Is Splenda Gluten Free?

[sparkles]

Lucky me... i am also diabetic. I would like to know if splenda (which contains maltodextrine) is gluten-free. I have written the co but no response. Being diabetic, it would be nice to have some sugar free options that i know are really gluten-free! Thanks for the input!!! pam

[KaitiUSA]

Splenda is gluten free but I've heard these artificial sweeteners are so bad for you. Xylitol and Stevia are both natural sugars which are ok for diabetics and hypoglycemics...you may want to look into those.

[celiac3270]

As Kaiti said, Splenda is gluten-free. If you begin to experience gastrointestinal symptoms from it, though, don't worry. Some people, celiac or not, will get diarrhea or other gastorintestinal symptoms from Splenda that they don't get from other sugars or sweetners even though it's gluten-free.

[skbird]

I get pretty sick from Splenda - not the same day but especially if I eat it a few days in a row (or even ever two or three days). By a week into it I start having mind-numbing fatigue and headaches. But mainly the fatigue. Last time this happened to me was last summer - I was eating the Ben and Jerry's Carb Conscious ice cream, about a fifth of a carton at a time. By the second week I was so tired it was all I could do to get in my car and drive home. I remember one Friday, I was supposed to go with my husband to a music festival that night after work and camp out, and I was crying while driving home because I was so tired. I made it to the futon and was just lying there crashed out when he came home. We didn't go. Then I thought of the Splenda (similar thing had happened to me about 6 months prior to this) and tossed the Ben and Jerry's. Two days later I was my old self again.

So I totally avoid all artifical sweeteners (my reaction to aspartame was even worse). Now I use blends of xylitol, stevia, and agave nectar for my cooking. Xylitol is the most like sugar, it's even granulated, but it has a sort of minty taste to it, plus isn't quite as sweet as sugar, so I mix with stevia to give it that sweet edge, and agave nectar is great, like honey, but with a low glycemic index of 10 (real honey is about 90). When I mix all three, no one can tell I have baked something that is low glycemic or nearly sugar free...

Stephanie

[Bix]

On 4/17/2005 at 2:59 PM, sparkles said:

Lucky me... i am also diabetic. I would like to know if splenda (which contains maltodextrine) is gluten-free. I have written the co but no response. Being diabetic, it would be nice to have some sugar free options that i know are really gluten-free! Thanks for the input!!! pam

According to the Splenda company and the ingredients list, as I read it, it IS gluten free.   I find it tastes better than Stevia extract.  Does this seem the same to you?  Do you find it better than aspartame?   Do you know how aspartame reacts to heat?  I have heard about bad proteins forming, but nothing certain. 

You are not alone.  I am an A/I with multiple conditions: -Sarcoidosis, Hash, Reynauds, Sjogren's, incurable candida (caught by an 18 hour stay in a hospital).   I can become Celiac or an A/I diabetic on a dime with 9 cents change.  It never ends.

Ironically, I am presently NOT a celiac, but I have severe G/I probs and I am trying a few months of Gluten free to see if it helps by repairing possibly damaged entrail linings (i.e. "leaky gut").   So much  of leaky gut info is nonsense from commercial interests,  so we must all be careful!  A lot of sleaze-bag, snake oil jerks want our money!   Being desperate is not a good shopping mind-set. For info, trust only true non-profit orgs such as The Mayo Clinic or Mount Sinai, etc.   Not even Wikipedia is consistent enough to trust (I am a contributor/editor).   Worse, the AMA is only beginning to admit that such a thing as "Leaky Gut" exists.   And it DOES exists, however, what it is and HOW it is, is not known or even generally comprehended.  If you have serious leaky gut, you are in for a bad ride  —Sorry. 

However; for me, this is just an expensive shot in the dark, but one must try everything that is reasonable.    I was simply born with a gene pool without a deep end.  My grandmother died from Scleroderma, etc.

Side humour: I was once 50 lbs overweight.  It took 11 months, but 2 weeks after loosing 47 lbs, I was diagnosed A/I, and with Hashimoto's!  Worse, this was due to a clerical error.  As I am male and was then of perfect weight, they would never have normally checked my TSH (even though I had the symptoms).    Somehow, the TSH test box was inadvertently marked.  Doctors, geese.

If I am lucky, I will soon have an Ileostomy bag (yes, LUCKY).  At first, you tell them to go to heck, but after years of G/I horror you soon realise that it is a small price to pay for a chance at living with some normality.  But, it is not that easy.  Surgeons will not operate for a "bag" (even though it is reversible) as they are under great malpractice fright and want tests that I cannot , at this late point,  perform! (Catch-22)

Again, remember; you are not alone.  I am grateful that I was allowed to live 36 years before I experienced significant symptoms.  However, the U.S.A. medical industry is rubbish and becoming worse by the minute. I have been MISDIAGNOSED 4 times over an 12 year period.  Plus, I have had 5 radiology tests that were wrongly diagnosed by the technician.  Remember that your specialist doctor does NOT look at your images, but relies strictly on the text of the report written by a radiologist whom is NOT an M.D. or Internist!  This should never be allowed to happen. In most other countries, the doctor MUST examine the images.   Make sure you have a doctor who WILL examine the images BEFORE he reads the report. 

Be careful out there.  G-d's speed to all of you.

 

[kareng]

Splenda was gluten-free back in 2005 when this thread was active and its still gluten-free now!  I like it better than aspartame as aspartame gives me a stomach ache.  But some people are the exact opposite.