STEVIA SWEETENER

A question to all of you:

Do you happen to know what "stevia" is? A thal-diabetic friend of mine first talked to me about that and asked me to make an investigation on internet about it. I found this site:
www.stevia.com/
it is probably an american site and stevia is a South American sweetener  used by the Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years. It has a lot of properties as I can see and I was wondering if any of you use it....

Lena

A subject I have first hand knowledge about.

I use stevia as a sugar substitute in some things. Last week I bought a stevia plant for my garden. The fresh leaves are very sweet. It is used fresh, as a dried herb, or as an extract that looks similar to table sugar, and even as a liquid extract. It is very safe for diabetics and unlike artificial sweeteners, there is no controversy about its safety.

http://www.stevia.com/

Stevia has many excellent properties. The body does not metabolize the sweet glycosides from the stevia leaf or any of its processed forms - so there is no caloric intake. Stevia doesn't adversely affect blood glucose levels and may be used freely by diabetics.

Stevia is sold as a supplement in the US because it has not been approved by the FDA as a sweetener. The same FDA that falls all over itself approving artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which have known side effects. But aspartame is made by big Pharma, so what else could we expect from the corrupt FDA?

As with everything, use stevia in moderation. We would do well to cut down on our desire for sweets in general.

Thank you very much, Andy. Your opinion is always valued. The Agricultural School of Athens University will start stevia plantations next year and its opinion for stevia advantages is high.

Of course, there is a controversy about aspartame and other technical artificials but as I have read there are two different schools about it:
the American one that objects to artificial sweeteners and the European one that accepts them.
This is what I have read but you say the FDA supports aspartame and others??? 

Anyway, as you have said..."we must cut down on our desire for sweets in general".

Lena.

Aspartame is well accepted in the US by the FDA, the health care industry, the food industry and the public. It has full FDA approval and the voices speaking out against its use are drowned out by a constant onslaught of advertising for low calorie foods and drink. One of the voices that constantly speaks out against this sweetener is Dr Mercola. An index of articles about aspartame can be seen at http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/index.htm  This one particluar link should send us running away from the use of aspartame. http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/dangers.htm

I am convinced that the FDA is in the pocket of the corporate food and drug industries and seldom looks out for the health of humans. The long term goal of big Pharma is to have the FDA control supplements, so that we cannot easily get the vitamins, minerals and other natural supplements that so many of us use on a daily basis. We are already beginning to see an onslaught of advertising in the US for derivatives of natural supplements like fish oil. These derivatives are highly concentrated, usually only include one active ingredient from the natural source, have a multitude of side effects that the natural substances do not have, and most important for big Pharma, cost a lot more than any natural supplement. Check out this page of side effects for Lovaza. One has to wonder where we are headed when something as benign as fish oil can be turned into a drug loaded with side effects.
http://www.rxlist.com/lovaza-drug.htm

In Canada and Europe, many natural substances are already being highly regulated. L-carntine cannot even be bought in Canada without a prescription (at a high cost). I do not believe that the medical industry as a whole is interested in good health, even though we see great exceptions in certain fields like thalassemia medicine, although even there, when you get down to the nitty gritty, you can often be appalled, as I am about the current state of gene therapy being pushed by one company. We also see this with a drug like Ferrirpox still waiting for approval in the US, while a drug made by a giant company was fast tracked, in spite of the many ongoing concerns about long term usage and use in older patients (Exjade). Many patients, including the founder of this group have been victims of this system where the big guys get to control the market. The FDA is often nothing more than a rubber stamp for the big companies.

Back to stevia. I will gladly take my chances using this sweet plant that is growing in my own garden over the accidental chemical combination called aspartame.