Splenda: Satisfying Sweetener or Sinister Substitute? (Splenda Low Calorie Sweetener)

Member Name: Hishyeness

Product:	Splenda Low Calorie Sweetener
Date:	13/06/09 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good in tea and coffee. Nice taste. Safer to use than Aspartame.

Disadvantages: Can be used in baking, but with limitations. Relatively expensive.

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TO SWEETEN OR NOT TO SWEETEN...
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My life as a diabetic is ever so slightly complicated by my incorrigible sweet tooth. As real sugar in any appreciable quantity is firmly off the menu, I needed to find a reasonable substitute. I have tried honey and other natural sweetening agents, but that simply won't do for coffee or tea.

That said, I am not prepared to trade the years I am putting back on my life expectancy in losing serious amounts of weight (four and a half stone and counting so far) - for other potential health complications (possibly cancer) - something for which artificial sweeteners seem to have developed a sinister reputation.

For instance, there is a fair bit of uncertainty and controversy around the potential health hazards of the artificial sweetener aspartame, a compound that has been with us under many different brand names since the early 1970's. However, it seems whichever way I turn - for example Candarel, Muller Light yoghurt, Special K cereal bars, diet fizzy drinks or sugar free gum - aspartame is always lurking somewhere in the background.

I am not here to take sides, or to try and distil decades of argument into a few sentences. Suffice it to say, just because the FDA or our own Department of Health have approved its use in foodstuffs, doesn't necessarily mean its OK - but the dogged debate and nagging doubt is enough for me to exercise a bit of caution. So it was with a sense of relief that I discovered Splenda - a sucralose-based low calorie sweetener.

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SPLENDID SPLENDA
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Splenda is the most commonly available sucralose-based sweetener in the UK, and is produced by Tate and Lyle. It comes in powder and tablet form. I tend to use it mainly for flavouring hot drinks, so prefer to use it in a 300 tablet dispenser, but my wife has started using it for cooking, so we also have the granulated/powder version at home. It tastes very much like sugar (but not quite the same) and is markedly less "chemical" tasting than my previous sweetener - Candarel - which is aspartame based.

Splenda is "bulked up" with other ingredients (mainly lactose, dextrose and their derivatives) so that it approximates the sweetness of sugar in broadly equivalent measures. For instance, one tablet of Splenda takes the place of a teaspoon of sugar, and one teaspoon of the granulated/powder version of Splenda is the same as a teaspoon of sugar - which makes it very handy as a straight swap when cooking.

Although the makers of Splenda take great pains to describe the product as "made from real sugar", it is not a natural product. Cooking and baking are, in essence, chemical reactions - and although Splenda does a splendid job as a sweetness substitute, it is a different compound and reacts slightly differently than sugar.

Sometimes you can't get the same texture that real sugar would provide. For instance, when we bake blueberry muffins using granulated Splenda, the end product always ends up drier and fluffier than the more moist and dense results obtained using real sugar. It just goes to prove that there is nothing better than the real thing, and that Splenda - for all its claims - is a good substitute, no more, no less.

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SO WHAT IS SUCRALOSE?
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Sucralose is 600 times (yes, I do mean six hundred!) sweeter - ounce for ounce - than ordinary table sugar, and around 3 times sweeter than aspartame. However, unlike aspartame, it has a long shelf-life and also retains its integrity when heated, so it can be using in cooking and baking as a sugar substitute(aspartame breaks down and loses its sweetness).

Sucralose is a British invention , discovered in the mid-1970's by sugar-makers extraordinaire Tate & Lyle in conjunction with scientists from Kings College London. However, it took until 2004 for it to approved for use in food by the European Union.

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IS IT SAFE?
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Due its relatively short period of approved use, there have been no long term human studies on the prolonged use of sucralose. So far, there has been no indications of any potentially adverse health effects, but it pays to keep an eye on things - after all saccharine was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread until it was later connected with various cancers.

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PRICE & AVAILABILITY
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Splenda is available in both forms - tablet and granulated - at most major supermarkets. Taking Tesco as an example, the 100 tablet dispenser (a handy pocket/handbag size) is £1.50 but the 300 tablet dispenser, which is only slightly larger in size, is much better value at £3.00.

The granulated form is available in 75g (£2.12) and 125g (£3.19) sizes. On a like for like basis, this is clearly much more expensive than Silver Spoon granulated sugar (£0.93 per KILO) but ironically, you are paying more money for less calories.

As of the date of this review (12.06.2009) some shops have 450 tablets for the price of 300 promotion packs, and the Splenda granulated version (both sizes) includes a free 100 tablet dispenser, plus a two coupons for 50p off your next purchase of granulated and tablet Splenda respectively.

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VERDICT
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My choice is relatively stark. I have to cut down on sugar, but I need a sweetener to replace it - especially for tea, coffee and baking/cooking. As, in my view, consuming aspartame over a prolonged period carries an unacceptable level of risk, sucralose - in its Splenda form, is my only real choice. Fortunately, at present, it seems like a pretty good - if limited - alternative.

Recommended.

© Hishyeness 2009

Summary: A good alternative to sugar but no true substitute for the real thing.