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I can't find any information about long-term negative effects of Sucralose consumption other than a very high toxicity level claimed by several studies.

There is lots of speculation online about how healthy Splenda is, but are there any good long-term studies of sucralose effects in humans?

matt_black
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Alan Turing
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  • do link your sources and "studies" (which I presume are funded by manufacturers of competing products, as Splenda to the best of my knowledge has no harmful side effects when taken in normal doses (so don't go out eating several pounds of the stuff each day)). – jwenting Aug 17 '11 at 08:29
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    I've removed Splenda to avoid hair splitting (splenda is not only sucralose) – Sklivvz Aug 17 '11 at 08:43
  • isn't it going to be tough to find long term effect data on a product that's only 35 years old? – Monkey Tuesday Aug 17 '11 at 17:51

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using your own source, it lists authorative sources like the FDA stating that Sucralose/Splenda is safe unless consumed in extreme amounts (at which level pretty much anything is harmful). The only "study" your source lists as "proving" harmful effects requires an intake of 10 times the recommended normal dose over prolonged periods, and even then the effect cannot be replicated in humans.

Another study, published in the Journal of Mutation Research, linked large doses of sucralose equivalent to 11,450 packets (136 g) per day in a person to DNA damage in mice.

is typical of the types of things that get mentioned (without the actual massive doses required of course) in popular press to "show" that things are dangerous. If you need to feed a mouse 11.500 teaspoons of Splenda a day to create a condition that might lead to cancer, the amount for humans would be millions of teaspoons a day. Even the worst sweettooth isn't going to eat that much of the stuff :)

jwenting
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  • tbh, i've edited the wikipedia page in the OP... btw can you add links to the studies you are referencing? – Sklivvz Aug 17 '11 at 09:15
  • I mention explicitly the same studies the wiki page mentions :) That would be the product application for FDA approval (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr980403.html), and an article in the NYT (not a reliable source in itself) that "proves" it is dangerous (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/23splenda.html). I'd trust the FDA over the NYT when it comes to food safety issues (and I don't trust them all that far) – jwenting Aug 17 '11 at 10:45
  • I'll never reference the CSPI as a reliable source as they're an activist group, neither medical nor scientific. – jwenting Aug 17 '11 at 10:46
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    The quote does not imply feeding a mouse 11,500 teaspoons of Splenda a day or the amount for humans would be millions of teaspoons a day: the 11,450 packets per day is already scaled up to human sizes. – Henry Aug 06 '12 at 13:36