Inner Life

Why I Chose Sucralose for Our Maximum Whey Protein Product

By Mel Genauer

I did a lot of research when I decided to create our Maximum Whey protein product and in the process learned a great deal about natural sugars and artificial sweeteners. I'd like to share my findings with you because I believe you will find it very valuable and helpful in your quest for healthy food products.

First I‘ll describe the various products, then tell you which products are believed to be potentially dangerous to your health and why. Ultimately, it will be up to you to decide what food items to buy based upon the specific sweeteners used in the production process.

• First we have Sucrose typically known as table or white sugar, which naturally appears in sugar cane, fruit and sugar beets. It is well known that sugar provides no vitamins, minerals, fiber or protein and can promote obesity and tooth decay.

• Fructose can be found in natural foods like fruit, some vegetables, honey and other plants, but more often it's produced from corn and chemically combined with glucose to artificially sweeten our foods. It can be found in a small number of "health" foods and drinks. As a whole the processing of Fructose is a cheaper solution than using sugar. It's sweeter than sugar so less is needed to achieve the same sweetness, saving calories. Unfortunately, in addition to saving some money, Fructose has a few other "special features." Fructose also has no enzymes, vitamins, or minerals, so it pulls those nutrients from your own body. And Fructose converts to fat faster and with more complications than Sucrose. On the positive side, Fructose has a low glycemic index and does not create surges and dips in blood sugar levels. Since it does not require insulin to be metabolized by the body, many doctors feel that in moderation it is a reasonable sugar substitute for people with Diabetes.

• High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a liquid sweetener that comes from corn and is 10 times sweeter than fruit sugar and a lot cheaper to produce. It's a mixture of 2 different sugars and is composed of half Fructose and half Glucose. It is used in soft drinks and many other foods and it gives processed foods a longer "shelf-life." However, it may be worse for you though, than table sugar (Sucrose). According to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used to produce HFCS are genetically modified to make them more stable. People who want to avoid genetically modified foods should avoid HFCS. In a study with two groups of rats where one was given high levels of Fructose and the other high levels of glucose, the Glucose group was unaffected while the Fructose group did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and their hearts enlarged and exploded. People who consume large amounts of High-Fructose Corn Syrup regularly may raise their risk of heart disease and promote obesity and tooth decay.

• Crystalline Fructose (CF) is made up of an even higher percentage of Fructose than High-Fructose Corn Syrup. High-Fructose Corn Syrup, as we said above, is half Corn Fructose and half Glucose (Corn Syrup). But Crystalline Fructose is essentially a concentrated version of HFCS and is made up of 99.5% Corn Fructose. What's more disturbing is that when ingested, Fructose is immediately sent to the liver where it is a key building block in the manufacture of triglycerides. These triglycerides are then brought to the bloodstream and carried by LDL (bad) cholesterol to the arteries where the LDL can deposit in the artery walls. In addition, Crystalline Fructose which is almost all Fructose has to be processed completely by your liver while regular sugar is absorbed entirely by your body on a cellular level. It's alarming, but if your diet has enough Crystalline Fructose you can end up with a fatty liver and even cirrhosis.

• Sucralose (trade name is Splenda, and now also SucraPlus) is used as a replacement for or in combination with other artificial or natural sweeteners in baked goods, frozen desserts, ice cream, soft drinks and tabletop sweeteners. It is approximately 600 times as sweet as table sugar, twice as sweet as Saccharin and four times as sweet as Aspartame. It appears to be the safest artificial sweetener, though no independent tests have been conducted. It was approved for use in the United States in 1998, and as of today has been approved for use in over 80 different countries. According to the Center of Science in the Public Interest study, the FDA (110 studies) and numerous other international food safety regulatory bodies, Sucralose is classified as safe.

• Glucose (also known as Dextrose or Corn Syrup) is a sweetener that is added to bread, cookies and soft drinks. It adds empty calories to your body and promotes tooth decay.

• Aspartame (trade name NutraSweet) is an artificial sweetener used in frozen desserts, diet soda and as a table-top sweetener (trade name: Equal) and is 200 times sweeter than sugar. . Long term consumption may increase the risk of leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer based on new Italian research in animals. Many of the sources I found put Aspartame on the "everyone-should-avoid" list.

• Saccharin released in the 1970's, has been linked to skin problems, bladder problems, wheezing, nausea, tachycardia, insomnia and irritability and has been found to cause cancer in rats. Canada banned this artificial sweetener 30 years ago.

I wanted my product to use the safest, low-carb sweetener available. That's why after digesting all this research, I decided to use only Sucralose in my formulation of Maximum Whey Protein and not any of the other artificial sweeteners such as High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Crystalline Fructose, Aspartame or Saccharin.