[healing.about.com]

The wording of the headline makes it sound like there is any hint of toxic claims. We all know that the FDA is threatened by anything that is not processed (green stevia) and non-toxic. Aspartame was pushed by Donald Rumsfeld. 'Nuff said. It amazes me how many people will grab a packet of Nutrasweet or Splenda over Sugar in the Raw. It's no contest for me. But I have mixed feelings about stevia. I am not gung-ho about using it by itself. I think the body needs sugar when it senses sweetness. I don't think you can fool your body that way. Combining stevia with honey is my solution to that. I don't like agave. I remember when I first tried it that I thought it tasted like Karo syrup. And it doesn't have the body of honey. I know that some people avoid honey or are sensitive to it. I guess making date syrup is a possibility.

I don't use it, but I was pleased to see that the centerpiece of the "Food" section of last week's paper was about using stevia for cooking, with lots of info on it, too. Progress is being made, people!

The jury is still out on stevia for me. [www.cspinet.org]. I'm going to sweeten my recipes with whole fruit (dates, raisins). Gave up agave after I found out about fructose and its toxicity in processed foods (not whole fruits).

Paul

Actually, although stevia has been shown to be completely non-toxic, they HAVE proven that ALL low/no calorie sweeteners are bad for the human body as one of the ways your body recognizes calorie intake is by sweetness, so it thinks it is taking in more calories than it is, then once it realizes that it didn't get as much calories as it thought it did, in many cases the human body starts "thinking" all sources of calories have less than their particular sweetness would lead one to believe, meaning even when one has more than enough, your body thinks you need more... leading to major cravings for more calories... this apparently doesn't happen to everyone, but happens to most who use these kind of sweeteners on a daily basis, some people can stop and go back to normal, but they say there is evidence that at least so far, some people take many years to recover, and many may never recover... So yeah, its probably a million times better for you than aspartame, but unfortunately it is far worse for the average person than just some yummy raw cane sugar or similar sweeteners...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Stevia is certainly better than most sweeteners, but it's still a refined product. When I do make recipes, I much rather use whole ingredients like dates or apple.

Plus, I think it tastes terrible and chemically.



Swayze
[www.fitonraw.com]

I did read somewhere (your body's many cries for water maybe?) that when your mouth tastes something sweet your brain adjusts the body's insulin production in anticipation of some easy access sugar and when it doesn't arrive it has to spike that blood sugar to make up for the loss. Doesn't sound all that healthy to me but as far as alternative sweeteners go I'd rather see this one than any other.

has anyone heard of the other natural sugar called erythritol

supposed to be from cane sugar
but it doesn't say if it is raw
saw it at the store
but decided not to get it
cuz i didn't really know much about it

any info or experiences or insights?

then again, pborst says to sweeten stuff with dates and raisins

that seems to be kinda better

though i am not sure how non processed either of those things are
i guess organic raisins are best

also the thing about dates is

u ever see those dates that are like in a rectangular form with coconut flakes around them and an almond in the middle
i always wondered if they were processed, cooked or truly raw

i don't know

geeez its nice to not know a lot of things
keeps my life reaaal interesting

yeah coco, it probably is better than any other low/no cal sweetener, I personally cant stand the aftertaste, and yeah your right about it affecting insulin levels, amongst other things, its pretty interesting stuff, but I am far to exhausted to go into it luckily for everyone here, no ginormous off topic posts today! ROFLMAO hehe

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Based on CPSI's assessment, I'm not prepared to concede it's safety. Esp, when the UCLA scientists who looked at it questioned the adequacy of the carcinogenicity test.