Splenda has enjoyed increasing popularity over the past few years, mainly due to the impact of the South Beach Diet on the public. Sales have reportedly increased 50 percent in the past year.

The diet sweetener, introduced in 2000, initially as a product for diabetics, became more and more popular. The obesity problem was becoming more acute while low-carb diets, such as the South Beach and the Atkins diet, rose in popularity.

The tremendous success of the sweetener has resulted, on the one hand, in the scarcity of the product on the market and on the other, in litigation.

Demand now outstrips supply. Production capacity cannot keep up.

As a result of soaring demand from consumers, Splenda has been introduced in many low-carb products, from soft drinks, ice-cream, cereals and all types of bars, to candy, jams and jellies and syrups. Approximately 10,000 products are estimated to use Splenda.

Demand is set to increase even further in the near future. Based on sucralose, Splenda has been banned in the European Union. Yet it will be introduced in all member countries in 2005.

The solution will probably be switching to some other sweetener, or using sugar and sweetener blends, which have fewer calories but require less of the substitute.

Popularity brings prejudice with it. Thus, the 48 percentage of the sugar substitute market held by Splenda made it the new leader, replacing the former leader, Equal, that has presently slid to 20%. Consequently, Merisant Worldwide Inc., the maker of Equal, filed a lawsuit alleging that the ads for the rival sweetener are false. Splenda is advertised as entirely natural, made of sucralose, a sugar compound. For this reason that Splenda is widely recommended in all these low-carb diets. Merisant is trying to prove that Splenda is not natural. According to Merisant, Splenda is sweetened with a synthetic compound. Moreover, its production involves the use of a gas described as "poisonous" by the lawsuit, namely phosgene.

In reply, the company behind Splenda, McNeil Nutritionals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, filed suit in Puerto Rico to have its ads declared legal.