This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.
I never paid that much attention to the pink and yellow and blue packets on the table when my wife and I go out for breakfast a couple of times a week. I'm not a consumer of artificial sweeteners, so when I learned that we wanted to add one more match-up to our Battle of the Brands feature, this one focusing on Splenda and Equal, and that it was going to be up to me pull it together, I thought: Oh boy, what am I going to have to say about that?
But I've never been one to pass up an opportunity to learn something new. I began with what I did know, which wasn't much: the makers of Splenda and Equal were in the news recently -- something about misleading advertising and sour grapes. Besides, weren't these yellow and blue packets really second banana to the ubiquitous Sweet'N Low pink packets? Shows how much I know: turns out Sweet'N Low's virtual monopoly on the artificial sweetener market ended back in the 1980s, when Equal took the lead. Since Splenda was introduced in 1999, however, it has exploded, with sales of more than $200 million in 2006, or about 60% of the U.S. artificial sweetener market. Equal's sales have dropped about $30 million in that time, while sales of sugar have dropped $85 million. No wonder sugar producers and the makers of Equal have gone after the makers of Splenda in court.
For someone who doesn't know his blue packet from his yellow packet, what really is the difference between them?
Splenda, a product of McNeil Nutritionals, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is the brand name for sucralose, which is said to be twice as sweet as saccharin and four times as sweet as aspartame, both artificial sweeteners, and as much as 600 times sweeter than sucrose, which is table sugar. Because of that disparity with sugar, the contents of that yellow packet is as much as 95% maltodextrin, a filler. Sucralose can be found in more than 4,500 food and beverage products, and is the most heat stable artificial sweetener, meaning that it doesn't need to be mixed with sugar in cooking and baking, as other sweeteners do. Only a small amount of the sucralose ingested is absorbed into the bloodstream, and only a smaller portion of that is metabolized. That's what makes it an effective diet aid. Advertising suggests that Splenda tastes like sugar, but it didn't fool people in a recent taste test of Easter Peeps made with Splenda.
Equal is a product of the Merisant Company. Like Nutrasweet, also a Merisant product, Equal is aspartame, and can be found in 6,000 products sold all over the world, including diet Pepsi and diet Coke. Though sweet, the taste of aspartame is not the same as sugar, and not everyone finds the taste appealing (me, for instance). Aspartame is sometimes blended with other sweeteners for use in products with a longer shelf-life, such as the syrups for fountain beverages. In digestion, aspartame does break down into some nasty sounding chemicals, including methanol, formaldehyde, and formic acid. Concerns about the health effects of aspartame led the FDA to phase in its approval from 1981 to 1996, which was four years after the patent for aspartame expired. As a result, aspartame is manufactured by several producers.
A look at the websites of these two products is also instructive. Splenda's website is predominately yellow (no surprise), and friendly in design, featuring a cute child. The site's features include recipes (and a recipe club), an online store, information about diabetes and childhood obesity, and an FAQ that addresses some of the points of contention in the lawsuit. Its rotation of ads includes one for Curves, and the other products listed are sugar blends for specific uses, such as in baking or coffee drinks. Equal's website is blue, of course, and more business-like. Images include coffee and cocktails, and the site includes recipes, an online store, FAQ, bigger ads, and info about a diabetes walk. Their other products are flavor packets for bottled water, such as in mandarin orange and black cherry.
But getting back to Sugargate, as it's been called. The Sugar Association filed a complaint against McNeil Nutritionals with the Federal Trade Commission, claiming that Splenda's "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" marketing tag line was misleading. NcNeil countersued, accusing the Sugar Association of smearing it because of Splenda's popularity. Merisant joined the fray by filing suit in a federal court in Philadelphia, focusing on the same "made from sugar" claim.
How that all shakes out could be interesting to watch. In the meantime, I'll just continue to accept my beverages for what they are -- no diet soda, decaffeinated coffee, light beer, or herbal tea for me -- or do without them. But I know I'm in the minority, and both of these artificial sweeteners have many fans. Be sure to let us know which one you prefer and why.
Vote in our poll for Equal or Splenda as your preferred brand, and let us know why you love it in the comments. Results of all Battle of the Brands match-ups coming soon.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-05-2008 @ 8:56AM
Sammy said...
Equal tastes better (more like sugar) but Spenda is stronger. More people go for Splenda than Equal at Starbucks.
8-10-2008 @ 6:20PM
Anne said...
I had enjoyed the taste of Equal for over 7 years...then came Splenda. I switched about 3 months ago because of the claim that it was made from sugar. Although it seems sweeter and I use less, it has a weird after taste and would you believe I have GAINED 4 pounds.... and no, I haven't changed any of my eating habits ! I have switched back to Equal and won't go back to Splenda.
4-14-2007 @ 12:20PM
Polly Culberson said...
Although you are able to bake with Splenda without getting an aftertaste (I don't though), I prefer the taste of Equal for sweetening my cereal, coffee and tea, and I buy my sodas sweetened with Equal. There is a different taste with Splenda-sweetened items that is not pleasant to my palate. I guess it is all in what you have grown used to. I always hated Sweet and Low because of its aftertaste.
4-14-2007 @ 2:31PM
Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum said...
What is my favorite sweetener? Just Like Sugar because there are no chemicals, just chicory, orange peel, Vitamin C and Calcium, Also, chicory has been used for 70 years for improvement of the diabetic condition making it safe for diabetics.
But about this feud!Isn't this a hoot? You have the pot calling the kettle black. Neither are sugar but both are sweet poisons. You have Equal/aspartame an addictive excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug. It's genetically engineered grown in E.coli. The amino acids are connected by methanol, a severe metabolic poison. You have these big vats of toxic sludge that is then pressed into a white powder. Dr Deagle in Canada has seen the vats. It breaks down to DKP, a brain tumor agent. It has caused a global plague and there is a medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, www.sunsentpress.com by Dr. H. J. Roberts.
Splenda is a chlorocarbon poison. As Dr. Bowen says, "Sucralose is a molecule of sugar chemically manipulated to surrender three hydroxyl groups (hydrogen + oxygen) and replace them with three chlorine atoms. Natural sugar is a hydrocarbon built around 12 carbon atoms. When turned into Splenda it becomes a chlorocarbon, in the family of Chlorodane, Lindane and DDT." It started out as an insecticide. As someone said, "it still is"! We call it DDT-Lite! Constant reactions come in on this chlorocarbon poison and James Turner, Atty, and Citizens For Health have already petitioned the FDA to ban it. It's just the Fatal Drugs Allowed folks are not loyal to consumers but to Big Pharma, the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.
Millions have perished from aspartame. See the documentary on how it has poisoned the entire world, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World. www.amazon.com Dr. James Bowen says that since aspartame is a chemical hypersensitization agent, when you go from aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful/Canderel,E951) to Splenda you can maintain the reactions from aspartame and pick up those from Splenda.
Just Like Sugar, the safe sweetener sold in Whole Foods and Wild Oats, has already been after Splenda when they said "taste just like sugar" and they had to remove "just" from the boxes because Just Like Sugar has the copyright. Then aspartame was taken off the shelves in South Africa because someone showed, it doesn't take like sugar like they said. They had to remove the saying. It still hasn't been removed in the UK as far as I know.
This is an opportunity for the world to find out Equal and Splenda are simply sweet poisons and both need to be removed from the market along with the FDA that put them there to poison the world.
In New York we are taking aspartame brain tumor cases in New Jersey and New York.
Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder,
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770 242-2599
www.wnho.net and www.dorway.com
www.mpwhi.com Aspartame Information List
www.holisticmed.com/aspartame Aspartame Toxicity Center
4-15-2007 @ 4:28PM
lawtrainee said...
Splenda is nothing like the migraine and head pounding experience I get with Equal and Sweet and Low.
Splenda kicks butt. Too bad in science experiments its found to deposit chlorine in the intestines and stomach -- does it ever leave?
4-16-2007 @ 12:06AM
Joseph said...
Your initial intuition regarding Sweet 'N Low was correct. Sweet 'N Low was the top selling artificial sweetener until about 2005 when Splenda took that title. Equal (or NutraSweet) never held it.
The reason for your confusion is that Equal grosses more dollars in sales than Sweet 'N Low. This is simply because Equal costs more. Nevertheless, more Sweet 'N Low is sold on the market than Equal.
4-16-2007 @ 4:20PM
Luke Visger said...
What do patrons of foodservice establishments prefer? I am sure Splenda and Equal would like to know considering foodservice is one of the biggest markets for sugar/sugar substitutes. We are (Wyoming Research) proposing a REAL study to find out who has the best sugar substitute on the market.