Diet Sweeteners

The other day, BrooklynDodger started thinking about which artificial sweetener to use. The Dodger remains convinced that saccharine is carcinogenic. Aspartame (Nutrasweet, the blue stuff) is a dipeptide, meaning it is hydrolized to two amino acids, and so might be neuroactive and cause something like chinese restaurant syndrome [an effect of glutamic acid, another essential amino acid, the product of MSG]. The natural foods people are concerned about aspartame and formaldehyde, but symptoms are more likely coffee house syndrome from the amino acids.

So, what about sucralose [Splenda, the yellow stuff]? Sucralose is made by reacting sugar with chlorine in some unspecified way. BrooklynDodger is not chlorinophobic, as some in the environmental community, but still there is a concern of a new compound.

The Dodger imagined a conversation with the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Dodger: Is sucralose OK in coffee?

CSPI: Why do you need sweetener in your coffee?

Dodger: Coffee without sweetener is too bitter.

CSPI: Why drink coffee?

Dodger: Picks me up in the morning.

CSPI: Why don't you go to sleep earlier?

Imagine the Dodger's surprise when the Dodger checked the CSPI website and found that sucralose was ok?

Maybe sucralose is so polar that even though chlorinated it has a short residence time.