About that Splenda story....

I was tasked last week with doing (brief) coverage of the story that came out about the link between sucralose and an increased risk of cancer (specifically leukemia).

I'm just as happy to tear down artificial ingredients as anybody, so I was really looking forward to trumpeting this news to the poor deluded masses. But I had to do my due diligence first.

I'm glad I did. Despite wanting - champing at the bit, really - to go on air and gloat over this latest blow for Real Food....I couldn't. At least not over this particular claim.

If you read/hear/watch any of the stories pertaining to this and its just a "rip-n-read" of the press release(s), you will not be getting even an approximation of the truth.

Here's the truth, at least as far as I can tell from digging (with the caveat: there's not much in the accredited scientific journals rebutting the Italian study, as there hasn't been enough time to test their conclusion. Even science journals like "Scientific American" have yet to weigh in, at last check. So I've had to go to primarily science journalists commenting in other outlets.)

Rather than list my own bullet points, I'll just point you to a good article in Forbes magazine which I think summarizes things nicely: http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2016/03/10/splenda-reduces-cancer-rates-in-some-mice/#781098b81e57 .

Don't get me wrong, I still champion Real Food and hope people will hop on that bandwagon for their own good. But making false claims to advance an argument will usually be self defeating. There is plenty of other, well established, research showing it's not a great idea to eat food that's not made of food over the long term.

The upshot for me, anyway, was that I couldn't air the story. I know others did though, no doubt adding to many peoples' perception of how deficient "the media" is . I can't say I blame people who say that sometimes, but still...some of us do try to fight the good fight, at least once in a while.

[Jenise]

Good on you, and thanks! I don't use artificial sweeteners or buy products that would contain them (because I don't eat or drink sweet stuff period, just don't have the taste for it), but this is bound to come up somewhere in conversation and I'll be armed.

And in spite of my own disinclination, I have an almost familial obligation to pay attention to the topic.

My grandmother always carried a foo-foo little pill box in her purse, which was always a little hard to find among the wads of Kleenex, that contained tiny white saccharine pills of which she'd drop two in every cup of coffee or tea she drank. This was before the little pink packets of Sweet n' Low, which she graduated to because she could re-supply for "free" from the little dishes of sugar etc on the tables of the coffee shop style restaurants that were her preference when dining out. I can't recall brand names but when Sweet n' Low got replaced in popularity by, I hope I have this right, the aspartame-free blue packets, Grammy was torched because she actually loved the taste of aspartame.

Her daughter, my mother, was also a fan of artificial sweeteners. Namely an artificial sugar called Sugar Twin made out of something called 'cyclamates', which I may not have spelled correctly. I don't know if you remember that stuff, but I was a little kid when the massive sugar lobby in this country got it banned (IIRC, cyclamates have since been proven safe), mom was apopleptic and bought every last box she could find before they disappeared. For eons, we had one whole kitchen cupboard full of those cereal-sized big yellow boxes. Thinking back, I'm not at all sure what she put it in--perhaps her morning coffee. She certainly didn't bake. But she adored diet soda and waxed poetic about the flavor enhancements of various artificial sweeteners in each. This far out I can't recall which she liked or didn't and why, but cases of Tab, Fresca and Shasta Diet Black Cherry soda were always out in our garage. And god forbid they ever change the recipes even slightly. She held very few strong opinions, but her opinions about artificial sugar were right up there with her beliefs about God and heavenly rewards to come, and I sat through far too many sermons about both.

My grandmother always carried a foo-foo little pill box in her purse, which was always a little hard to find among the wads of Kleenex, that contained tiny white saccharine pills of which she'd drop two in every cup of coffee or tea she drank. This was before the little pink packets of Sweet n' Low, which she graduated to because she could re-supply for "free" from the little dishes of sugar etc on the tables of the coffee shop style restaurants that were her preference when dining out. I can't recall brand names but when Sweet n' Low got replaced in popularity by, I hope I have this right, the aspartame-free blue packets, Grammy was torched because she actually loved the taste of aspartame.

Haha! Your grandmother and mine were cut from the same mold, I see. I think the only reason my grandmother ever ate out was when she needed to restock her supply of packets. I don't think she ever outright purchased sweeteners, ketchup, or mayo for the last 30 years of her life

[Jenise]

Yup, that was Grandma! She also took home every uneaten scrap--wrapped in the flimsy paper napkins in the metal holders that were also on the tables. Sometimes they made it into the fridge, sometimes they didn't. When digging into her purse for something on her behalf, especially later on when she was more forgetful, there was always the danger of finding a week-old half pork chop amid all the packets.

Apparently, "grandma" was a popular model. We had one, too. My mom's mom also had the separate pillbox for her saccharin. And we laughed very hard at the comic who talked about little old ladies having waterproof pockets in their purses to make it easier to take things "for later".

But my fam was not so dedicated to Cyclamates, etc, as to stuff a cabinet full and try to live off the supply. Which is a little strange, in retrospect, as they are hardly an undogmatic bunch, but there it is.

Nice work, Tom. That's an interesting article from Forbes, and one that seems to give a fairly accurate portrayal of the situation.

Nice work, Tom. That's an interesting article from Forbes, and one that seems to give a fairly accurate portrayal of the situation.

I'm glad you liked it, thanks.

Not going to start using the stuff. Sucralose makes me seriously ill. As in dizzy spells and a serious migraine headache. The only online stories a quick Google dug up were from junk science peddlers like "Dr." Mercola, but the reaction has been consistent in the few times I accidentally tried Sucralose (in soft drinks).