by Ana
QUESTION: Is it true that splenda glycemic index is high? Does it really cause blood glucose to reach the peak quickly?
What about the effects on insulin in diabetics?
Thank you.
ANSWER: Hi there,
First of all, Splenda is an artificial sweetener, composed of sucralose, dextrose and maltodextrin. Although sucralose is sweet, it is not a sugar.
The truth is that Splenda has really high glycemic index due to its components dextrose and maltodextrin, which are sugars in fact.
This is bad for the organism, because large store of sugars comes in the organism, leading to weight gain and uncontrolled diabetes.
However, if the person is not suffering from diabetes, he could handle such great load of glucose.
In addition, this load will not cause such elevation in the blood glucose concentration, because the organism has normal insulin secretion.
You have to know that every substance, which contains a lot of sugar increases the insulin secretion. In this case, Splenda increases the insulin secretion and this is a physiological function.
When certain amount of glucose enters the organism, in response, the body elevates the insulin secretion in purpose to use the sugars.
Besides this, the higher the glucose load, the larger the insulin secretion will be.
However, the situation is different, when a person with diabetes uses Splenda. When such person uses it, large amount of sugar enters the organism, but there is no insulin secretion, which can put it inside the cells.
This leads to elevated blood glucose concentration, which can be very dangerous. As you probably know, the elevated blood glucose concentration leads to damages of the eye, the kidney and other organs.
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