Have I uncovered a conspiracy? Or has Splenda (and probably the other artificial sweetener manufacturers) found a loophole in the Nutricion Facts guide?
Here’s the facts:
-The nutrition facts on a box of Splenda reads 0 carbs, 0 calories
-The ingredients list on a box of Splenda only lists maltodextrin and sucralose
-Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar, and so has to be diluted with a filler (maltodextrin, I’d assume) at a ratio of roughly 600:1 (maybe less, since maltodextrin is midly sweet itself).
-100 grams of maltodextrin contains 94 grams Carbohydrates, and 368 Calories.
So what gives? Splenda (and I think most other sweeteners) contain copious amounts of maltodextrin, which has a respectibal amount of Calories, yet they claim it has none. I’m not trying to be a nutty conspiracy theorist, but it’s kinda making me wonder.
Now looking at your second link 1 serving of Splenda is 0.5 grams. Using your numbers of 94 grams of carbs for 100 grams of maltodextrin, one half of a gram of pure maltodextrin contains .47grams of carbs. Look close at second link it says "Total carb. less than 1 gram 0%
Sounds like a true statement to me.
But there’s still the matter of calories. I suppose the amount of actual calories are fairly small, but it’s still not 0 as the nutrition facts claim.
scribbles numbers out Okay, so it’s about 2 Calories per .5 grams, versus about 15 Calories in the same amount of sugar. Still alot less than sugar, but if you’re baking with the stuff, as opposed to just putting it in your coffee, you’re gonna come out with alot more than 0 Calories.
I can see why they can label it as having no Calories, but it still seems just a little deceptive.
You are doing the math for pure maltodextrin. Splenda is not pure maltodextrin. Rather maltodextrin is used as a filler. I do not know the percentage of maltodextrin in a serving of Splenda. I would how ever guess that the total caloric value of a serving of Splenda is low enough that it meets the government guidelines
The question is just how low does the caloric value have to be before a product maker can label it as 0 calories?
The OP appears to be working with the assumption that since Splenda is 600 times sweeter than sugar, that it’s mixed at a raito of 599 parts maltodextrin to 1 part Splenda, which is, I think, where the confusion is coming from. I’d be willing to bet quite a lot that that ratio is way off.
There’s a whole list of rounding rules published by the federal government with regards to food labelling. You get to round trans fat to 0g if it is 0.499g per serving. You would be horrified to know that many many many foods contain 0.4xx grams of trans fat per serving.
Well, with bleach, CFCs, PCBs, and I’m sure a handful of other things containing chlorine, I’m pretty sure most people don’t like it when you tell them they’re ingesting it. Not that I care, as long as nobody’s dying drinking diet soda.
Oddly enough, I found myself in possession of 100% pure lab grade liquid splenda, and one drop/minim/.05mL was the perfect amount of sweetening for my 24 oz cup of coffee with cream, which would normally take 5 packets of splenda. Back when I could get liquid splenda made for the consumer market by a company in Brazil [which the FDA refused to let naturesflavors.com import into the US because of a labeling issue] it would take 15 drops to get the same sweetening power - so with liquid splenda there wasn’t a lot of dillution going on there. I will admit that I have never seen undilute lab grade splenda in powdered form before.
It isnt illegal, though normally only sold or provided to food service professionals. I used to work for US Foodservice, and at one point in time I was chatting with the rep from McNiel at a meeting and asked about liquid splenda. Next thing I knew - about a week later a 16 oz bottle appeared in my mail bin at work.
I really miss being able to get it from Naturesflavors. Now they have gone to sunnyK [acetaK] and it sucks donkey dick. AceK to me tastes like liquid vinyl. If I want to taste vinyl Ill lick a car seat. I would love to be able to get liquid splenda again sigh
