A Splenda'd website

First, a disclaimer. I dig on Splenda. I like Splenda so much that I buy it by the case at Costco.

It was probably the Atkins Diet that did a world of good for Splenda's sales given that nearly every recipe in the Atkins book calls for Splenda. I was on the Atkins Diet. Twice. Both times, I got pregnant. An unusual side effect that no doubt needs to be studied post haste. Now that I know what causes that sort of thing, I switched to the South Beach Diet.

Splenda was brilliantly marketed as an alternative to sugar that tastes so good because it is a derivative of sugar. Not everyone is as enthusiastic about Splenda, however.

There is a website that has sprung up that has broken the news that Splenda is a chemical. Well, ok, glad that confusion is cleared up.

But that doesn't seem to be the end of this campaign.

According to an article in the National Journal (1/22/05), the Sugar Association's law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has hired Qorvis Communications to "build a consumer coalition that would raise concerns about the sugar substitute." In particular, they would like to get the attention of the FTC so they can, well, I guess, issue some proclamation or run around in circles with their hair on fire.

So that websites and bloggers can run around with their hair on fire.

So that anchors in the 24 hour news family can run around with their hair on fire.

All with the latest story entitled, "It's in your kitchen cabinet, and it can KILL you."

Remember when we were supposed to drink gallons of water a day, now we learn that it is bad for us? Or when learned that after years of counting calories that it was really overloading on carbs that could cause problems? Then we learned that maybe lower carbs aren't a good thing but neither is loading up on red meat? Or flour? The list of do's and don't's is more confusing than keeping up with every season's new skirt lengths. Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Busters, the various soup diets, stomach stapling....who can keep up with it all?

Heck, in my short lifetime, I have gone from sugar to the little pink packets (which if given to lab rats by the barrells-full will do bad things) to the little blue packets (I'll confess here I don't recall what major organ system is affected, but whatever it is, it's bad) to the bright yellow packets.

So the Sugar Association now must defend its market share once again. I'd be willing to be that another billable-hours laden campaign is just around the corner besides this website operation, complete with a full advertising campaign entitled, "Sugar: The Real Deal" or "Sugar: Back to the Basics" or "Sugar: You might get hyper, but you won't get cancer."

The clear difference between this new anti-Splenda campaign and the campaigns of yesteryear is the Internet. In the blink of an eye, information can get to massive amounts of folks with a nice official looking websites. Websites make for good billable hours if ya do enough of them, I guess.

Far worse than buying Splenda, my conservative buddies would tell me, is buying Splenda at Costco. Costco executives gave buckets of money to John Kerry's campaign.

Whether I get my Splenda from Costco or anywhere else, I'm not switchin' from Splenda and that's all there is to it.

So I'm drawin' the line here, boys. Got nothin' against sugar except that, well, I have so darned much Splenda from Costco at this point that, well,... sigh.