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Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Stevia Part 3

Every now and then someone asks me my opinion on artificial sweeteners – it might be at lunch when they see the Nutrasweet packages in the middle of the table or when deciding which kind of gum to buy. I relish these opportunities because they present me with a chance to convince one more person that they are actively poisoning their body with a chemically enhanced sweetener, what is really nothing more than a neurotoxin eating away at their brains silently.

It might sound morbid, but it is the truth; the FDA has approved a whole laundry list of dangerous, artificial sweeteners while naturally occurring products like Stevia remain on their controlled substances list.

Stevia was always ignored in the country by the food agencies for whatever reason. It may have been the sugar industry touting its influence in Washington or it may have just been the rapid development of new sweeteners like Aspartame that would soon flood the market to provide a cheap, easily produced alternative. Unfortunately, that cheap alternative is also incredible dangerous.

Stevia’s Limited Influence Cut Off

In the 1980s, just before Aspartame started to take off, Stevia was still allowed in the US; used in some herbal teas as a flavor enhancer. The FDA decided at some point, rather suddenly, that this would not continue however and soon the teas were pulled and a campaign was launched to keep anyone from having Stevia as an option at all. There were embargoes, seizures, and finally an “import alert” that kept Stevia from being imported. The FDA even went so far as to deny it a GRAS (generally recognized as safe), even though it’s been used for centuries safely and had a long clinical history of being safe for human consumption.

They slapped an “unsafe additive” label on it, and sat back to watch the fledgling sweetener sputter and drown. To this day, no on really knows why they did it; it’s hard to know why the government does much of anything anymore honestly.

The World Knows Better

And yet, while the US was busy wasting resources in blocking its import, the rest of the world was enjoying the best sugar substitute on the market. China, Japan, South America, and parts of Europe were actively enjoying what was clearly a great product – a naturally occurring sweetener with almost as many positive side effects as the artificial sweeteners had negative side effects.

The market pretty much stayed like this until 1994 when a piece of legislation that I will actually give the government credit for allowed the import of it once more. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act once again made Stevia import legal. Of course there were stipulations though. Not only was Stevia not allowed to be labeled as a sweetener in any way, it would be banned altogether if it was misused outside of the dietary supplement market.

The FDA Goes too Far

You wouldn’t expect that a simple government agency in charge of maintaining our health in welfare would actively go out of its way, using brutal tactics and disturbing demands to quash any chance of a product they don’t endorse becoming widely used. Yet, in 1998, they did just that, ordering the destruction of cookbooks and literature published by Stevita in Arlington, Texas. After blocking their incoming shipments, they strove to destroy any vestige of their burgeoning Stevia market, reinforcing their rule that it never be attributed as a sweetener.

The FDA’s forward assault was thankfully blocked by the concerns of public outcry and the careful, watchful eye of the media. Even the ACLU has gotten involved, and recent action in courts has shown that the FDA’s actions were constitutionally illegal. They do not have the right to block or disparage the use of any food product that is legal and grown in the United States.

The Conspiracy Continues

Today, Stevia remains on the FDA’s shortlist of unwanted substances, even as Aspartame and now Splenda rise to the top of the food chain and rake in billions annually. The connections between the FDA and Monsanto, the company that owns NutraSweet have been documented time and again and when actions such as the complete relaxation of any regulations against Aspartame occur, as they did in 1996, it begs the question of who is on whose payroll.

Stevia is a safe product; it is among the most beneficial and by far the sweetest sugar substitutes on the market and yet the FDA pretends that it poses a massive risk to those who enjoy it. This irresponsible, carefully crafted disapproval has only prolonged the use of dangerous artificial sweeteners in the population. Every time I see a friend or family member pouring these toxins into their bodies, I cringe. They could be so much healthier.


Stevia Part 1 | Stevia Part 2



A discussion thread on this article as been created in the forums.  You can access it here:
http://cureyourbody.com/forums/viewthread/35/


sugar, sweet n low, stevia, aspartame, artificial sweetener,


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