# Sucralose (Splenda) has killed MILLIONS of people! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 24, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773 "2006-10-24T23:20:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/41 "2006-10-25T16:41:37Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] 2) “OMG! It ain’t natural!” Give me a break. Lots of things that are perfectly harmless or beneficial aren’t natural. [/QUOTE] Reminds me of an episode of Dirty Jobs I was watching the other day. The intrepid Mike Rowe is talking to the Cracklin King Rocky Sonnier down on the bayou & asks what exactly cracklin is. Ole Rocky, he says (paraphrased) “It’s pig fat deep fried in pig fat - it’s 100% natural.” To which Mike replies, “So’s lightning.” ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/42 "2006-10-25T16:41:53Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] I imagine that at random moments a fully formed non-stick pan would fall out of your ass. [/QUOTE] Fall, nothing. With olestra in there it’s going to erupt out live Vesuvius in its prime. And that may be part of the problem here; when olestra hit the market, much ado was made of how it “passed right through the digestive tract without being absorbed” (passed through, and how). Having heard that on one product that proved to have a few, unwelcome side-effects, some consumers are going to be primed to expect something similar with sucralose. They think they’ve been lied to once, so they must be being lied to again. You know, like that old saying in Tennessee (or Texas, or Tennessee): “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/43 "2006-10-25T16:45:18Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] Fall, nothing. With olestra in there it’s going to erupt out live Vesuvius in its prime. [/QUOTE] Bugger. “… **like** Vesuvius …” Although it’ll be lively, too, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/44 "2006-10-25T16:49:48Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] I haven’t tried Stevia yet – the name itself is slightly disconcerting, like I’d be ingesting the crystallized distillation of parts of Steve – but some people swear by that instead. [/QUOTE] Stevia is some _nasty_ shit…a very strong chemical taste, despite its “natural” origins. I think the anti-high fructose corn syrup people are rather funny too, especially when they try the “it’s not natural!” arguement. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/45 "2006-10-25T17:05:38Z")
Well, as mounting evidence seems to suggest, [fructose](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15723702&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum) does appear to lead to dyslipidemia in sufficient quantities, perhaps significantly more so than sucrose consumption does. Neither is all that great for the well-fed individual, but fructose is quite possibly worse, pound-for-pound. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/46 "2006-10-25T17:06:09Z")
[QUOTE=Loopydude] Sucralose is amazing. It’s like some form of incredibly sweet teflon. It passes right through you almost completely unscathed. Something like 95% can be recovered after ingestion unaltered, passing right through the gut [/QUOTE] I find this disturbing - someone must have verified this by developing a process of recovering unaltered Splenda from human poo. Now that this process exists, there’s always the possibility it will be used on a massive scale. The implications are truly horrifying. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/47 "2006-10-25T17:09:49Z")
Well, the next time someone asks me if A) I consume Splenda, and B) they can have my shit for free, I’ll worry about this. But I wouldn’t worry much, as long as they did a good job of separating shit from shinola, so to speak. Unaltered means just that. Really, though, I can’t imagine this would be a viable means of getting cheap sucralose to market. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/48 "2006-10-25T17:21:12Z")
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus] I find this disturbing - someone must have verified this by developing a process of recovering unaltered Splenda from human poo. Now that this process exists, there’s always the possibility it will be used on a massive scale. The implications are truly horrifying. :eek: [/QUOTE] Indeed. It’s only a matter of time before large boxes of recycled SPLENDA appear on the shelves of Dollar Tree and 99¢ Stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/49 "2006-10-25T17:32:04Z")
[QUOTE=Loopydude] Well, the next time someone asks me if A) I consume Splenda, and B) they can have my shit for free, I’ll worry about this. But I wouldn’t worry much, as long as they did a good job of separating shit from shinola, so to speak. Unaltered means just that. Really, though, I can’t imagine this would be a viable means of getting cheap sucralose to market. [/QUOTE] It _would_ allow them to advertise it as “100% sourced from nature,” though… ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/50 "2006-10-25T17:33:19Z")
[QUOTE=Daithi Lacha] Indeed. It’s only a matter of time before large boxes of recycled SPLENDA appear on the shelves of Dollar Tree and 99¢ Stuff. [/QUOTE] I just realized that I have, in my pantry right now, A container of Splenda Brown. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/51 "2006-10-25T18:10:23Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] I just realized that I have, in my pantry right now, A container of Splenda Brown. :eek: [/QUOTE] heh. So where’d you buy it … and how much did it cost ya? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/52 "2006-10-25T18:56:07Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] MMMM- Splenda! Why do food manufacturers even bother with that nasty aspertame anymore? [/QUOTE] Because we who have excellent taste buds can taste the difference. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/53 "2006-10-25T19:04:18Z")
[QUOTE=Daithi Lacha] heh. So where’d you buy it … and how much did it cost ya? 😉 [/QUOTE] Funny thing is, I bought it at Kroger, and it cost the same as regular Splenda IIRC. It’s a real product. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/54 "2006-10-25T19:40:15Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] Then we presumably shouldn’t eat peas or corn, either, because we can’t metabolically break down the hulls of those (as a look at your poo after eating them will show you). [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=OneCentStamp] If you ate enough sucralose, I wonder if it would make your turds taste sweet. [/QUOTE] Giving new meaning to “sweet corn” and “sweet pea”. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/55 "2006-10-25T19:44:43Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] Funny thing is, I bought it at Kroger, and it cost the same as regular Splenda IIRC. It’s a real product. [/QUOTE] Maybe they can get Mr. Hankey to be spokesperson. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/56 "2006-10-25T19:59:56Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Mercola’s warnings about Splenda aren’t surprising, considering that he also is anti-immunization, anti-fluoridation and says that concerns about bird flu are due to machinations by big corporations and governments. [/QUOTE] Hey; he’s just trying to protect our P.B.F. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/57 "2006-10-25T20:11:14Z")
When I was a lass, we had a special little dish with a cover on it and a mini spoon that was kept in the china cupboard for my grandma. It contained her saccharin. It was what she put in her coffee. Yanno, it was suppose to cause horrific cancers and unimaginable deaths ( it may have.) All I know is that she lived to 95 with nary a sick day. And I tried the stuff once. Once. GAH. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/58 "2006-10-25T20:15:30Z")
I find saccharin to be a bit bitter. I think I read somewhere that the “ability”, if that’s a good way of describing it, to perceive the bitter taste is heritable, and not everyone has said “ability”. Maybe your grandmother wasn’t a taster. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/59 "2006-10-26T00:09:20Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] I just realized that I have, in my pantry right now, A container of Splenda Brown. :eek: [/QUOTE] Am I the only one who initially read that as “in my **panty** right now…”? Kind of gave it a whole different meaning, you know? ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773/60 "2006-10-26T00:16:37Z")
[QUOTE=Loopydude] Sucralose is amazing. It’s like some form of incredibly sweet teflon. It passes right through you almost completely unscathed. Something like 95% can be recovered after ingestion unaltered, passing right through the gut, and the rest that is recovered is either unaltered in the urine, with a little bit, like a percent or two, if I recall correctly, conjugated to gluconoride by an unknown mechanism. [/QUOTE] Yes! A little lab for recovery, and I’ll never have to buy splenda again! “What are you doing?” “Crapping in a beaker, why?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sucralose-splenda-has-killed-millions-of-people/377773.md?page=4)