A Quick Guide to Sucralose

Sucralose is a common artificial food sweetener, but it does not contain any nutritional value. It is about 600 times sweeter than table sugar, and most of it is not absorbed by the human body. Since 2004, the European Union has permitted sucralose as a food sweetener, numbered E955 .

It is a trichlorinated sucrose molecule, i.e. a chemically altered form of sucrose (table sugar). Sucralose is very stable, it is not affected by light, heat, or a wide range of pH conditions. In addition to its proven stability, itis also very pleasing in terms of taste and texture, and has no weird aftertaste. As a result, sucralose is ideal for baking and is also well suited for commercial foods that require a long shelf life.

Sucralose is licensed in more than 80 countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as the European Union. In fact, sucralose has become increasingly popular compared to other commonly used artificial sweeteners such as aspartame , acesulfame potassium and saccharin .

What happens after you consume sucralose?

When you consume sucralose, most of it is not absorbe by the body and is excret through the digestive system with feces. Because it is poorly absorbe from the digestive tract, only 5% to 20% of it actually enters the bloodstream. The rest is excret in the urine and does not remain in the tissues. Therefore, after consuming sucralose, it actually only stays in the body for a short time.

Health Benefits of Sucralose

As sucralose is a non-nutritive substitute for sugar, it has no actual direct health benefits, but it does have many indirect benefits. It is well know that sugar intake is closely associate with dental caries (tooth decay) and periodontal (gum) disease. Using it can reduce sugar intake and benefit dental health, thus not causing caries.

Sucralose is a non-nutritive sweetener use in many low-calorie products. It also has benefits for weight loss and obesity-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and some cancers. It has also been scientifically show that sucralose does not affect hunger or trigger an insulin response.

In addition to contributing to obesity, sugar is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease due to its potential to increase serum triglycerides. Therefore, replacing sugar with sucralose can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and prevent insulin levels from being too high.

Because it does not affect blood glucose or serum insulin levels, it is suitable for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Health Issues with Sucralose

Some claim that sucralose alters the number and quality of the beneficial bacteria in our gut. These claims are primarily based on a 2008 study by Abou-Donia et al. Others suggest that sucralose limits the body’s absorption of certain therapeutic drugs, making them less effective. It is also suggest that sucralose breaks down during baking and releases the potentially toxic compound chloropropane.

However, many, including a panel of experts, have exposed the flaws in the Abou-Donia et al (2008) study, which was flawed in several key areas. The findings of Abou-Donia et al and Schiffman & Rother (2013) (both published in the same journal) were based on rats, not humans, and the rats were fed large amounts of sucralose based on their weight. In fact, the sucralose product use in the study, which is sale under the brand name Splenda , also contains maltodextrin and dextrose as bulking agents, so any adverse effects may be due to these high-glycemic carbohydrates rather than sucralose itself. Other studies have shown no changes in gut function, including the gut microbiome, after sucralose intake.

There is also a claim (which has been challenge by some other non-caloric sweeteners) that consuming sucralose affects insulin response, blood sugar levels, and appetite. Some suggest that this is a sensory learning response, where the body associates the sweet taste of sucralose with sugar, resulting in an insulin response. It is well know that high sugar intake only leads to a short-term feeling of fullness, followed by an increase in appetite, and they claim that the same thing happens with sucralose. However, this is not the case, as appetite is a complex process involving many hormones and the nervous system. In fact, studies have shown that neither insulin nor appetite increases after consuming it.

There are also some articles claiming a link between high intake of sucralose and diabetes and heart disease. However, we need to be cautious with these data because it may simply be the food choices of the study subjects rather than the sweetener itself.

Several articles have also suggest that sucralose is associate with tumor progression, some of which reference the Ramazzini Institute study. There are many problems with this study. First, as was the case with the Abou-Donia et al study, the experiment was conduct on rodents (mice) rather than humans: while rodent studies can be useful, they are often not accurate in predicting how the human body will respond.

Second, they fed the mice too much sucralose. The FDA recommends that humans not consume more than 5 mg of sucralose per kilogram of body weight. In the experiment, the minimum dose consumed by the mice was 12 times that amount: 60 mg of sucralose per kilogram of body weight. Most substances can have negative effects on the body when consumed in large amounts, and even water is no exception. Drinking 12 times the recommended amount of water can cause water intoxication with serious adverse reactions, but this does not mean that consuming water is harmful to the body.

There are currently no studies that can prove that consuming it in the recommended amounts will have any adverse effects on the body. In the peer-reviewed articles that have been publish, there are more than 100 studies that can prove this point, and many of them have shown that sucralose is not related to tumors in mice.

Furthermore, while the study highlighted an increase in tumors in male mice, cancer rates in female mice actually decreased. When the cancer rates in male and female mice are consider together, there is no change in overall cancer rates. The mice were fed Splenda from birth to death, even before birth; at such high doses, the male mice may indeed have some problems at some point in their lives.

Finally, some people point out that the study was publish in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, which guarantees its credibility. The peer review system is good and generally represents high standards for the entire scientific community, but this does not mean that we can easily assume that these studies are absolutely correct and flawless.

Is Sucralose Safe?

Numerous studies and reports have proven that it is safe for human consumption. The negative reviews of sucralose seem to be mainly due to the fact that it is artificial. In the field of nutrition, people have a strong bias against the word “artificial”, but it is important to note that “artificial” is not always bad, just as “natural” is not completely equivalent to good. A casual search on the Internet will show many articles that demonize sucralose. But these articles are actually either base on some flawed studies or copy the views of other articles, most of which have now been overturn.

In addition, there are some naturalism advocates who believe that sucralose is artificial and therefore must be bad for the body and should be avoid. Many times, people will ignore the loopholes in the design of scientific studies and the factors that influence and restrict each other, and blindly believe the results of the study. This is particularly evident in the issue of sucralose.

The safety of sucralose is now generally accept and its use is permit in most countries. The European Commission’s findings can be found in the Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food.

The EU has set a safe level of sucralose at 15 mg/kg body weight per day. This level is very cautious, and no adverse effects have been report even at daily intakes of up to 1,500 mg/kg body weight. However, the Canadian Accept Daily Intake (ADI) is set at 9 mg/kg body weight per day, and the US is 5 mg/kg body weight per day.

Sucralose in Huel

Huel v2.3 contains only a very small amount of sucralose in vanilla and coffee flavors, and of course, zero in the flavor enhancer and sugar-free version. 100 grams of Huel contains 20 mg of sucralose, which is equivalent to 100 mg of sucralose per 2,000 calories.

According to the EU regulation of 15 mg per kg of body weight per day, the average male weighing 70 kg can consume 1050 mg of sucralose per day, while the 2000 kcal vanilla flavored Huel contains only about 10% of the safe level of sucralose. Even for a lighter woman, assuming she weighs 45 kg and the safety limit is 675 mg per day, consuming 2000 kcal of Huel per day, she only reaches 15-20% of the EU safety level.

Even if the US limit of 5 mg per kilogram of body weight per day is follow, an average woman weighing 45 kg and consuming 2,000 calories of Huel per day would only consume 44% of the US limit of sucralose.

If you have any concerns about the safety of sucralose, you can refer to the data in the table below. The blue color represents the daily intake limit for different weights in the European Union, Canada and the United States, and the orange color represents the maximum amount of Huel (v2.3 vanilla flavor) that can be consume under different regulations.

Other sweeteners

In addition to sucralose, there are many other sweeteners that are allow to be use in food. The first is sugar, but we don’t want to add sugar to Huel, firstly because it means we need to add a lot of sugar, and secondly because sugar has many obvious harmful effects on health. In addition, there are other natural sweeteners, such as honey, fructose, coconut sugar, maple syrup, xylitol, etc. The problem with most sweeteners is that they are still sugar in essence or they need to be use in extremely large quantities.

There are other artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and saccharin, but none are better than sucralose. In fact, sucralose is generally more popular for its taste, and these other artificial sweeteners have their own health issues.

The only sweetener we believe could potentially compete with sucralose is the natural sweetener stevia . Stevia comes from the plant stevia rebaudiana and steviol glycosides, the active part of stevia that is 150 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia is very popular with naturalism advocates, purely because it is natural. However, many people believe that if stevia is use as the only sweetener, the product will have an unpleasant aftertaste. In fact, Coca-Cola has done extensive research on this and although they use stevia in Coca-cola Life, they still add a lot of sugar to the product to improve the taste.

We currently only use stevia as a sweetener in Huel flavor packs, but in Huel Vanilla flavored whole powder, we still believe sucralose is the best choice at this time. However, we are still testing stevia and if we can solve the taste issue, we will consider switching to stevia. If you are still concerned about sucralose after reading this, please choose Huel No Flavor No Added Sugar, which does not contain sucralose or any other sweeteners.