You Asked, I Answered
Filed under: General Health, Nutrition
Question:
Brian,
Hey I just wanted to say that I have been reading your blog for a while now and want to thank you for all the tremendous insight on diet etc. I guess you can say diet and nutrition is a hobby of mine and I am always looking to learn more. Now to my question…It is almost impossible to find decent products that do not contain Splenda, sucralose, whatever. I have Jonny Bowdens cookbook 150 healthiest meals on earth and he talks about artificial sweeteners being bad (except xylitol) for you. Obviously I knew this but I refuse to use real syrup due to the high sugar content and its hard to find a good protein powder that does not contain splenda…..what is the deal with splenda and am I cutting years off my life by eating products containing it?
Thanks and sorry for the essay question!
Answer:
First off, thank you for the kind words, much appreciated. Like with most nutrition questions, the answer is context dependent. Are you cutting years off your life by consuming Splenda once in a while? No, probably not. If you consume a significant amount on a daily basis, this could pose problems. I wrote an entire blog about why I don’t like Splenda.
Besides the GI problems I discuss in that above blog, artificial sweeteners in general also stimulate an insulin response, elevate HbA1c which is a measure of your blood sugar over a long period of time and a marker for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and associations with many other anecdotal problems.
Now I am not someone who thinks that you have to eliminate all artificial sweeteners forever and you can never consume them or they will kill you. I think clearly that has proven not to be the case since they are everywhere. For example if you consume 1 scoop of whey protein powder per day with some sucralose (Splenda) in it, that is probably not an issue. If you are consuming half of your diet from “low-sugar” products loaded with artificial sweeteners, then that is a problem.
I think acceptable substitutions would be natural sweeteners like stevia (I like Sun Crystals), turbinado sugar (unprocessed sugar, contains roughly 2/3 the calorie content of processed sugar) or maybe xylitol or erythritol.
Check out the BSP Training & Nutrition Newsletter!
You will get immediate access to:
- Weekly updates and exclusive content.
- The 20-page report "The Truth About Saturated Fat & Cholesterol."
- Become more awesome!
Posted on June 11th, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
6 Comments
June 11th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Besides stevia, I like coconut sap sugar. Probably the best tasting natural sweetener, and it’s lower in carbs, and calories compared to regular table sugar. It’s even safe for diabetics.
http://www.coconutsugar.org/coconutsugarhealthinfo.php
http://www.manilacocoproducts.com/servlet/the-52/coconut-sap-sugar,-organic/Detail
June 15th, 2010 at 8:59 am
I am doing a bottled ready to drink tea and would like to replace sugar syrup and change it to sucralose. Please tell me how do i do it and how much sucralose i used ? to date i used 2 cups of table sugar and one cup water. If im going to used sucrolose – how is the computation. Thank you.
November 8th, 2016 at 8:41 pm
Please teach the rest of these internet hoaogilns how to write and research!
February 7th, 2017 at 11:49 am
Even the thought of moving sends me into a total panic attack. I really really hope we don’t have to move for a very very long time.KDL recently posted..
February 18th, 2017 at 3:21 pm
Partly genetic, but mostly muscle memory, and there is some justice to that. Do not expect these results as quickly if you haven’t been huge at one point in your life. Please keep that in mind as you try to reach your potential.
July 5th, 2017 at 12:16 pm
Yup, walking into a house you can always tell when the owners have a cat. Never could understand how people could live like that. Now bringing in a wet dog after a hard day hunting, well that just adds to the ambiance.