Posted on: Wednesday, April 13, 2005

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Splenda sweetens tastefully

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

New products of interest:

• Splenda has introduced a Brown Sugar Blend along the same lines as its half-and-half white sugar/Splenda blend, but with the flavor and some of the textural and coloring qualities of brown sugar.

The maker of Splenda has been under attack from the sugar industry and such nutritional watchdogs as the Center for Science in the Public Interest over the product's "made from sugar" ad campaign. Opponents say the campaign is misleading because Splenda is a chemical, made in a lab. Manufacturer McNeil Nutritionals LLC responds that Splenda is made from sucralose — cane sugar, that is then chemically altered to create a compound that retains sugar's sweetness but has no calories. McNeil Nutritionals has filed suit to try to stop the Truth About Splenda campaign.

Meanwhile, no one is saying Splenda is unsafe. While opponents point out that there have been no long-term studies of intensive sucralose consumption by humans, Splenda has jumped to the top of the sugar substitute sales charts. There's a reason for consumers' eager acceptance of Splenda: It works.

Splenda is the only non-calorie sugar substitute I've found that doesn't leave any unpleasant aftertaste when it's used as is — to sweeten a cup or two, or sprinkled over fresh tart berries in cooking. It also acts like sugar in cooking except that it doesn't caramelize, meaning baked goods don't color as they normally would. And because Splenda cannot mimic the texture and structure of sugar in baked goods, most baking recipes using Splenda call for a half-and-half mix.

Splenda works well in places where you'd normally add a tablespoon or two of sugar for a flavor balance — sauces, marinades and salad dressings, especially those sweet-and-sour, hot-and-sweet, sweet-and-salty flavor combinations Islanders love. You can use it in place of sugar in the classic shoyu-ginger-garlic-sugar teriyaki sauce. You do need a sprinkle of sugar at the end if you want the meat to caramelize.

This is not to downplay that we all must make our own food safety decisions; if you're not comfortable with lab-made food products, Splenda is not for you.

• About one minute after we published the story on whole-wheat pastas (March 30, 2005), Barilla brand came out with Barilla Plus, a new line of pastas made with various grains (semolina, oats, spelt, barley), legumes (lentils and garbanzos), ground flaxseed, wheat fiber and egg whites. These pastas are just slightly more golden-brown than the usual durum flour pastas and offer more protein and fiber than conventional pastas. Two ounces of dry Barilla Plus pasta contain 1 gram of unsaturated fat (no trans fats), no cholesterol, 25 milligrams of sodium, 38 grams of carbohydrate, of which 4 grams are fiber and 1 sugar, and 10 grams of protein plus significant thaimin, niacin, riboflavin and folate. The product, which cooks up like the pasta you're used to, is just making its way into stores.