Someone please explain the anti-Splenda sentiment to me...

I feel woefully uneducated.

Sometimes I hear from people that eating artificial sweeteners can have negative effects on the body.

Ok....so can extremely high protein diets. Or low protein diets. Or too many tomatoes. Or too many bananas. Or too much fish. Or crabs. There are a billion and a half foods that can kill you from some something or other in them.

Sometimes I hear from people that they want to use a "natural" sweetener

Ok...technically everything is natural. Everything we consume is in some way, shape or form derived from something that nature made. It may have been changed a bit, but everything comes from nature. And it especially confuses me how people can do things like eat Egg Beaters but not like Splenda for this reason.

I'm not being facetious here. I don't get it and I want to. I don't consume nearly as much Splenda as I used to (mainly because my sweet tooth has calmed down a lot).

So someone please educate me. Why is Splenda evil?

My NUT said it has carbs in it and to stick to Equal or Sweet N Low for sweetener. My plan is way stricter than most I see on here though, so grain of salt (or splenda)....

So it's the SPLENDA to blame for the three pounds I regained! 

Evil evil splenda!

Ok, that's the best one I've heard so far (now I AM being facetious)

Just to set the record straight, if you are consuming cupfuls of splenda, yes there would be significant carbs (Splenda is derived from sucrose but it is so light that you need starch to "weight" it down). But 2-3 packets would be so few carbs that you really can't even say there is 1 gram of carbs in them.

So far as sucralose itself, yes it is a carb but one our bodies can't digest so that's why it's considered no calories, no carbs.

All that is to say....general moderation rules would apply. I personally don't make things with cupfuls of Splenda every day nor should I. As long as you're keeping it under control, the carbs aren't a huge factor.

I don't disagree with you, just parroting what the NUT told me.  I use Equal because that's what I have.  I bought a ginormous box of it like 10 years ago and damnit, I'm going to use it til it's gone.  :D

Oh yeah, no, I get that.

Also, I'm not trying to recruit anyone to "Team Yellow." I just don't get Splenda bashing and wanted to ask.

WOOT for thriftyness.

I had a wow moment last week. I only use sugar for baking stuff for the kids or Christmas. Last week I had to go buy a 5 lb bag cuz I had cupcakes to make and realized...this was the first time I'd bought sugar since surgery...three years ago!

but but but.... y'mean I CAN'T attribute it to the splenda? I have to attribute it .... lasagna or something .... but that CAN'T be right... it has to be the splenda making me gain 3 lbs... yeah... it's the splenda...

(*so I'm being a wee bit sarcastic*)

Though Splenda and Stevia are both considered zero-calorie sweeteners, and so share some similarities, there are a number of differences in the two.  Typically, when people speak of “Stevia," they mean Stevia Rebaudiana, a Central and South American herb, the leaves of which have been used for centuries as a sweetener. Splenda, on the other hand, is a manufactured product, the main ingredient of which (sucralose) is the result of a chemical process where pairs of oxygen and hydrogen atoms in sugar are replaced with chlorine atoms.

Personally I use both  and I think both a better choices than the pink or blue packets.

When do you choose to use the stevia?  A friend of mine fixed something cold with stevia in it and it was grainy, like sugar.  I liked it like that.  I just wonder if it disolves differently than the powdered stuff in packets. 

To much of it gives me a headache and I don't care for the taste? But even with that I wouldn't say Splenda is evil

I use 'natural' sweeteners because of the taste- not because they are more 'natural'

I think a lot of people don't like the taste-

Valerie