an unnatural product.
THE REAL ISSUE
Americans must break their addiction to having to have everything sweet. Learn to enjoy the natural sweetness in the foods God has made, like fruit and honey, without turning to man-made sweeteners to “sweeten up” everything. Dr. Joseph Mercola, on his excellent website sums up the real issue very well, stating:
People need to stop searching for excuses to eat all the junk food they want without penalty.5
HEALTHY SWEETENERS
Though many legitimate sweetening needs are well served by honey, real maple syrup and blackstrap molasses, there are people, like the millions of diabetics, that can’t handle even those natural sugars or are doing low carb dieting. There are also foods you may desire to sweeten that the above natural sweeteners don’t work well in — like a glass of herbal iced tea, for example. I have two recommendations for low-calorie, natural sweeteners that do not have the potential ill-effects of the artificial sweeteners:
- Stevia — Stevia rebaudiana bertoni is a green herb plant in the Aster-Chrysanthemum family which contains a naturally sweet substance. It’s 300-400 times sweeter than sugar. No ill-effects have been noted in many studies done on this herb. In China it is actually used for various medicinal herb purposes including helping digestion, stimulating the appetite and even losing weight. Stevia can be purchased in health food stores in powdered or liquid forms.
- SlimSweet — This product is my favorite powdered sweetener. It is a natural product made from fruit glycosides. It has zero calories, sugar, carbohydrate or fat. It comes in a powder. It dissolves well in liquids, and best of all, it just tastes great. It has none of that “artificial sweetener taste”. We use it at our house, and I most definitely recommend it. SlimSweet is available at our clinics.
FOOTNOTES
- Jacqueline Verrett, Ph.D., and Jean Carper,Eating May Be Hazardous to Your Health, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1974, p. 210.
- Ibid., p. 206-9.
- Dr. Joseph Mercola,Potential Dangers of Sucralose, www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
- Mercola,12 Questions You Need to Have Answered Before You Eat Splenda, www.mercola.com/2004/jan/10/splenda_questions.htm
Better Health Update is published by Pacific Health Center, PO Box 1066, Sisters, Oregon 97759, Phone (800) 255–4246 with branch clinics in Boise, Idaho, Post Falls, Idaho and Portland, Oregon. E-Mail: drkline@pacifichealthcenter.com. Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist, Author. Reproduction Prohibited.
DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment. Rather, this material is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems. Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.