What exactly is Splenda® and why is it so harmful?

Splenda®is the trade name for sucralose, a manmade sugar replacement. Sucralose is a mutated sugar molecule, with three out of four parts sugar replaced by man-made chlorine. Numerous chemicals are used in the manufacturing process to remove the sugar and insert the halogen, chlorine.

From an environmental engineer's point of view, sucralose is harmful due to its chlorine content. From a nutritionist's point of view, sucralose is harmful because it tricks the body into thinking sugar has been eaten so the body begins its digestion processes, only to exhaust the body as it tries to 'digest' nothing. Over time, this raises blood insulin levels, perpetuates hunger and an increased need for complex carbohydrates, and creates chlorine gas in the intestines as well as other toxic physical reactions responding to the chlorine within the body.

How is naturally occurring chlorine found in some vegetables different from the chlorine in Splenda®?

It has been a historic problem and a flaw of mankind to assume we can intervene in natural processes, especially if the intervention is based on profit above the benefit to human health. Chlorine found in nature is not to be compared at all to chlorine found in a laboratory for manufacturing purposes. There are numerous scientific reasons chlorine in nature (called chlorides) cannot be compared to the chlorine sitting in a sealed container marked with a skull and crossbones labeled POISON.

In the wild, nature combines the correct amount of the more volatile elements with other, less hazardous elements that buffer their toxic effects, such as combining chlorine with potassium. A small amount of natural chlorine cleans the liver, just as a small amount of manmade chlorine cleans your kitchen sink, but chlorine is NEVER found in isolated forms in nature as it is found in Splenda®. It is toxic, and can harm human health.

Chlorine is an element that readily combines with other elements, so in nature we find chlorine mixed with potassium, magnesium, or sodium, for example, creating compounds the body uptakes and uses such as potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, and sodium chloride. Note the'ide' in chloride. Chlorine with an 'ine' is found in the laboratory and in your bottle of bleach cleanser; chloride is always bound by nature as a safer form to ingest. NEVER INGEST THE 'INE' IN CHLORINE.

Again, one reason chlorine combines with other elements is nature's way to buffer its toxic effects if ingested into the body. You would not drink from your fish aquarium, your swimming pool, or from your toilet bowl, where isolated forms of chlorine have been added for sanitation, would you? I won't. Splenda®containing sucralose is no different. But, the marketers are teaching the consumers that Splenda®is not a harmful form of chlorine. They spend millions of dollars advertising that their product is an exception to nature's rule because they have used other chemicals during manufacturing to prevent the chlorine from breaking down within your body.

How can we protect ourselves from chlorine in drinking water? Do filtration techniques help in removing chlorine from water?

Simply don't consume manufactured products with added chlorine. Yes, filtration systems are recommended as effective, and also search for alternatives to avoid chlorine such as salination systems, boiling water, ozone treatments, hydrogen peroxide treatments, and setting chlorinated water in the sun for 24 hours, etc.

Would you say that sucralose is just as bad as aspartame? Is it alright to take sucralose or any other artificial sweetener in moderation?

The ingredients methanol and chlorine used to make aspartame and sucralose, respectively, are proven carcinogens. G.D. Searle, the manufacturer of NutraSweet®, has maintained over the past 20 years that the methanol in aspartame is safe to consume. Now look at the tremendous amount of evidence proving aspartame is not safe. Let's learn from our past mistakes and not repeat the same patterns with sucralose.

Aspartame and sucralose are both made with toxic substances, but aspartame is attached to two isolated amino acids, which ushers its toxins into the brain. Sucralose is made with chlorine, and unless it is blended with aspartame in diet products, sucralose mainly affects the intestinal tract. Chlorine can digest and metabolize up to 40 percent chlorine into the body, which creates a chlorine gas. The toxins are then available to be picked up by the bloodstream. Severe intestinal gas and bloating is a common side effect, and pain within the joints and ovaries is reported by numerous women.

I do not recommend anyone using any amount of aspartame or sucralose for any reason. This is no different than drinking a minute amount of poison every day, justifying that a small amount won't hurt you. Over time, these toxins accumulate, especially if too much is consumed. And, realistically, people are using diet sweeteners all day every day, and at younger and younger ages. One day, the consequences will affect your life and your health.

Are there sugar substitutes that can be taken safely, (especially by those suffering from diabetes)?

If you are diabetic, there are natural diets and alternative sugar substitutes other than aspartame or sucralose available on the market. Stevia is a natural herb that has been used in South American countries and in the Far East for over 1,500 years. Stevia has been used for treatments for diabetes and for gum disease in these countries. When you use a natural sweetener, nonetheless, use less because in its natural state, these sweeteners are much stronger than the processed chemicals.

Diabetics need to remember the best forms of sugars to use are complex sugars within the foods themselves. In other words, don't fear sweet foods, but set a goal to use NO added sugars and NO sugar substitutes. Learn to enjoy the natural sweetness of complex sugars found in food, and you'll crave the sweetness less, be healthier with more energy, and blood sugar levels will generally be more stable. Life goes on without artificial sweeteners. Diabetes was never as rampant in the past. Diabetes is epidemic today and diagnosed at younger and younger ages. NutraSweet®came on the market in 1981, and now sucralose is as widespread in the food supply. Check the health statistics, and study the countries that have not had a problem with diabetes and other 'modern' diseases until aspartame and other diet sweeteners came into their food supply.

Are food items or medications containing sucralose/aspartame available in the market without the label 'Sugar free'? Can you name a few?

Yes, and more and more products are dropping the sugar-free labels. Aspartame, by law, must carry a warning for Phenylketonurics (PKU, an inability to process phenylalanine). Aspartame contains 50 percent phenylalanine.

None of the diet sweeteners are required to label their products as sugar-free. So, read all the labels on anything you buy, and search for the words phenylalanine, Phenylketonuria, sucralose, or aspartame. These diet sweeteners are added to foods you wouldn't imagine finding diet sweeteners within, such as in breads, cereals, medications, most chewing gums and breath mints, toothpastes and mouthwash, children's ice cream bars, candies, even lipstick.

What is your opinion about parents enforcing a sugar-free diet on their children?

Most parents are making a judgment based on what advertisements are telling them. They think they are doing the best thing for their child, but they are not. No parent needs to feed their growing child chemicals in any form or fashion. Parents should teach their children good nutritional practices from decades ago. Our human bodies have not changed in over 10,000 years, but our foods have. Our bodies need the same nutrition as 10,000 ago in order to stay healthy, energetic, and youthful. Raising children on diet, chemical foods is teaching them the wrong thing.

Children are being 'sold' the fact that they can eat and drink all the sugar-free foods they desire with no penalty of weight gain or illness. This is simply not true. Children are getting fatter and more ill at earlier and earlier ages. More children are emotionally unstable as a result of food chemicals, they are malnourished from eating chemicals opposed to nutrients, and they are developing more eating disorders due to a fear of eating real food.

We are in trouble as a society concerning the mental and physical health of children raised on a chemical diet. We MUST stop before it's too late to help the children from living a life of illness and dependency upon pharmaceutical drugs as a result of growing up on chemical foods.

Does hair analysis (available through your site) really give an idea about toxins present in body?

As an engineer, I have depended on soil and water analyses to determine toxins within the environment. The hair analysis serves as the same representation of toxins within the human body. The hair analysis is used widely in forensic medicine and for the detection of drugs, so it is just as effective in identifying toxins within the body at any time and under any circumstances. The hair analysis also provides a reading of essential nutrient levels necessary for balanced health.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview!

It's my pleasure. Thank you for informing others.