A Splendad World, "Equal" Rights And Your Health

Dec 9, 2004
Author: Christopher Barr
Source: Naturally Speaking

Remember the old 'Parkay--Butter' commercials? The margarine selling point was that it tasted like butter while modern medicine and the government told us that butter was bad. More than 20 years later butter is looking better than ever and margarine is finally starting to get the bad press it always should have.

Now the maker of the artificial sweetener Splenda is being sued by the maker of Equal (aspartame/Nutrasweet). The Splenda maker says it is made from sugar. The Equal maker says that's false advertising.

Does Equal have noble motives?

The rest of the story

Splenda has been on the market more than 5 years with the same marketing slogan it started with of "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar". Why have the Equal pharmaceutical pholk not sued until now? Splenda recently passed Equal for popularity of artificial sweeteners. Do you suppose loss of market share could be the real motive?

Sounds more like sour grapes from the Equal pholks. In any case, both Splenda and Equal leave a bad taste in the mouth ... literally and figuratively.

Splenda came out of nowhere into the marketplace six years ago. It received FDA approval even though it failed some FDA standards. Some necessary tests were never done and have still not been done. Tests such as 12 or 24 month human studies.

Splenda was wrongfully approved the same as Nutrasweet (Equal). Now it has overcome Equal in a relatively short period of time. It may be better than Equal .. or not. The bottom line is that Splenda is far from splendid.

As bad as sugar is for you, the Splenda "made from sugar" -- or not -- is worse.

A few tidbits

First of all, Splenda is a chemical cousin of DDT.

Secondly, Splenda causes swelling of the liver and kidneys. "Liver inflammation" is another way of saying "swelling of the liver".

One of the favorite warnings of the FDA and AMA against herbs is that they cause "liver inflammation". The herb comfrey has been eliminated from the marketplace due to only a possibility of "liver inflammation".

How come herbs used safely by man for hundreds or thousands of years are warned against and removed from the marketplace while new, man-made chemicals with questionable test results are heavily promoted?

One final tidbit (there are many more) is that the thymus gland shrunk 40 per cent in rats fed food with Splenda. A shrunken thymus gland means a diminished immune system.

The Splenda pharmaceutical pholk say the thymus gland shrinkage was due to weight loss. Does weight loss sound good to you? Hold on to your horses, there.

The Splenda pholk say the weight loss occurred because the rats wouldn't eat the food with Splenda. Rats won't even eat it? That should raise a red flag.

There's more.

The Splenda rats were from 7 to 20 per cent underweight with 40 per cent thymus shrinkage. The thymus shrinkage was double the weight loss. Does that mean that immunity is reduced twice as much as weight loss?

Rats severely starved to create 30 per cent weight loss by simple underfeeding have only a 7 per cent thymus shrinkage. That indicates Splenda reduces immune function more than 5 times as much with only half as much weight loss. That doesn't sound like a good trade to me.

Whether the negative health effects of Splenda are less or more than Equal it most certainly is neither positive or healthy.

Christopher C. Barr writes Naturally Speaking from Arkansas: The Natural State … naturally! You may write him at P. O. Box 1147, Pocahontas, Arkansas 72455 or by e-mail at servantofYHVH@hotmail.com.

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