Buy Walking VideosStevia: Is It Safe?
I saw the sweetener at Wild Oats. It was in a bright green box and cost a whopping 25 bucks, but I thought I would try it. It’s supposed to be natural, right? It tasted good. It only took a tiny amount to sweeten my herbal tea. I was happy with it and didn’t think much about the reason it was marketed as an herbal supplement instead of a sweetener.
The reason it is marketed as a herbal supplement instead of a sweetener (or any other type of food) is because they haven’t bothered to go through the FDA process of proving that Stevia doesn’t kill people. They haven’t even proved that Stevia is zero calories.
Think of all the products who go through the rigorous testing that the FDA requires and still kill people. I tossed my very expensive box in the garbage. Until they bother proving to me that the product is safe, they aren’t getting any more of my money.
Previous: Enjoying Myself
Next: StrengthCast: Caffeine / Ken Gibson
May 13th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
I usually like your posts, but I think you’re wrong on this one.
Stevia is an herb, not an artificial sweetener, that has been used for a very long time. Most herbs do not go through FDA approval. It is not my understanding that most -foods- need FDA approval either, unless there is a reason to believe that they are causing a health risk.
You say that the makers of this product “haven’t bothered to go through the process.” I think that is an oversimplification. FDA approval is incredibly expensive, and a product that cannot be patented (such as an herb) is unlikely to garner that kind of funding. Glucosamine, for instance, which has been shown in clinical trials in Europe to be a very effective joint support supplement (and which my doctor and veterinarian recommend), has not been FDA approved for this reason.
Further, and I won’t type an invective on this, but there is evidence to suggest that FDA approval is not all it’s cracked up to be.
I’ve read that Stevia accounts for 1/4 of the sweetener market in Asia, and it is used for Diet Coke in Japan. Hmmm, I wonder who might feel threatened by that . . . ?
Obviously, not all herbs (or FDA approved drugs) are harmless, and an individuals willingness to tolerate risk will vary. However, the facts are more complex than as presented in your post. There are clearly political and market forces at work here.
April 25th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
I love sweetleaf stevia, I so agree about the FDA i think it is all about the money, the FDA doesn’t want the stevia market to take over the billion dollar chemical sweetner business even though chemical sweetener side affects are the #1 complaint to the FDA, so many poeple have complained they stopped documenting complaints. I know this by personal experience since I too had toxic overload from those harsh chemicals. I now live an all natural life, and do all my healing with herbs. It’s time we got back to nature, back to health and back to natural healing. Our bodies really do have the miraculous ability to heal themselves whe given the proper nutrition. “Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food.” Hippocrates
April 25th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Stevia leaves actually have many healing properties. I am growing my own plants right now. In South America they use Stevia to treat diabetics since they have found that it helps to balance blood sugars and lower hyper tension. What artificial sweetener companies can beat that! I agree choose all natural:)
April 26th, 2006 at 2:16 am
I want everyone who reads our site to know that “Happyhealthy1” and “Lana Love”, who posted above, submitted their comments 4 minutes apart, both from the same IP address, which is registered to wisdomnaturalbrands.com, who seem to be the distributors of Sweetleaf Stevia.
I’m sure they are honest, passionate personal testimonials, and the fact that they’re using a computer located at Wisdom Natural Brands is merely an amusing coincidence.
While our site doesn’t normally allow self-promotional comments, I’m going to leave those two comments there so you can draw your own conclusions about Wisdom Natural Brands and their ethics.