BOLOGNA, ITALY - Before you grab that cup of coffee and ask for sweetener, some say "avoid" Splenda at all costs, claiming it's linked to leukemia. That's news that might be hard to swallow.
Italian researchers at the Ramazzini Institute say sucralose, an ingredient in the artificial sweetener 600 times sweeter than real sugar is to blame. Sucralose is used in many "diet" drinks or "no sugar added" labeled foods.
The results were published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. Mice that were fed mass amounts of sucralose throughout their lifespan, developed leukemia and other blood cancers.
However, the amount was quite excessive; equivalent to a human drinking 10 cans of soda per day. Who drinks 10 cans of soda in a day?
Splenda says "sucralose is safe and does not cause cancer."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has added sucralose to it's chemical cuisine glossary of food additives, along with aspartame and saccharin.
