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(Splenda) It doesn't break down that's why it's noncaloric. Nothing is metabolized, it just passes through.

Ah, okay, I was wondering the science on this -- when the commercials came out, "Tastes like sugar because it's made from sugar", I was curious to know if they'd been able to do something like draw the *sweet* from sugar cane and leave the fibrous plant matter behind.

Well, I guess you could say sucralose is derived from sugar but that's a bit misleading because the chemical structure of sucralose is very different from sucrose. I don't think the FDA allows them to claim it's from sugar anymore. Sucralose is made by substituting three chlorine atoms for three hydroxyl groups. It's 600 times sweeter than sugar and, unlike aspartame, it stands up to heat so it can be used for baking.

Sucralose isn't recognized by the body as a carbohydrate so it is not metabolized. Studies have shown that some of it is absorbed but is eliminated as same. Along with aspartame and olestra, sucralose is the most tested ingredient in history. People worry about these artificial sweeteners while eating twice the amount of calories they burn. It's a weird world.