Various
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Is Splenda (sucralose) a dioxin?
I know that sucralose was the subject of some controversy some time ago, but I missed all that and I'm curious as to whether the matter was ever
resolved? Searching on Pubmed I saw an article stating that sucralose persists in the environment after excretion.
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kclo4
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Are you referring to this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxins_and_dioxin-like_compoun...
I don't think so.. it seems like they all need the base structure of a dioxin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxin_%28chemical%29
Look at the structure of splenda, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose it is just chlorinated sucrose.
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mr.crow
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Yuck, I wouldn't eat that! At least its not fluorinated
Wikipedia says it is not soluble in fat, so it won't stick around like dioxin and would just be excreted efficiently. It also doesn't break down or
dechlorinate which would make it persistent in the environment and maybe toxic to other life forms
Maybe dioxin is being used as a scare word to drum up controversy about food additives
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kclo4
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I doubt it is bad for you. At least I haven't seen any evidence that it is.
Sounds like another aspartame story. Which for the record isn't bad for you.
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zed
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Thalidomide was also considered perfectly dandy.
The Romans were fond of Sugar of Lead, Lead acetate........Yummmmm.
Heroin was promoted as a cure for Morphine addiction.
Sigmund Freud was quite sure that self medicating with Cocaine was a miracle cure for neurosis.....And harmless.
Asbestos was a cheap, wonderfully light, heat insulator. Dangerous? Never!
Benzene was no big deal.
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Only time will tell, what is, or isn't bad for you.
In the meantime, you pays your Nickel, and you takes your chances.
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UnintentionalChaos
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Quote: Originally posted by zed  | Thalidomide was also considered perfectly dandy.
The Romans were fond of Sugar of Lead, Lead acetate........Yummmmm.
Heroin was promoted as a cure for Morphine addiction.
Sigmund Freud was quite sure that self medicating with Cocaine was a miracle cure for neurosis.....And harmless.
Asbestos was a cheap, wonderfully light, heat insulator. Dangerous? Never!
Benzene was no big deal.
...........................................................................................
Only time will tell, what is, or isn't bad for you.
In the meantime, you pays your Nickel, and you takes your chances.
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Actually, the romans were not fond of lead acetate, but it was an incidental contaminant based on the method of preparation of their defrutum and
sapa. Boiling down grape must will net you a good sweetener, but lead vessels were used because they imparted no metallic flavors, unlike bronze and
copper vessels. Of course, grape juice is acidic and liable to dissolve small amounts of lead.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
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hodges
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I don't understand why substituting 3 OH groups with Cl would make it have zero calories. Is it because 1. you use such a tiny amount since it is so
much stronger tasting than sugar that you consume practically no calories, or 2. the calories are there, but not in a form the body can use so it
effectively has no calories?
Hodges
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UnintentionalChaos
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| Quote: Originally posted by hodges | I don't understand why substituting 3 OH groups with Cl would make it have zero calories. Is it because 1. you use such a tiny amount since it is so
much stronger tasting than sugar that you consume practically no calories, or 2. the calories are there, but not in a form the body can use so it
effectively has no calories?
Hodges
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Well, the chlorines have very different properties than OH groups; namely that they don't hydrogen bond (well, they do, but poorly). Cl is also a good
deal more bulky than OH.
Enzymes are generally fairly picky about what substrates they bind to, and the strength of this binding is dependant on the concerted formation of
many weak bonds, mainly hydrogen bonds, but sometimes ionic attractions or london dispersion forces.
With the increased bulk and decreased bonding interactions it is quite likely that sucralose cannot bind effectively to glycosidases, which would
normally cleave sucrose into glucose and fructose; a necessary step before they can be further oxidized for energy.
Also relevant is the fact that such incredibly small amounts are needed to confer sweetness. Even if it were fully digestable, it would not have any
more calorie density than regular sucrose.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
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mr.crow
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Heres a related link I found. Apparently they misunderstood instructions to test the substance with to taste the substance 
http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2009/03/11/teen-chemist-and-sp...
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kclo4
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That seems pretty odd to me. I wonder how true that is...
Seems like the first thing they'd think of to make an artificial sweetener is to add chlorine or something to it like they do with a lot of other
analogues.
I wonder what the brominated, and iodinated ones taste like?
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