To play devils advocate... the average calorie intake for an adult is between 2000-3500 depending on age, gender and activity level. Let's take the low bound of 2000.

So 4 calories is 0.2% of your recommended daily calorie intake. In other words, you'd need to eat 500 packets of splenda a day to maintain your body weight (sidenote: REALLY don't do this).

Basically, when a meal is 6-800 calories, the difference between 4 and 0 is almost meaningless.

That said, saying it has ZERO calories implies that you can have as many servings as you like, which is obviously not a good idea.

In conclusion, drink your fucking coffee black. Anything else is just being a pansy.

good video. note :if splenda has dextrose in it already then you don't need to use the invertase.
Splenda is sucralose which isn't well digested 10-30% in the gut depending on what microbes you have but it has a horrible aftertaste and so I imagine they used dextrose right up to the 5% FDA limit to help mask it.

Wow, I thought it was going to be less than 1, and rounded down, that's just inexcusable that they're allowed to round 4 down to 0.

Though, in practice a drink sweetened with splenda will have fewer calories than one sweetened with sugar, because you need less of it to achieve the same perceived sweetness. A single sugar packet is around 20 calories.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'red hot, nickel ball, splenda, swee n low, truvia' to 'red hot, nickel ball, splenda, swee n low, truvia, RHNB' - edited by blutruth

korsair_13,

You are truly educating us here! I really appreciate it.

What are your thoughts on Stevia? Seeing that it's derived from a plant species, is it any more or less safe than sugar? And how does it compare to the other sweeteners like aspartame and splenda?

Sure lucky760, I'll do Splenda, since some varieties of Coke Zero have Splenda in them.

First off it is important to note that the majority of the anti-sweetener "science" has been done by one man: Dr. Joseph Mercola. Now, watch out here, because his name is deceptive. You see, Mercola is an osteopathic physician. Osteopathy is a form of pseudoscience that believes that all pathology can be solved by manipulation of the bones and muscles. There is little science to back up these claims because they are clearly insane and worthy of ridicule. So, much like his doctorate, the claims he makes against sweeteners are pseudoscientific. A number of his beliefs are: that AIDS is not cause by HIV but by psychological stress; that immunizations and prescription drugs shouldn't be prescribed but people should instead buy his dietary supplements; that vaccinations are bad for you and your children (a belief which is the cause of recent outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and mumps); and that microwaves are dangerous machines that irradiate their products (they do, but not with the kind of radiation he is thinking of). Since he made a movie called Sweet Mistery: A Poisoned World, he has been at the forefront of anti-sweetener rhetoric. If you watch the movie, note how hilariously bad it is at actual science; the majority of the "evidence" is people claiming side effects after having ingested something with a sweetener in it (anecdotes are worth nothing in science except perhaps as a reason for researching further). So, you have a movement against something seen as "artificial" by a man who is not a doctor, not a scientist and is clearly lacking in the basics of logic.

Now, Splenda. Created by Johnson and Johnson and a British company in the seventies, it's primary sweetener ingredient is sucralose. The rest of it is dextrose, which as I have said above, is really just d-glucose and is safe for consumption in even very large quantities. So really, we are asking about sucralose. Sucralose is vastly sweeter than sucrose (usually around ~650 times) and thus only a very small amount is needed in whatever it is you are trying to sweeten. The current amount that is considered unsafe for intake (the starting point where adverse effects are felt) is around 1.5g/kg of body weight. So for the average male of 180lbs, they would need to ingest 130g of sucralose to feel any adverse effects. This is compared to the mg of sucralose that you will actually be getting every day. The estimated daily intake of someone who actually consumes sucralose is around 1.1mg/kg, which leaves a massive gap. Similarly to aspartame, if you tried to ingest that much sucralose, you would be incapable due to the overwhelming sweetness of the stuff.

There is some evidence that sucralose may affect people in high doses, but once again, this is similar to the issues with aspartame, where the likelihood of you getting those doses is extremely unlikely.

The chemistry of sucralose is actually way too complicated to go into, but suffice it to say that unlike aspartame, sucralose is not broken down in the body at all and is simply excreted through the kidney just like any other non-reactive agent. The reason that it tastes sweet is because it has the same shape as sucrose except that some of the hydroxy groups are replaced with chlorine atoms. This allows it to fit in the neurotransmitters in the tongue and mouth that send you the sensation of sweetness without also giving you all of those calories. Once it passes into the bloodstream it is dumped out by the kidneys without passing through the liver at all.

In sum, if sweeteners were bad for you, they wouldn't be allowed in your food. Science is not against you, it is the only thing working for everyone at the same time. The reason sugar has gotten around this is because we have always had it. If you want to be healthier, don't drink pop, drink water or milk (unless you are lactose intolerant, then just drink water). Don't drink coconut milk, or gatorade, or vitamin water. Assume that when a company comes out with something like "fat free" it really reads "now loaded with sugar so it doesn't taste like fucking cardboard." Assume that when a company says something is "natural" it is no more natural than the oils you put in your car. IF you want to live and eat healthy, stay on the outside of the supermarket, avoiding the aisles. All of the processed food is in the aisles, not on the outsides and the companies know that you don't want to miss anything. Make your food, don't let someone else do it. And never, ever buy popped popcorn, anywhere, the mark-up on that shit is insane.

Ooh! Ooh!
*raises hand*


Next do Splenda!

"Tastes like an elephant ejaculated into a bag a Splenda"

Now there's a tag-line I don't think the company will use.

I think I shouldn't have linked to the search results until the result got crawled. I've removed the link. Let's see if that speeds up the process.

In reply to this comment by speechless:
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SplendaStore.com - Shop for SPLENDA® Products, Coffee and Tea ...

In reply to this comment by lucky760:
>> ^therealblankman:

>> ^lucky760:
She has a great voice. Are these guys a small "local" band or something?

They're known as "Honey and the Hipster Douchebags".


I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but given that a Google search for that term yields your comment as the #1 result (and a mere 26 minutes after you commented it!), I'm guessing you're being disingenuous.

I never get used to seeing brand new terms showing up as #1 on Google minutes after they're coined here on the Sift. That's just splendiddlyific! :

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In reply to this comment by lucky760:
>> ^therealblankman:

>> ^lucky760:
She has a great voice. Are these guys a small "local" band or something?

They're known as "Honey and the Hipster Douchebags".


I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but given that a Google search for that term yields your comment as the #1 result (and a mere 26 minutes after you commented it!), I'm guessing you're being disingenuous.

I never get used to seeing brand new terms showing up as #1 on Google minutes after they're coined here on the Sift. That's just splendiddlyific! :

This Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper is really something incredible. I don't know how they do it (don't say Splenda), but it has zero calories, zero carbs, zero fat, etc. but tastes exactly as if you just started chewing on a chocolate covered cherry.

Splenda!?! Ew! Better for your chompers, though. Thanks for the pointers, I think I'll make me some! I can't blame your son though.

In reply to this comment by swampgirl:
Wow, I haven't been there in ages. Too bad LB isn't around anymore. She has the keys to the joint.
Yes, I grew up in SC and tea is ultra sweet. I've successfully trained myself and my daughter to use Splenda, but my son craves MawMaw's sweet tea. (Maw Maw is grandma )

Some folks dissolve the sugar in hot water and make a syrup. Nah, don't bother with that. Just follow ice directions on the box. Let it come to a boil and turn it off and let it sit a few min. My mom made tea so strong that the pot and pitcher were permanently stained brown.

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
I was just over at the coffee house and saw your post about sweet tea. The line "Then pour enough sugar in till it's sweet. Then put one more cup in after that." cracked me up!
I was stationed in North Carolina, and I grew addicted to the stuff. Now that I'm back in the north, I really miss it, and no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get it to taste right. Oh well, though. Thanks for the chuckle!

Wow, I haven't been there in ages. Too bad LB isn't around anymore. She has the keys to the joint.
Yes, I grew up in SC and tea is ultra sweet. I've successfully trained myself and my daughter to use Splenda, but my son craves MawMaw's sweet tea. (Maw Maw is grandma )

Some folks dissolve the sugar in hot water and make a syrup. Nah, don't bother with that. Just follow ice directions on the box. Let it come to a boil and turn it off and let it sit a few min. My mom made tea so strong that the pot and pitcher were permanently stained brown.

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
I was just over at the coffee house and saw your post about sweet tea. The line "Then pour enough sugar in till it's sweet. Then put one more cup in after that." cracked me up!
I was stationed in North Carolina, and I grew addicted to the stuff. Now that I'm back in the north, I really miss it, and no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get it to taste right. Oh well, though. Thanks for the chuckle!

She's just tad too bitter for my cup of Joe.

Splenda please.

just Splenda for me, thanks...or is that going to wind up killing me as well?