Sweetmyx - The New Sweetener and What You Should Know

Sugar has gotten a bad rap for years; hey there's a reason that Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are the most popular soft drinks. But lately we've been hearing about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin.

And now there is a new product, which acts like an artificial sweetener, that will soon be sneaking into our beverages – Sweetmyx.

This new ingredient is not a sweetener itself, but a chemical used to enhance the sweet flavor in lower sugar beverages. It's more like a "flavor modifier". Sounds healthy, doesn't it?

The most important thing to know about Sweetmyx is that has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company that makes Sweetmyx, Senomyx, issued a public statement earlier this year that the ingredient was generally recognized as safe (GRAS), but the FDA released a statement that this determination was not made by them.

The other thing to know about Sweetmyx is that it will be exclusively used in Pepsico products (apparently Coca-Cola toyed around with the idea of using it years ago, but that never happened). Pepsico has not announced which drinks it plans to use Sweetmyx in.

Other than that, there is not much we know about Sweetmyx, which should be a big red flag. Bruce Bradley, author of Fat Profits, wrote "From what I’ve been able to surmise, S617 (the company's moniker for Sweetmyx) is not a naturally derived sweetness enhancer. It appears to be artificially synthesized from chemicals."

The bottom line is we don't really know what it is or what it will do to our bodies. Until Pepsico or Senomyx provide studies on the long-term effects Sweetmyx will have, it's best to avoid all artificial sweeteners and use real sugar…in moderation!