Now a new study has come out showing that sugar increases heart disease risk: Study Details.
I know in my heart that making all the recipes I did through the years with sugar and white flour would have been our undoing. Instead we've used Splenda and flour substitutes on a lower carbohydrate diet for about 11 years. Prior to that since 1992, we've used Splenda instead of sugar - that makes 18 years. 18 years of moderate to heavy Splenda consumption versus sugar consumption. Maybe it's wise to do moderation with Splenda but that's not the way it worked out for my family. We have probably been the world's greatest guinea pigs for Splenda consumption over a long period of time and using plenty of it! I feel fairly confident that no one else will consume as much as we have in a lifetime, so it should be relatively safe for other people to use, unless one has some kind of allergy to it. Sugar, on the other hand, consumed in large quantities would definitely have posed a problem for us health-wise as this recent study proves.
That said everyone wanting to avoid sugar in baking needs to find a sugar substitute that they feel comfortable with; just make sure it is heat stable.