Tell FTC: Stop Deceptive Splenda Ads
- by: Susan V
- recipient: Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
A vitamin-enhanced version of sucralose, called Splenda Essentials, is being promoted as healthy.
USA's Alliance for Natural Health (ANN) is asking the FTC to investigate marketing they say targets and misleads health-conscious people. Included in the online ad campaign is a series of YouTube videos, with a dietitian giving "health advice" and endorsing the product.
Simply adding a few B vitamins and a little fiber to a toxic sweetener does not make it healthy, according to experts like biochemist James Bowen. Bowen's research shows that sucralose attacks the liver, as well as the nervous and immune systems, and a 2008 Duke University study supports his findings.
Bowen puts it simply: sucralose is a chlorocarbon and so is DDT. It's made with chlorine, "a highly excitable, ferocious atomic element" used as a biocide in bleach, disinfectants, insecticide, WWI poison gas and hydrochloric acid."
What's healthy about that?
Tell FTC to Stop The Misleading Splenda Advertising
We, the undersigned, expect the FTC to protect consumers from misleading advertising like the campaign promoting Splenda Essentials as healthy.
Product promotion includes the following statement:
"The first and only sweetener that helps support a healthy metabolism with a small boost of vitamins B1, B5 and B6 in every packet."
However, based on research by Dr. Bowen, Dr. Abou-Donia at Duke University and others, there are clearly concerns about the adverse affects of sucralose on the liver, which has everything to do with metabolism.
In fact, Abou-Donia's study concludes that sucralose does the opposite of supporting a healthy metabolism by interfering with liver enzymes that are essential to metabolism.
Below are the study's exact words:
"Evidence indicates that a 12-wk administration of Splenda exerted numerous adverse effects, including (1) reduction in beneficial fecal microflora, (2) increased fecal pH, and (3) enhanced expression levels of P-gp, CYP3A4, and CYP2D1, which are known to limit the bioavailability of orally administered drugs."
This Duke study was published in 2008, however, Dr. Bowen says that "Researchers have known for a long time that chlorinated compounds impact liver functionality...."
Furthermore, the Australian Government has documented that sucralose is contaminated with arsenic and methanol (NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS NOTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT SCHEME).
Given the facts, there is simply no justification for anyone promoting any product containing sucralose (Splenda or Splenda Essentials) as even safe, much less healthy.
We request that you put a stop to this misleading advertising campaign immediately.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
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