Heed the “Caution” warning the next time you reach for a product with sucralose.
If you have been a strict follower of The Lean Berets Firing Squads, you probably noticed a common trend that continually pops up. We do not like artificial, fake sugar alternatives. This has caused many products to end up in ruins in a field or lawn, and staring up at the blue sky wondering what the heck just happened. Well, let me tell you what the heck just happened. A company decided to add the toxic contaminant known as sucralose to one of their products and we were just taking care of business. I like to refer to this foul substance as sucragross.
Known by the brand name Splenda, sucralose stretches its wingspan across many grocery store aisles, and can be found in such products as cakes, cookies, baking mixes, candy bars, ice cream, soda, fruit juice and my personal favorite, supplements. Here’s where the ironic twist comes into play. We once again go back to the “experts.” For years they have contested that sucragross is safe, or Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS). This is the seal deemed appropriate for human consumption by your governing body.
Really? Generally regarded as safe? Just between you and me, I would never want to eat or drink anything that is “generally” regarded as safe. You can fix your gaze into a pool of sharks and it may look generally safe, but you would never catch my skinny bum jumping into that water! I’d be hightailing it down the road like Usain Bolt on two cans of Guru Energy! I’m here to convince you to do the same with any product that contains sucralose.
You may be wondering why I am on this rant all of a sudden. Well, it’s not all of a sudden. This has been welling up inside me for months, and when I recently stumbled upon an article on MSN.com about Splenda, I knew it was time to vomit this stuff out of my system in the form of a blog post.
Here’s some ugly truth. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a food safety advocacy group, has just declared that Splenda is no longer safe. It is now being given a caution tag, which is finally a step in the right direction.
In laboratory testing, mice fed a steady diet of this crap ended up with leukemia. First of all, my heart goes out to lab mice. Those poor little critters. Secondly, my heart goes out to you, your family, your friends and anyone else who devours sucragross on a regular basis with the assumption that it’s OK for you. Let the facts speak for themselves. Get a running start, dive underneath your bed and hide from this stuff!
If what I’ve said so far hasn’t convinced you, maybe this will. Do you know how sucralose is created? It’s really nothing more than sugar that has been, how do you say, “altered.” Here’s the grade-two version. The scientific word for sugar is sucrose. During the “alteration,” the sucrose molecule is bleached with chlorine and changed to a completely different substance known as fructo-galactose. It sounds like something out of Battlestar Galactica! You are then left with a fun, white, powdery substance packaged in a fancy yellow box called Splenda that has a negligible effect on blood-sugar levels. To sweeten the pie even more, no pun intended, the body cannot technically digest this rubbish, so it’s also deemed calorie-free. Goody gum drops!
Not so fast partner. Did you know that the chemical makeup of sucralose closely resembles the insecticide known as DDT? Mmm mmm! Well let me just spread some of that across my quinoa burger!
Here is your underlying take-home message. If you like drinking out of swimming pools or putting DDT in your salt shakers, then be my guest and imbibe the noxious substance known as sucralose. If you want to do your body a favor, stick with REAL natural sugar alternatives like stevia, raw, organic agave, coconut crystals, coconut nectar, lo han guo and unrefined honey. Let the fakes fight amongst themselves as to who the better version is. But deep down inside, The Lean Berets know where they all belong… The Firing Squad!
The end,
K/Rail
