Tummy troubles

My all-time favorites from Blue Bunny are Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate and Exquisite Mint. Yum! Since I have a strong love for ice cream and have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes (again), I decided to try out some Blue Bunny that has less sugar than normal.

I bought some delicious sounding peanut butter and chocolate variety and a fudge and almond variety. Both were made with Splenda (sucralose). I've been curious about how it tastes in ice cream since I've heard nothing but great reviews about how it's the only artificial sweetener you can bake with.

The first night, I tried some of both and found that the peanut butter one is much better than the almond one. Later that night, I had horrible, horrible stomach cramps and other gastro problems I won't discuss. This went on the rest of the night and the following day. Not thinking anything of it, I had some more ice cream a few days later. The same thing happened.

Yesterday I was visiting with my neighbor and mentioned it to her. She said she had just read an article discussing the adverse effects of sucralose. When Jay got home I mentioned it to him and we discussed how Splenda hasn't been available for very long and maybe all the risks haven't been studied just like what happened with saccharine and aspartame, both of which can cause birth defects in unborn babies as well as numerous other problems to the person ingesting the artificial sweeteners.

According to this article and many others, "research in animals has shown that sucralose can cause many problems such as:

· Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40 percent shrinkage)

· Enlarged liver and kidneys

· Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus

· Increased fecal weight

· Reduced growth rate

· Decreased red blood cell count

· Hyperplasia of the pelvis

· Extension of the pregnancy period

· Aborted pregnancy

· Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights

· Diarrhea

I'll still eat Blue Bunny, but it sure won't be their "healthier" products.