And it tastes like crap. (Honestly, I never understood, how splenda markets itself as sugar replacement, it doesn't taste at all like sugar?).

I love Splenda as a substitute for sugar in many circumstances...but not all. For example, the pumpkin pie I baked on Sunday night had Splenda instead of sugar...and my two cups of coffee this AM were the same.
I can't tell the difference other than the 40 pounds I lost over a few months when I stopped drinking regular soda.

Never been a fan. I don't like how it gets all foamy in my drinks.

My sister had some koolaid with spenda in it and she had the runs for two days, lol.

I'll stick with Sweet and Low.

I agree, splenda is bad HFCS is worse. Real sugar only for me, please.

Victo - when you're used to sugar and very sugary flavors (like HFCS), nothing is going to taste like it.

If you cut out white sugar and other sugary substances, your palate will adjust until real sugar and HFCS are WAY too sweet for you.

About a year ago, I cut out fast food, soda, (almost) anything with HFCS and increased my fruit and veggie intake and now anything that's made with white sugar and HFCS is just WAY too much for me. Except Vanilla Coke. That is my weakness until the end of time.

This "study" is flawed because of who backed it. That's like the Vatican releasing a study on the medical long-term effects of abortion. C'mon now...

hmmm, sounds like the Splenda people got to you Ben. just like the egg council got to me...

I can eat just about anything, but if I have a bite of something with Splenda in it, I get a blinding headache. I don't know what the hell is in that stuff, but it's not good.

I have had pretty good luck with Zsweet, which I found at Whole Foods. It's not cheap, but no bad side effects here.

It's the best flavored sugar substitute out there. It used to be Equal, but Splenda beat out Equal hands down.

Oh, and the other ones give you cancer. So does living, but hey. :)

Love it Love it Love it. I LOVE SPLENDA. DOWN WITH SUGAR.

That is all.

my dog once ran a survery that concluded cats were bad...

Though I also love Stevia too. :-) 1 packet of splenda cuts the bitter aftertaste of Stevia for me.

Splenda- tastes like sugar because it's made from real sugar!*

*okay, yeah, we're kidding. It tastes like ground-up candy hearts.

The sugar association and the High Fructose Corn Syrup Refiner's Association have taken to spamming the low-carb message boards that I'm a member of trying to say how 'healthy' their products are, because they are "natural." HFCS isn't natural, its chemically refined - the argument they use against Splenda. They try to say that HFCS is perfectly safe and healthy "in moderation" (have you seen their new advertisements on TV and in the newspapers?) IN MODERATION? You can't pick up a product in the grocery stores nowadays, unless its meat or vegetable, and NOT find HFCS in it! Actually that's a lie - if you buy bagged carrots, they've been soaked in water and HFCS before being bagged to increase the sweetness.

American's have gone from eating zero HFCS in the 1960's to almost 60 POUNDS a year of the stuff. Along with that has come obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. I laugh when I hear advertisements saying "Its made from CORN!! Corn is a healthy *vegetable* - its a natural plant! Its good for you - HFCS is good for you too!"

Well, nightshade, hemlock, and mistletoe are natural plants too but you won't see me eating them. And besides, corn is a grain. Its what they use to fatten up cows and pigs before they are taken to the slaughterhouses. Its what they force-feed ducks to make foi gras. Truth of the matter is, the sugar/HFCS industries are scared because American's are learning how UNHEALTHY their products are and are turning to other alternatives. Not just Splenda, but also stevia and cyclamates are under attack as well. This isn't a case of "being healthy," its a case of $$$.

Ugh, I can't stand that crap. It doesn't taste bad at first. It just leaves this lingering aftertaste in my mouth...I guess the best way to describe it is "chemical." It's nasty, I won't eat that shit. It probably is linked to cancer too, just like every other sugar substitute.

Of course, I don't like HFCS either, it's too sweet and it tastes like corn.

@B1663R: I hear those egg council goons are also responsible for holding back the electric car AND for making Steve Gutenberg a star.

I don't particularly care for Splenda, but if the study is scientific, in other words the methodology is sound, the sample size reasonable and the results reproducible, it can't be flawed no matter who funded it.

You can't expect a manufacturer to fund and publish a study critical of its own products. The people most interested in any negative effects will of course be their competitors or opponents. So what's wrong with the methodology of this particular study?

I have but one use for splenda- sweetening restaurant unsweetened iced tea. Real sugar just doesn't dissolve like splenda.

@cmdrsass: Politics often play a role in the results of "studies"... haven't you seen all the "studies" on global warming?

i'm so used to artificial sweetener that real sugar makes my teeth rattle. i've been forced to drink diet soda since i was about 8 (weight problems) and now i could never go back.

@cmdrsass: I generally prefer a study funded by a 3rd party organization without any vested interest in the outcome. Also, it doesn't even sound like the effects of Splenda are that bad if you don't take prescription drugs.

@nicemarmot617: That´s because its one part sucralose and 599 parts maltodextrin and dextrose! Both are corn derivatives/

The funny part is that Splenda is one part sucralose and 599 parts maltodextrin and dextrose, which are both corn derivatives! So you use it, you are sweeting your food/drinks with pure corn!

I love sugar....
Sugar is BAD, use Saccharin.
Saccharin is BAD, use NutraSweet.
NutraSweet is BAD, use Splenda.
Splenda is BAD, ...

... well, I'm waiting. What miracle sweetener do I use now?

It tastes bad to me and makes me feel horrible afterwards.

I have heard by word-of-mouth that some study indicates that it causes harm to the kidneys; is this true or just rumor?

cut back on your sugar for awhile and then have something sweet. It will taste way to sugary and maybe give you a stomach ache. Splenda does have an after taste. Except in iced tea for some reason. Try the same with salt, cut back for awhile and then have a potato chip, it'll taste like you just downed the whole salt shaker.

ok but if splenda is supposedly made from sugar wouldn't they need to purchase sugar for processing from the sugar growing people? (that's a technical term right there)

whatever, tastes like crap anyway.

I tried some pudding with Splenda in it and that was some rotten sh**. I threw away the entire package of single cups bcuz there was no way in hell I could force myself to eat even another bite of one. That is one thing that pizzses me off about pudding cups at Walmart, all the good or interesting flavors have Splenda in them and I will never taste them bcuz I will never ever try Splenda ever again.

@dollywould: I have a similar reaction to Aspartame. If I have too much of it I get violently ill (sweats, migraines, shakes, nausea, etc.).

Because of this, I ONLY use Splenda. I don't care what anyone else uses. Use what works for you and keeps you healthy. But if they think about banning Splenda, I'm gonna go Dead Zone on their asses.

But... but... the comercial for splenda told me it was made from real sugar!

i'm inclined to believe the final statement [splenda is bad for you] if not the research that supports and here's why:
i am a type I diabetic.
sugar - acts on my blood sugar in a predictable measurable way
splenda - sometimes raises my blood sugar immediately or hours after consumption, sometimes has no effect. i have to avoid it because i don't know what it will do at any given time.

i personally don't see how that could be healthy for non diabetics either- just because you don't go around measuring your blood sugar doesn't mean it isn't affected. i can't even begin to speculate on how it could affect other organs.

it's getting really difficult to find low sugar or no sugar added products that don't have splenda added. even before i was diabetic [last year] i got really angry with tang when they changed the original formula to include splenda. they didn't take out all the sugar, just replaced some of it with splenda. i tried to see if it was still ok, but when i emailed to complain about how incredibly foul tasting i found their product - they sent me a coupon for SOME MORE TANG with an apology letter. letter was fine, but the coupon was insulting and i told them so. funny, never heard from them again.

Splenda is a great weight loss aid. The cramps and exploding diarrhea I get whenever I eat (accidentally) something with Splenda are enough to keep me away from food and lose a couple of pounds in less than a day!

@MercuryPDX: Bacon.

@opsomath: "It tastes bad to me and makes me feel horrible afterwards."

That what my girlfriend says.

@catastrophegirl: Wow, I'd not heard that about splenda and Type 1. I wonder why that would be.

@homerjay: Actually, it was those darn Stonecutters. But, you didn't hear that from me.

@shorty63136:

"If you cut out white sugar and other sugary substances, your palate will adjust until real sugar and HFCS are WAY too sweet for you."

Splenda is 600 times sweeter than sugar.

Screw Sugar Plantations, Blue Packets, Pink Packets, Yellow Packets -- try Agave nectar when you can. No strange ingredients, no strange tastes, and no chemistry set. Yeah, it's more expensive but it's natural, low-glycemic, and I figure that if I can cut out a lot of chemicals I'm coming out ahead somehow.

@MercuryPDX: I've been hearing Stevia get pushed, but it's frankly not very tasty as I've seen it applied. It has a sweet, but strange taste when I've tried it. A bit bitter and medicinal. Rumor has it Coke may try using it, which might taste okay mixed with the flavors in cola.

It's a naturally occurring chemical in an herb. You can buy the plant, and the leaves have the sweetener in them, or you can buy the extract at a health food store in powder or liquid form. I guess the argument could be made that "natural" equals healthier than the chemical concoctions. It's kind of in an FDA neverland right now, though, as it's sold as a supplement rather than a food.

Personally, I just use sugar or abstain, with the exception of sodas, where I'll tend to have diet or nothing at all.

@catastrophegirl: I think it depends on your body chemistry individually. I'm type II and use Splenda and it doesn't raise my blood sugar (or cause any of the other side effects listed like headaches or the trots.) I do find that saccharin will give me a splitting headache but others love it. Personally I prefer liquid Sugar Twin (cyclamate based here in Canada) because I'm on a low-carb diet and Splenda uses dextrose as its "carrier" and that adds up to 1 carb per tsp/packet. The Sugar Twin liquid has zero. As with all artificial sweeteners, YMMV.

On a related note, if you're looking for a reason to give up Aspartame, here's a website for you; you can decide how accurate the results are: [myaspartameexperiment.com]

Also, Splenda is, supposedly, made by substituting some of the carbon molecules with chlorine, tricking your body into thinking it's natural, but it really isn't. It's not that the Splenda, itself, is dangerous, but it is the process of breaking it down in the body that is.

In either case, there haven't been any real long-term studies done on the effects of sugar substitutes. I prefer to stick with sugar, honey, or just do without.

@cmdrsass: Exactly, if the study is published in a reputable, peer reviewed conference or journal, then who cares who funded it? Of course, the linked article doesn't say where it was published, so if it's in "The Sugar-Growers Journal of Stuff" or it's just a tech report then I can see a problem. It's entirely possible the sugar companies funded a full blown study because internal research suggested these results.

@obamaramallama: Yeeees, that's why most of the splenda you buy is Malodextrin and Dextrose (corn starches). You get 600 times less splenda than sugar in a teaspoon of either substance. It's just that the factory has done the measuring for you up front. The same is true of all artificial sweeteners.

I used to hate diet drinks with a passion, but drank lots of regular soda. I started drinking only diet (or the splenda-based "zero" drinks) for a few weeks and suddenly they began tasting normal to me. You just adjust to it and the strange chemical aftertaste disappears.

There always seems to be some kind of dubious issues with sugar substitutes, but no concrete evidence, really. Quite frankly I don't care about that stuff -- I just want to look good ;).

@Victo: Oh, good, I'm not the only one asking that question.

I can use Splenda in ice tea, and as a partial sugar substitute, but NOT as a total sugar substitute. It foams up liquids, and I tried replacing the sugar in my sugar cookies with it ONE time. The dough was elastic and the cookies did not taste very good.

Seriously, freaking elastic - I have a dough gun and the stupid dough would bulge out and retract when I let up on the handle. The gun works great with real sugar sugar-cookies.

Hate sucralose and hate aspartame. It's a good thing I hate soda too.

Saccharine is the worst and even those Regis Philbin commercials can't convince me that he loves his pink packets, "not because they taste like sugar", but because of that totally unique sweet n' low taste. Ummm....what taste would that be? Someone who is much wittier than I am can fill in that blank.

@BloggyMcBlogBlog: It's the No Homer's Club, actually.

I discovered last year that I was diabetic. I am assuming from all the years of the HFCS that I have consumed, but I digress.

I had always liked splenda before the diagnosis, and felt that cutting out refined sugar and HFCS would be no problem since there was Splenda.

I was dead wrong!

When I started consuming the same amount of splenda that I did sugar (in drinks, cereal and cooking) I noticed that I felt horrible after consuming it. My tounge and mouth would swell and itch and developed a rash on my face and neck. After a quick trip to the doctor, it was determined that I was allergic to Splenda and should avoid it at all costs.

I have since gone back to sugar (unrefined when possible) and have cut out ALL artificial sweeteners. That was 2 months ago and I have lost 15 lbs. Also, my blood sugar hasn't spiked as high as I thought it would by adding the natural sugars back into my diet.

Bottom line is nothing is good in excess, especially if it is chemically manufactured.

@EnglishC6H6 is British Benzene: it's exactly as neecy says below - individual body chemistry. sugar alcohols do the same thing to me, but more a little more predictably. they always give me a blood glucose spike, just never sure when it will be. but not all type 1 diabetics would react the same way as i do, i am sure.