In the News - Artificial Sweeteners

In Carolina's In the News presentation today, she looks at a story about the possible harmful effects of Splenda. Sugar substitutes have often tried to give us what we want from the original--sweetness--and remove what we don't want--calories. But if we are tradiong excess calories for potential bodily harm, then I'm not sure we are making a good trade.

One issue here is how safe we feel our food is. the recent scares ov er the safety of milk in China, where Melanine was added to cut the milk, making it cheaper to produce and making the dairy companies more money, is one egregious example of food safety being compromised for profit. Splenda and other sugar substitutes offer themselves as a safe substitute that allows us to indulge without apyingt he price of our indulging. but I believe in general that if things seem too good to be true, then they probably are. Diets that promise wieght loss with little work, investment programs that promise get-rich-quick results, schools that promise an easy online education--all of these promise us something that we want while not demanding much of us.

We should be more skeptical about technology in general. Perhaps computers will not make kids smarter or schools more effective. Perhaps being thin will not make us happy and successful. Perhaps there are cultural myths out there worth exploring in all the products sold to us.

And now for some mixed metaphors: We all want our cake and to eat it too. But Splenda promises we can eat more cake than we should and not suffer the consequences. Perhaps we should take all such sweet promises with a grain of salt.