(clap, clap, clap,) "Bravo!"

Cargill is another PERFECT example of how UNinnovative corporations truly are. As best I can see, here's how giant corporate businesses work: 1) They look for new businesses who have done all the work in establishing a market (in this case tens of thousands of HEALTH food stores who regularly sell the truly natural harmless sweetener, Stevia) and then 2A) giant corporatations either BUYOUT the successful small innovative business, OR 2B) the giant corporations create a duplicate version of the sucessful product and claim the original one is UNsafe, dangerous, or even deadly.

(clap, clap, clap)
Nerissa

Doesn't Alternet realize the above propaganda is just a PR news release disguised as news? Stevia has been around a long time and now Cargill wants all of the market. greedy bastards.

Stevia is so foul tasting, it makes saccharin taste like honey. But I guess if you have to have your daily bucket of cola it might be a better kind of bad than the rat poison they've been selling you.

opps..I meant Commondreams instead of Alternet. However Alternet does the same

There needs to be a word for getting something home from the grocery store and only then discovering that it has artificial sweetener in it.

"WTF is wrong with this pie? Gross! I've been Splensold again!"

Saccarized?

Truviled!

yeah, who gives a $hit about artifial sweeteners, RIGHT ON BLUEAPPLES! another pr stunt disguised as real news...

I'm not for Cargill, but as a diabetic I am forced to use alternative sweeteners since sugar in my case can be a killer. I doubt seriously that there are any good sweeteners on the market and you have never lived until you have had any baked item made with Splenda. A gallon of milk is often needed to moisturize these desert like deserts. So maybe Truvia can replace sugar in baked goods.

Let's argue about replacing electric cars for gas ones. That is worth arguing about, not some new sweetener. Sorry but this discussion is...

Sorry, but those who see this as a corporate power grab are absolutely correct. Stevia is supposed to be one of two "safe" sweeteners. Now that we have a processed version of it, the FDA will go after stevia per the propaganda in above piece.

That's why it matters, because those who think it's stupid to get worked up over artificial sweeteners that no one should use/need anyway are also correct. But this is the pattern and they're getting bolder. www.healthfreedomusa.org
for people who are trying to stop them and an explanation of what the end game is.

(I understand the DM problem but, frankly, if your body has carbohydrate metabolism problems you should be weaning yourself off the taste for sugar and onto lean protein, legumes and non-starchy vegetables. Unless you're baking with rough whole grains {at least some cracked and or soaked whole} learn to not bake or to bake with those products occasionally. You have to learn to eat unprocessed food otherwise artificial sweetener use is borderline silly. It is healthier and cheaper. You have to take control of your health, gov't and other third party help is dwindling fast.)

thevideoqueen said,

"Cargill is another PERFECT example of how UNinnovative corporations truly are. As best I can see, here's how giant corporate businesses work: 1) They look for new businesses who have done all the work in establishing a market (in this case tens of thousands of HEALTH food stores who regularly sell the truly natural harmless sweetener, Stevia) and then 2A) giant corporatations either BUYOUT the successful small innovative business, OR 2B) the giant corporations create a duplicate version of the sucessful product and claim the original one is UNsafe, dangerous, or even deadly.

(clap, clap, clap)
Nerissa"

Very true. I expect the Criminally Incorporated to use the same tactics on renewable energy and electric vehicles. They just hate the idea of not having a bunch of heroin... oops I mean gas addicts.... pumping up every few days. Stay tuned truth seekers.

Gyro - that was awesome! I love it!

May I start using those terms myself? Do you have them patented?

I have eaten fresh stevia leaves picked from the plant and they are very very sweet. The rat liver mutation will definitely keep me from eating more until independent scientific tests are completed.

I am not so sure about the "safety" issue. If you give rats high doses of something and they develop some kind of health problem -- well, I have a pet rat and know there are a lot of things that I eat that, if I gave to my pet rat, would cause him problems (even certain fruits and vegetables). Does this mean they are "unsafe" for human consumption? Remember, Stevia is a natural herb - not a chemical poison like saccharin (which, despite all of its connections to health problems, cancer, etc. is allowed to be in everything).

I recall reading a while back how folks into natural foods wanted to make this a safe, no-calorie substitute sweetener, and the NutraSweet lobbyists saw this as a major threat to their little corner of the artificial sweetener market. They sent out the guys in the black suburbans to threaten them, etc. My husband is a pastry chef and he was approached by some people interested in having him develop some sugar-free baked goods with the product and that is when I looked into it. It was a pretty interesting story!

Seems this product is being held to a standard far beyond what was required of chemical, artificial sweeteners. You bet it has to do with the huge amounts of money involved (think diet soda). I think one of the key things about this was that stevia is non-patentable in its natural form and can be used in its natural form as a sweetener. No big bucks to be made there. Anyone would be able to use it. Now Cargill has found a way to patent a little formula by using just "a part" of the leaf and concoct a little compound. So, with natural stevia effectively blocked from any kind of patents or marketability, they can throw their muscle behind this "unique" formula, get FDA approval for it and corner the market. You gotta love corporate America!

Doom n gloom: they said the mutation thing was the biggest "if", as in "We don't know if the conversion of stevioside to steviol to a mutagen happens in humans...it is probably a minor issue, but it clearly needs to be resolved." As in, grasping at anything to make it difficult for this product to go to market to please the big food corporations.

Animal research is unreliable for human health and one has to be a fool to believe that if something affects a rat it will automatically affect a human.

An all natural sugar alternative was developed in the 70s called Miraculan.
Or the Miracle berry. A type of lime that is sweeter than an orange.
But the FDA banned it as an additive.
You can still get the fruit though, overnight.

Hey Truth Seekers,
Once the populace realizes that the FDA only needs one test out of a fifty tests that says a product is safe before it can come to market (ie: the other 49 said it was unsafe), then the populace will realize that the FDA might only need 1 in 50 tests that say something (stevia) is harmful in order to PREVENT IT from coming to market.

BTW, This type of system can only works in corrupt governments.

I highly recommend the DVD sold at www.foodmatters.tv to learn a lot more about US government regulation of foods, natural supplements and vitamins.