Re: [at-l] Sweeteners

[bullard@northnet.org]

>At 10:33 AM 5/29/99 -0400, Jan Ladd wrote:
>>To avoid the use of Nutra-Sweet, I make Kool-aid with either Sweet and Low,
>>Sugar Twin or Stevia from the health food store. Stevia is an herb with the
>>equivalent sweetening power of the other sweeteners.
>>
Nutra-Sweet is a brand name for aspartame. Sugar Twin and Sweet and Low are
both brands of saccharin. Saccharin got a bad name a number of years ago
because of a lab study which suggested that it *might* cause cancer. In the
study lab rats were fed a diet of nothing but saccharin. Evidently it
didn't occur to the researchers that the resulting cancer rate *might* have
resulted from a deficiency in the experimental diet of 100% saccharin.
Further tests have not supported that finding so it's still on the market
but has been largely displaced by aspartame because of it's aftertaste.

Aspartame has recently been blamed by some for an increase in brain tumors
however there has been no objective evidence to establish such a link.
There are several web sites which hype the aspartame/brain tumor theory and
promote Stevia which is an herbal sweetener. 

Personally I'm as skeptical of the claims of herbal efficacy and
harmlessness as I am of artificial additives. Just because something is
'natural' doesn't make it harmless. Remember that most of the mushrooms you
see in the woods will make you very sick or kill you if you eat them and
you shouldn't believe everything you read on the web. Anybody who knows a
little HTML can say anything they want but it ain't necessarily true.
Jeeesh! Even I have a web site. Of course mine only has the *absolute,
final and irrefutable* >TRUTH<. FCBB (Fingers Crossed Behind Back) ;)

Saunterer
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