A couple of weeks ago, a blog friend ranted on the evils of Splenda. He mentioned a web site that listed two references: one to a Sugar Association’s web site and another to Dr. Joseph Mercola. As I wrote here, the Sugar Association’s information is intentionally misleading. I wanted to better understand Dr. Mercola’s position and determine if he was any better qualified than the Sugar Association.

In his book, Mercola makes several assertions on dietary inputs that are appealing to the hippie in me, e.g. eat organic, less-processed stuff. He contradicts (current) conventional wisdom, which piqued my scientific and methodical side. However, I am deeply skeptical the only substantiation are anecdotes. Furthermore, several of his arguments use selective logical fallacies. It’s one thing to claim “X has never been proven safe,” but when one does not offer any third-party citations of studies indicating one’s own program has undergone any formal testing, my skepticism says this is another fad diet.

To be clear, I am not advocating we all start drinking beverages made with Splenda (Sucralose), Nutrasweet (Aspartame), Saccharin, cyclamates, High Fructose Corn Syrup, or sugar. What I am suggesting is we exhibit healthy skepticism at claims we read from all groups, specially when there may be a fiduciary responsibility to the a competitor. As I turned forty this year, I have witnessed at least two cycles of eggs being the wonder food, death food, wonder food, death food, wonder food.