Artifical Sweetener Information

Artificial sweeters, natural sweeteners, processed sugar, refined sugars, what do you know about them and what are the risks and benefits of choosing one or the other? The first thing that comes to mind is money. Not our money; but the commercial producers of these products. It costs less to make natural or artificial sugar than it does to make granulated sugar, beet sugar, corn syrup, brown sugar. Weird right? Especially when the “profit margin index” is so high for the companies producing something unnatural.

Uh-Oh my bias just slipped.

Artificial sweeteners are the ones in the pink and blue packets…you know the ones that used to say causes cancer in rats? My Dad always laughed at me when I pointed that out to him. His reply? “It’s a good thing I am not a rat…want some?” and make a big show of sprinkling some my way. He died two years ago of small oat cell type lung cancer. Took just fourteen days.  Why did he start using the pink sugar? He traveled a lot and drank a lot of coffee and he was getting a little belly. Course at 5 foot 4 inches that was indeed all that was, was a little belly, but women are not the only ones vain about their looks you know. Do I think the pink sugar was the cause of my Dad’s cancer? I don’t think so…but still…it is so human to want to know a “why” for everything isn’t it?

Artificial sweeteners are not natural, hence the name. It is manmade, synthetic, laboratory discovered and all are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. In fact, the label was removed from the pink and blue sugar substitutes since the year 2000 stating it did not show cancer in rats.

Anymore.

I love that part…what happened to the rats? Do they know something we do not and as a breed, they survived by beating or eliminating whatever was causing the cancer? That is not a research oriented sentence mind you, just a reflection on my part.

In addition to the artificial sweetener itself, the manufacturers must add something to counteract the “mouthfeel” of the product. Well, duh or we would not drink it. I am old enough to remember the first artificially flavored drinks such as Tab. Gross…left your mouth puckered and a coating on the roof of your mouth for days and days. So the add bulking agents to make the texture more palatable. (No information found on what the bulking agent consists of; perhaps just cornstarch, which would totally negate the no calorie part wouldn’t it?)

Six intensely sugar substitutes for sugar have been Okayed for human consumption. These are “saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, neotame, acesulfame, potassium and stevia. Stevia is actually a plant and its leaves are sweet.

What is the FDA’s role in regulation?

The Food and Drug Administration take the research that is done on the products and decide then if the research warrants further study, banning of the product or state if it is all right for human consumption. The first chain in the event must come from the manufacturer itself unless there is a wide spread showing of obvious problems. Speculation and fear is not apparently cause for the FDA to step in and demand extreme and up to date research on products of any kind. However, all food additives must also be first approved by the FDA with the information they are given. The clue here is that the FDA does not do the testing, they review the information they are given.

Because the intensely sweet herbal substitutes known as stevia are a plant, the FA does not regulate plants, and herbs there is still controversy about its use.

Natural sugars are those found in fruits, berries, mushrooms and are sorbitol or xylitol.  It costs so much to make this that they refine it down to make it commercially viable so sorbitol was actually glucose, lactose becomes lactilose and so on. Non-sugar sweeteners are sugar alcohols known as polyols and they are not sweet enough so artificial sweeteners are added! Therefore, you get both natural and artificial together in one package! Yippeee! Ooops, showing it again, sorry.

The food industry is slowly but surely replacing all products, starting with soda pop. With corn syrup with something else; like an artificial sweetener. It costs less to make and they can charge the same or more and make more money. If we like it, we will continue to drink it. To top it off the food industry, just like the drug industry can have patents, that is why they Monsanto corporation product of aspartame does not cost as much, their patent expired. Now anyone can make it. That is OK because Tate and Lyle have a new patent n the works for sucaralose, which will replace aspartame.

“Sometimes I feel like a rat in a cage”

I think I will stick to what my Dad called white poison. Granulated sugar.