Most people in today's world are very weight conscious. No one wants to get overweight, and those who already are, keep trying to shed off the extra weight. That means that people are engaging in very minimal calorie intake. Everyone is avoiding food with high calorie content. An example of foods that fall into this category is Sugar and that is why many people are opting to use saccharin.

Saccharin is an artificial sweetener that is used in place of sugar. That means that even diabetic individuals can make their foods sweet without having to worry about excess sugar in the body. Due to this fact of an artificial sweetener replacing sugar, you would expect it to be something that is used widely to make many types of foods. However, on the contrary, people who know about it are avoiding it as much as possible. This is because of the many saccharin side effects.

One of the most dangerous saccharin side effects that have been under study is cancer. In the 1960's, saccharin was classed as a carcinogen, which is a substance that puts someone in the danger of getting cancer. There were subsequent studies of the carcinogenic properties of saccharin and in 1977, a study was carried out in rats that latter developed cancerous tumors in their bladders due to saccharin. This led it to be banned in some countries like the United States of America.

In some people, Saccharin has been reported to cause allergic reactions like skin rashes, headaches and diarrhea. This probably because of the sulfur content in Saccharin, bearing in mind that there are many people who are very allergic to sulfur.

Saccharin has also been proven to be unsafe for pregnant mothers and their babies. This is because the sweetener can easily pass from the mother, though the placenta to the unborn baby and cause harm for the baby. Such babies, after birth, usually experience problems such as muscle dysfunction.

Therefore, saccharin is very harmful to infants and it should therefore be avoided by breastfeeding mothers, since it can be passed from mother to child through the milk. Apart from that, it should also definitely not be used in any baby formula. That is dangerous and would be very harmful to the baby.

Some studies have also suggested that the use of saccharin over a long period of time could actually lead to an increase in body weight, something that makes it no better that sugar.