Morning All,
<blockquote><span style="color: #008080;"><strong>In today’s post I offer my opinion on the new wave of “healthy” food sweetening options which now bombard our shelves. You know the ones - “natural sweeteners” and a “healthy” alternative to refined sugar.</strong> </span></blockquote>
Thankfully, media interest over the last 2 years has highlighted the health dangers of continual consumption of refined sugar. Personally, I’d prefer a message angled more towards the health risks of highly processed unreal food in general – as opposed to just singling out sugar.

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Let’s talk drink sweeteners.

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Now, as big food business realised excessive sugar consumption caused ill-health....about..... 40 years ago, and ultimately knew that the sh&amp;t would eventually hit the fan, they introduced low cal, low sugar alternatives about 30 years ago. Sales for low cal - low sugar alternatives have now overtaken regular sugar options in recent years.

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The main flavouring (sweetening) choice was aspartame, and as we now know, could very <a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/danger_aspartame_by_evil_fx.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-2404 size-medium" src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/danger_aspartame_by_evil_fx-300x214.jpg" alt="danger_aspartame_by_evil_fx" width="300" height="214" /></a>well cause more ill-health than sugar! These are a concoction of chemicals, featuring more numbers than Bradman’s scoring stats, and are solely designed to make us buy and consume MORE.....

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As the public is now aware that not only refined sugar, but also ‘faux sugar’ options, like aspartame, offer a swag of health risks, big food business have tagged onto organic buzz options like stevia.

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Stevia is a leaf that when ground, offers a “sugar-like” taste, but 20 times sweeter.
In health terms, the beauty of stevia is that a very small amount provides that great sweet taste, without the spike in blood sugar, and consequent insulin overload. It could be a <a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/1024px-Stevia_Dobrzyca_2013-07-08_17.46.39.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-2405 " src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/1024px-Stevia_Dobrzyca_2013-07-08_17.46.39-300x225.jpg" alt="1024px-Stevia,_Dobrzyca,_2013-07-08_17.46.39" width="187" height="140" /></a>diabetic’s best friend and equally great for our waistline!

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Like most splendid natural options, it doesn’t take long till big business finds a way to fk it up.
So, is stevia good or bad for us? Like most things these days, the unfortunate answer is - “It depends”!!!

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<blockquote><span style="color: #008080;"><strong>A major soft drink company is now heavily promoting a “green” healthy option – using “stevia” – well.... sort of.</strong> </span></blockquote>
If real (green leaf) stevia was used (purchased in health food stores – and twice as <a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/16078105860_2e52d6bb31_b.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-2403 size-medium" src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/16078105860_2e52d6bb31_b-300x199.jpg" alt="16078105860_2e52d6bb31_b" width="300" height="199" /></a>expensive as sugar) it wouldn’t be economically viable.

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The “stevia-like” flavouring used is known as truvia. It goes through a 42 step processing model before it makes the bottle. It is 400 x sweeter than sugar. It requires GMO corn chemicals for production – and goodness knows what else.

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So, if you do choose to consume, I’d get in now, as I suspect it won’t be long before it is confirmed, once again, that there’s another product out there that makes us sick and it is rubbed out.
BP