Speaking of how government policies affect what we consume, the FDA continues to not allow the use of stevia as a sweetener in foods. Stevia is a natural substance, intensely sweet at around 300 times as sweet as sugar, that is used in numerous foreign countries with no ill effects. It is allowed as a dietary supplement here in the US, but not as a food additive, which seems rather odd. If it’s safe enough to be taken as a supplement, the logic follows that it is safe enough to be used as a food additive.

What we’re really seeing isn’t aversion to the health effects of the herb; it’s aversion to what the introduction of stevia to the food supply will do to our sugar farmers. Our government heavily subsidizes the growth of sugar and corn, which is turned into high-fructose corn syrup, both detrimental to health. Compared to other non-caloric sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose (Splenda), stevia (an herb) is downright wholesome. The three former are man-made chemicals and the first two have been shown to have definite adverse health effects. Then there are definite questions about the safety of sucralose, considering that it is made by chlorinating sugar, chlorine is poisonous, and some 25% of the stuff is metabolized in the body.

Looking at it from the perspective of human studies, stevia again wins. Aspartame and saccharin have both come under scrutiny for their health effects. Although somewhat controversial, saccharin has been claimed to cause cancer and aspartame is claimed to be a neurotoxin. Is it as bad as many websites claim? Likely not. But the facts are that the artificial sweeteners are man-made and chemical-based, that there is a $1.5 billion artificial sweetener market, and that our government hasn’t been known to take human health into account when there is so much money involved. Stevia, however, has “over 900 articles published to date. In this well-chronicled history of stevia, no author has ever reported any adverse human health consequences associated with consumption of stevia leaf.” Stevia has a reported history spanning centuries amongst indigenous tribes. Aspartame has been around only since 1965 and sucralose only since the 1990s. Ask yourself which has the best long-term human trials, stevia or the chemical brothers?

Here is a quote from Mauro Alvarez, Ph.D:

“Even if they have reviewed these studies, the only possible way to report that the results showed detrimental effects is by taking information out of context. If this is the case, one concludes that these FDA scientists are incompetent and irresponsible, or if not, they must belong to some sort of conspiracy group to carry on a sinister agenda against this plant with the objective to keep it away from American consumers by attributing to it safety issues that do not exist.” Mauro Alvarez, Ph.D., responding in a 1998 letter to the fact that the FDA cited stevia studies he conducted as evidence that stevia is unsafe.

I have a feeling that we’ll soon see stevia miraculously approved for use as a food additive though.

Companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Cargill Inc. have been developing products that substitute stevia for artifical sweeteners like aspartame, but the FDA currently bans any food product from containing the natural sweetener.

See, when big companies like Coca-Cola and Cargill with their big money start greasing the palms of the big wigs that decide what is in our best interests, the FDA will probably start singing a different tune.

I’ve used stevia before and wow is that stuff intense. Two drops in a cup of tea was plenty to make it super-sweet. If you get a bit overzealous with it, it goes from sweet to bitter. I only used it for a short time and quit not because of health concerns, but because I didn’t think that it was a good idea to train my tongue to expect sweetness. I think that the biggest concern about artificial sweeteners is that you don’t turn off the tongue’s expectation of sweetness. Rather than giving the body sugar, you are giving it something sugar-ish. I’d much rather see someone wean themselves off of all forms of sweetener and learn to appreciate the natural sweetness of a carrot or sweet potato and use fruit for their sugar intake rather than swapping one vice for another.

Sources:
Organic Consumers Association
Wikipedia - Stevia
Wikipedia - Saccharin
Wikipedia - Aspartame


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