I was sitting in the Dr.'s office reading a parenting magazine yesterday when I came across a small article addressing Artificial Sweetener Safety. I can't remember if it was Parents or Parenting magazine (I'll have to look that up later and post it here.) I was outraged to read this: in one column titled "Stevia", it said that no conclusive evidence has found it safe for consumption and that it may even cause reproductive problems.
! There was no reference to who conducted and paid for that research. Then, in the column titled "Aspartame", it said a recent study by the University of Michigan has deemed this safe to use as a sweetener in food. Again,
!
Here's my 2 cents on the matter: Stevia is a natural plant derivative that the FDA REALLY doesn't want to label "safe" b/c they are financiall in cahoots w/ the Aspartame people. Bear with me, I'll explain.
Apartame contains 3 major components: methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. All 3 individually have been shown to either stimulate brain cells to death, upset hormone balances in the brain or act as a nerve poison. The synergistic effects of these 3 chemical components on health are largely unknown.
The Canadian authors of 'Hard to Swallow: The Truth About Food Additives" describe what happens when a diet drink containing aspartame is stored at room temp for a week or more: "There is no aspartame left in the soft drinks, just the components it breaks down into, like formaldehyde, formic acid, and diketopiperazine, a chemical which can cause brain tumours. All of these substances are known to be toxic to humans."
It took 16 years ofr the FDA to finally approve the use of aspartame b/c many of the animal studies testing it's safety had produced a disturbing pattern of brain tumors. In 1980 an FDA Board of Inquiry voted unanimously against approving it for human consumption. A year later the commissioner of the FDA, Arthur Hull Hayes Jr., overruled his agency's own scientists and approved it for use in dry food products. He approved it's use in carbonated drinks in 1983. Soon thereafter Hayes left the FDA and went to work for G.D. Searle & Co., the pharmaceutical co. that MAKES aspartame. (Searle is now Pfizer).
Over the next 2 years after aspartame was added to soft drinks, research proved incidence of brain cancer among US citizens had increased sharply. Warnings about it's toxicity were issued in 1991 by NIH which catalogued 167 adverse effects; in 1992 by the US Air Force in a warning to its pilots not to fly after ingesting it; and in 1994 by the USDHHS (health/human svcs.) which detailed 88 documented symptoms of toxicity.
Here is a partial list of diseases thought to be exacerbated or triggered by this additive: birth defects, depression, mental retardation, chronic fatigue syndrome, brain tumours, epilepsy, MS, parkinson's, Alzheimers, etc.
It was even once listed by the US Pentagon as a prospective biochemical warfare weapon. The manufacturer's make so much money and exercise so much political influence, the regulatory system has been manipulated and compromised.
It's sad to see a magazine parent's go to for guidance sice w/ Big Business and Big Medicine. So, University of Michigan - where is this research on Stevia? Who paid you to do it? Was it truly open-ended in it's search for answers or was it directed at finding fault, no matter how inconsequential, with Stevia as a food sweetener?
Somehow I highly doubt that Stevia has any adverse effects, and if so, what's the fine print? By that I mean what are the chances of anything really happening, and to what extent is the negative effect? "Reproductive Issues" is a vague umbrella to toss something under - that could just mean it increases, or even alleviates, PMS! Who knows. We won't, until we demand that our system give us the entire truth and let us decide for ourselves what's safe and what's not.
*thanks for your time, off my
now!*
