Hi, this is probably a silly question, but I'm confused....I keep hearing that Splenda has zero carbs. But as I sit here and look at the nutritional content on the side of my box of Canadian bought Splenda, it lists 1 packet = 4 calories, 0 protein, 0 fat, 1 g carbs and 12 mg sucralose. The ingredients listed are: dextrose, maltodextrine, sucralose.
Can someone tell me what gives here? Thanks!

Sucralose (Splenda is the brand name) has zero carbs in its pure state. Technically, it's called an "intense sweetener", since it's approx. 600 times sweeter-tasting than sucrose/sugar. Actually all of the "artificial" sweeteners - aspartame/nutrasweet, saccharine and cyclamate (only avail. in Canada) are zero carbs in their pure state.

However, in order to make it into a form that's practical for consumers to use, the manufacturers add filler ... maltodextrin and dextrose most commonly used. Dextrose is a type of sugar and is a carbohydrate. Maltodextrin is a carb as well, spun from highly refined cornstarch. These are what make up the bulk of the white powder we see when we open a packet or scoop out of a box or jar.

Now, about the discrepancy between Canada and US. In Canada, labels must declare carbydrate to the nearest 0.1g, if a serving is less than 10g of the food. In the US, they are only required to report the nearest whole gram, and if one serving of the food is less than 1g carb, they are permitted to label it as ZERO. This is disadvantageous, since it can mislead the consumer into believing that multiple servings of the food will still be ZERO, which it is not. Cream is another example, where there is 0.4g carb in 1Tbsp heavy cream, yet in the US, they label it as zero.

So, the Canadian label is accurate. Splenda, as we buy it, whether in packets or in bulk, has 24g carbs in it for the amount equivalent to one cup of sugar. (24 packets = sweetness of 1 c. sugar)

Commercial foods we buy that are sweetened with Splenda - drinks, ice tea, etc ... - do not need to have the maltodextrin filler added. The manufacturer just adds the pure sucralose to their product, and so there are zero carbs added.

Apparently, there is a liquid Splenda available in some countries, but not in Canada yet. It has zero carbs, again because it doesn't need to have the granular filler in it. In Canada, Sugar Twin (cyclamate) is available in liquid form that is zero carbs.

hope this helps

Doreen

Yes, you totally cleared it up! I understand now. Thanks for your response.

my salt has dextrose!

Does the liquid Sugar Twin have that aspartame ( bad for us ) stuff?
I'm tired of being frustrated at not knowing which sweetners to go for.

When someone mentions a type of sweetner I go look for them and don't pick it up either because there are ingredients that I can't even pronounce or they have aspartame.

I've seen some sweetner brand names now have brown sugar.
Are they safe to buy and does Splenda have a brown sugar?
I love the taste of brown sugar, but obviously don't need the carbs.

Also I love the taste that Coffee mate gives to my coffee.
I don't always use it because I don't know if it's okay, but if it is.... does anyone know if the powder or cream Coffee mate is better? So far I only have maybe one cup a day and it's always decaf. with one tsp of splenda and one tsp of coffee mate. Is that okay?

When Splenda in liquid form is finally sold in Canada, can someone please let me know?

Thanks.
Lisa.