Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, cyclamate and aspartame are sweeter than sugar yet contain fewer calories. They are often added to flavorings to make tea, coffee, candy, and carbonated beverages (soda). Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup are also called artificial sweeteners, since they are cheap, heavily refined, and considered by many to also be more harmful to life than regular sugar. This is not an accurate classification of these, however, since they are plant extracts.

Many people try to avoid artificial and heavily processed sweeteners for health reasons. Independent health researchers have found a number of problems that come from the consumption of each one, but the officials still say there is no risk, and that problems only arise when test animals are given too much of the sweetener. The battle of sweeteners dates back to 1958 when the Delaney Clause said that if an additive causes cancer in lab animals at high dosages, then no amount of it may be given to human beings.^[1] Others argue that "the dose makes the poison."

See also[edit]

• flavor
• xylitol

References[edit]

1. ↑ A 1958 federal law called the Delaney Clause prohibits the use of any food additive shown to cause cancer in animals or humans, no matter how small the amount of that additive in a given product. Saccharin May Be Delisted From NIH's Carcinogen List - Laurie McGinley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal, 1997