YouTuber Tom Scott is doing a run where he highlights smaller channels by bringing their work to his for fans. This time that goes to Alex from Technicality Studios. Alex did a video where he explores the calorie content of Splenda, what's supposedly a no calorie sweetener.
If calories come from glucose, Alex posits, then a sweetener that claims to be "no calories" must have no glucose. Splenda, it turns out, is made from dextrose, another name for glucose. And it has just as many calories as regular sugar.
Right, why? Well, it turns out that the FDA (that's the Food and Drug Administration here in the U.S.) lets any food with less than five calories market as having zero calories. Splenda's calories per gram? 4. Regular sugar's calories per gram? 4.
If one were to market sugar, they could claim it was a no calorie sweetener, too.
