new stevia products -- Truvia (Cargill), rebiana (Coca-Cola), Stevia Plus
and Sweet Leaf (Wisdom Natural Brands), Zevia (Zevia), also one due from
Pepsi: WebTV: NPICenter.com: Murray 2008.06.07
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.htm
Saturday, June 7, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1542


http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20080604/no-calorie-natural-sweetener-on-\
they-way

No-Calorie Natural Sweetener on the Way
Truvia, Made From Stevia, Expected to Debut This Year; Other Stevia Products
Step Up
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

June 5, 2008 -- Splenda. NutraSweet. Sweet'N Low. Equal. Those no-calorie
sweeteners may soon have new competition made from stevia, a shrub native to
South America.

Stevia isn't new. It's been used for centuries as a sweetener in South
America and is used Japan.

But in the U.S., stevia may only be sold as a dietary supplement -- not as a
sweetener or a food additive -- due to the FDA's safety concerns. But that
may be about to change.

Truvia, a new stevia product developed by Cargill and Coca-Cola, isn't
settling for supplement status. It's set to debut later this year as a
tabletop sweetener and ingredient in certain Coca-Cola products.

Truvia will have competition. Pepsi has its own stevia product in the works,
and stevia supplements may look to move into the mainstream. All that buzz
could spice up the competition for your sweet tooth.

But are the safety issues settled for good?\

Naturally Calorie-Free

There's no shortage of no-calorie sweeteners on the market. The FDA has
approved five artificial ones:

* Aspartame: Brand names include NutraSweet and Equal.
* Sucralose: Brand name is Splenda.
* Saccharin: Brand names include Sweet'N Low, Sweet Twin, and Necta Sweet.
* Acesulfame-K: Brand names include Sunett and Sweet One.
* Neotame: Approved for use as an ingredient in a wide variety of foods
including baked goods, soft drinks, chewing gum, jams, and syrups.

Truvia differs from those products because it's natural, and it differs from
current stevia products because it's backed by extensive safety studies,
notes Ann Tucker, Cargill's communications director.

Those studies, published in the advance online edition of Food and Chemical
Toxicology, show no signs of the possible health issues -- such as blood
pressure, blood sugar, and reproductive effects -- that have been noted in
some, but not all stevia studies done mainly on animals.

In the Cargill and Coca-Cola funded studies, Truvia didn't affect blood
pressure in healthy people or blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes.
Further tests in rats show no effects on reproduction, fertility, or other
health problems.

When Will Truvia Debut?

"Is it a go? Yes, it's a go," Cargill spokeswoman Ann Tucker says of Truvia.
But she can't say exactly when Truvia will be available.

"That's the gazillion-dollar question," says Tucker, adding that Truvia will
get a "rigorous review" by the scientific community before it hits the
market.

The FDA says it will review Truvia's case to be considered "generally
recognized as safe," which would pave the way for it to become the first
stevia product allowed as a food additive in the U.S.

Perspective of a Watchdog Group

"No company was able to demonstrate its safety to FDA," David Schardt,
senior nutritionist at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public
Interest (CSPI), tells WebMD. "Now maybe Cargill has done that. Maybe."

The CSPI hasn't been sweet on stevia because of possible safety issues.

"For good reason, FDA and a lot of other industrialized countries have not
allowed it to be used as a food additive until these safety questions have
been resolved. That's what Cargill thinks they've done ... at least with the
extract that they're selling," says Schardt.

"We've always told consumers you're not going to drop dead if you use it
[stevia] to sweeten your tea," says Schardt. "But there is concern about
using it as a food additive, putting it into a lot of products that are sold
to millions of people."

The CSPI's verdict on Truvia isn't in yet. But Schardt is cautiously
optimistic. "We hope that the stevia extract does prove to be safe."

Sweetness in Moderation

Nutritionist Elaine Magee, MPH, RD -- WebMD's "Recipe Doctor" and the author
of Food Synergy -- has blogged about her "wait and see" view of stevia.

"No matter what the alternative sweetener, including stevia, I would
recommend moderation," Magee writes in an email. "I think that it tricks our
body to taste sweetness and to not get the carbohydrates absorbed in the
bloodstream that the body then expects. For some people I suspect this can
bring on cravings or overeating later, perhaps."

That probably doesn't happen with "smaller amounts (like one diet soda a
day)," writes Magee. "But there are people who have many diet sodas a day.
This then also displaces more healthful beverages like green tea, water, or
nonfat or low-fat milk."

That theory hasn't been proven. But it has come up in past research on diet
sodas and weight gain. That research wasn't related to stevia.

Stevia Competition Heats Up

Pepsi plans to put its own highly purified, zero-calorie, all-natural stevia
sweetener -- which doesn't have a name yet -- in various new products after
it's approved by the FDA, PepsiCo spokesman David DeCecco tells WebMD in an
email.

Meanwhile, a Seattle company called Zevia is already marketing Zevia, a
carbonated dietary supplement containing stevia. The company touts its
product as "the world's only all natural sugar-free alternative to diet
soda." But Zevia hasn't bucked the "dietary supplement" label.

Zevia President and CEO Derek Newman tells WebMD in an email that the
company has perfected the stevia taste with Zevia.

"I would be shocked if Cargill's product is nearly as good," he writes.

In a statement emailed by Tucker, Zanna McFerson, business director for
Cargill Health and Nutrition, says, "There are many stevia blends available
as dietary supplements today. We cannot comment on all the variations and
only know that we consistently offer a safe, pure, and consistent product."

Truvia's research may not apply to other stevia products, notes Schardt.

"If you believe Cargill, the research establishing its safety is on a
particular extract, a pure extract [Truvia], and that it doesn't necessarily
apply to something else that's not quite the same. So that's an issue that I
guess FDA is going to have to address," says Schardt.

View Article Sources

SOURCES:

Ann Tucker, director of communications, Cargill. Ann_Tucker@...;

FDA.

David Schardt, senior nutritionist, Center for Science in the Public
Interest.
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009
Phone 202-332-9110 Fax 202-265-4954 Email cspi@...;
www.cspinet.org/

Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, WebMD "Recipe Doctor"; author, Food Synergy.
http://recipedoctor.com/ elaine@...;

About Elaine

Elaine Magee is positively passionate about changing the way America
eats-one recipe at a time! Her national column, THE RECIPE DOCTOR, appears
in newspapers such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Democrat and
Chronicle, Hartford Courant, Honolulu Advertiser, and magazines such as
Today's Health & Wellness. In the column-which she has been writing for the
past decade-she performs recipe "makeovers," in which she is able to bring
down the calories, fat, saturated fat, and sometimes sugar and sodium while
at the same time increasing fiber, phytochemicals, omega-3s, and
monounsaturated fat. Elaine "doctors" real recipes while retaining the
original good taste. And she keeps it easy. She believes that if there is a
shortcut in the kitchen, you should take it!

Elaine is the author of more than 25 books on nutrition and healthy cooking,
with her most recent book being FOOD SYNERGY (Rodale, March 2008). Elaine's
medical nutrition series includes TELL ME WHAT TO EAT IF I HAVE DIABETES,
TELL ME WHAT TO EAT IF I HAVE IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME, TELL ME WHAT TO EAT
IF I HAVE ACID REFLUX. Hundreds of thousands of these books have been sold,
and they are now being distributed all over the world, including China,
Russia, Spain, Indonesia, and Arabic countries. New editions of these three
books in the series will be released October-December 2008.

Elaine is a nutrition expert/writer for WEBMD.com, SilverPlanet.com, and
magazines across the country, and she appears frequently on radio,
educational videos, and television shows. She has appeared on Eye on the Bay
in San Francisco, the Fine Living Network, the CBS Evening News, Mornings On
2 in San Francisco, and AM Northwest in Portland. She also conducted monthly
healthy cooking segments for the Saturday morning news on NBC-San Francisco
for two years. For two years before that, Elaine performed the "Light
Cooking" segment for the KSBW-TV (NBC) midday news in Salinas, California.
She was the writer and guest on a video with Teri Garr on multiple sclerosis
and with Shekhar Challa, M.D., on "The Heartburn Friendly Kitchen."

Elaine graduated as the Nutrition Science Department "Student of the Year"
from San Jose State University with a bachelor of science in nutrition and a
minor in chemistry. She also obtained her master's degree in public health
nutrition from UC-Berkeley and is a registered dietitian. She was a
nutrition instructor at Diablo Valley College for two years and the
nutrition marketing specialist (California Department of Health) for the now
national "5 a Day" health program for three years.

Other recent projects:
* Elaine is getting ready to launch her internet cooking show (stay tuned).
* Elaine was part of a satellite media tour in November 2007 on the topic of
heartburn and the holidays.
* Elaine was the recipe developer for Pfizer pharmaceuticals, providing
recipes to its website specific to three medical issues: high blood
pressure, high blood cholesterol, and diabetes.


WebMD Medical News: "Drink More Diet Soda, Gain More Weight?"

David DeCecco, spokesman, PepsiCo.

Derek A. Newman, president and CEO, Zevia. DNewman@...;
http://www.zevia.com/ 800.230.2221 zevia@...;
Zevia LLC, 505 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 610, Seattle, WA 98104
ian@...; jessica@...; michael@...; jeff@...;
stacey@...; brian@...; junior@...;


Email statement, Zanna McFerson, business director, Cargill Health and
Nutrition
Zanna_McFerson@...;

© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

Miranda Hitti

Miranda Hitti is a medical writer for WebMD. Before joining WebMD full time,
she freelanced for WebMD and publications including Cooking Light, The
Atlanta Journal/Constitution, and Arthritis Today. She began her career by
working at CNN for five years.

Besides health, she has also covered topics including business, personal
finance, design, and architecture. Hitti's articles have appeared in This
Old House, Better Homes and Gardens, Fidelity Stages, Fidelity Focus, the
Atlanta Business Chronicle, and numerous other magazines, newspapers, and
web sites. She is the author of Life Lessons: A Guided Journal.

In 2004, Hitti received two Dalton Pen Communications Awards of Excellence
for articles written for Fidelity Stages, a personal finance magazine.

A graduate of Duke University, Hitti has a bachelor's degree in cultural
anthropology and a certificate in film and video.


Louise Chang, MD

Louise Chang, MD, is part of the WebMD medical editing team and is
responsible for reviewing WebMD news and feature stories to ensure their
medical accuracy. She has always considered herself a patient advocate and
educator at heart. She has had broad experience of both inpatient and
outpatient practice in urban and suburban settings. Dr. Chang shares the
WebMD mission to provide the most accurate and useful medical information
for people.

Dr. Chang completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford University and
attended medical school at New York Medical College. She completed her
internal medicine residency at Saint Vincent's Hospital in New York City,
where she also served as a chief resident from 2001-2002. Immediately prior
to joining WebMD, Dr. Chang worked as an attending physician and clinical
instructor at Grady Memorial Hospital as part of the Emory School of
Medicine in downtown Atlanta, seeing patients and working with and teaching
medical residents and students.

Dr. Chang is board-certified in internal medicine. She is a member of both
the American College of Physicians and the Society of General Internal
Medicine. Her prior research work has been published and presented at
regional and national conferences.

https://data.webmd.com/sdclive/SdcForm.aspx?FormId=magSupport
Contact WebMD, 1,000 character limit
____________________________________________________


http://www.npicenter.com/anm/templates/newsATemp.aspx?articleid=21381&zoneid=9

Sweet Success for Stevia.finally
2008-06-06 - Functional Ingredients magazine

By Kimberly Lord Stewart editor@...;

After decades of controversy, two sweeteners, derived from the stevia plant,
may finally get their day in the consumer marketplace as something more than
a dietary supplement. On May 15, Cargill introduced TRUVIA, a branded
sweetener made from rebiana for use in foods and beverages. Within two weeks
of the Cargill announcement, Arizona based Wisdom Natural Brands, shipped
Sweet Leaf® sweetener, made from steviol glycosides, to grocers across the
country. Industry experts say with these two announcements, the race is on
to gain consumer acceptance and brand awareness.

The first test will be restaurants and coffee shops. "It will be a race to
who can own the tabletop market," says Kantha Shelke, Ph.D., industry
consultant from Corvus Blue. Shelke believes that consumers will form their
first impression of rebiana or stevia when they try it from the little
packets the coffee bar or restaurant table. It is a low-risk approach, she
says. "If it a pleasant experience, the taste will linger in consumer's food
memories and thus relieve any doubts." One of the drawbacks to previously
tested stevia dietary-supplement brands is an aftertaste reminiscent of
licorice. Rebiana and steviol glycosides contain no such aftertaste,
according to both company reports.

In as early as Feb. 1986, FDA issued import alerts for stevia, branding it
as an ingredient that should be detained if labeled as anything other than a
dietary supplement. Many saw the controversy as a political quarrel with the
end goal of quashing competition with the emerging artificial sweetener
market.

For now, TRUVIA and Sweet Leaf change all that. Why the attitude adjustment?
Even though the simultaneous release of Sweet Leaf and TRUVIA could easily
be compared to a David and Goliath corporate competition -- both companies
used the same sling shot -- a route called "self-determination of GRAS
status." This allows for the safety of the product to be decided by the
views of experts, as long as there are significant published, peer-reviewed
studies, available in the public domain. Wisdom Natural Brands and Cargill
both hired teams of stevia experts (with FDA experience) to garner enough
scientific support for each of their respective ingredients.

For Jim May, CEO of Wisdom Natural Brands, who introduced stevia to the US
marketplace from Paraguay in 1982, achieving self-determination GRAS status
was a hallmark moment. After decades of defending the safety of stevia, May
had enough proof in March of 2008 to move stevia up on the food chain, thus
allowing it to be sold on the sugar shelf, rather than relegated to the
dietary-supplement aisle. "No pun intended, but for me, this day is sweet
victory," May said.

For Cargill, the TRUVIA announcement was no less sweet. In partnership with
Coca-Cola, Cargill spent years evaluating the ingredient for safety and
perfecting ways to extract, what they consider, the best tasting component
of the stevia plant, called rebaudioside A. Research, funded by Cargill, and
published electronically on May 16, 2008, in the peer-reviewed scientific
journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology, demonstrated the safety of rebiana
for use in sweetened food and beverages.

"It is important to note that TRUVIA is rebiana, not stevia," says Steve
Snyder, VP Global Business Director, High Intensity Sweeteners, Cargill
Health & Nutrition. "Both stevia and rebiana come from the leaves of the
stevia plant. Stevia is a sweetener that exists in the marketplace today as
a dietary supplement. It is not a high-purity ingredient and its composition
can vary widely - impacting quality and taste. Rebiana is a high-purity,
fully-characterized extract that is consistently produced to a food-grade
specification by Cargill." See the sidebar below for more on the difference
between stevia, rebiana and steviol glycosides.

Industry experts believe both forms of the no-calorie sweetener open new
doors for the tabletop and beverage market, especially for consumers seeking
an alternative to artificial sweeteners. Cargill plans to introduce a
tabletop sweetener by end of year, though Coca-Cola has not announced the
exact release date of its new TRUVIA-based beverages, citing competitive
reasons. Wisdom Natural Brands began shipping their new Sweet Leaf sweetener
to stores on June 2. They currently serve 99% of all natural product stores
and thousands of grocery stores with their Stevia Plus brand.

The value of the alternative sweetener market is $915 million and continues
to grow, according to Freedonia Group, a global research firm. Earlier this
year the company said stevia (and agave) held the most hope for a widely
accepted alternative sweetener. The reasons are many. First, according to
recent research by the Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, National
University in Paraguay, steviol glycosides have no ill effects on blood
sugar or blood pressure in patients with type I or type II diabetes.
Secondly, there is little argument about stevia being deemed a natural
ingredient, which is an ongoing debate between the sucralose and sugar
industry. And, since it is a non-GMO product, widespread acceptance in Asian
and European markets is another plus. According to the Stevia Association in
Paraguay, the product has applications in:

Beverages (low-calorie or no-sugar drinks) and milk drinks
Candy, ice cream, yogurt, jams
Canned and jarred fruits
Sweet and sour foods, sauces, pickles
Gums and candies
Table sweeteners
Toothpaste

[sidebar] Rebiana Refresher

Stevia typically refers to a crude preparation (powder or liquid) made from
the leaves of the stevia plant. Such preparations contain a mixture of many
components, not just those that give a sweet taste to the leaf. Because the
exact composition of the mixture is unknown, studies that have used "stevia"
are often difficult to interpret.

Steviol glycosides are the sweet components of the stevia leaf. There are
various kinds of steviol glycosides, but the two most abundant types are
stevioside and rebaudioside A.

Stevioside is the most abundant steviol glycoside in the stevia leaf, and
the most studied.

Rebaudioside A is the best-tasting steviol glycoside. It is broken down by
the body into the same basic parts as stevioside.

Rebiana is a 97-percent pure extract of rebaudioside A. It is the first
high-purity, well-characterized form of rebaudioside A.

Steviol is the substance produced when the body breaks down steviol
glycosides in the colon.

Source: Cargill, Overview of the Rebiana Research Program, May 2008
____________________________________________________


stevia herbal sweetener to be sold as Truvia (rebiana) by Cargill and
Coca-Cola, if blitz of 12 studies wins FDA approval in 30-90 days: Murray
2008.05.24
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.htm
Saturday, May 24, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1540


re "A Few too Many", Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, long review of hangover
research 2008.05.26 -- same levels of formaldehyde and formic acid in FEMA
trailers and other sources (aspartame, dark wines and liquors, tobacco
smoke): Murray 2008.06.05
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.htm
Thursday, June 5, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1541

methanol impurity in alcohol drinks [ and aspartame ] is turned into
neurotoxic formic acid, prevented by folic acid, re Fetal Alcohol Syndrome,
BM Kapur, DC Lehotay, PL Carlen at U. Toronto, Alc Clin Exp Res 2007 Dec.
plain text: detailed biochemistry, CL Nie et al. 2007.07.18: Murray
2008.02.24
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.htm
Sunday, February 24, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1524

formaldehyde and formic acid in FEMA trailers and other sources (aspartame,
dark wines and liquors, tobacco smoke): Murray 2008.01.30
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.htm
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1508

The FEMA trailers give about the same amount of formaldehyde and formic acid
daily as from a quart of dark wine or liquor, or two quarts (6 12-oz cans)
of aspartame diet soda, from their over 1 tenth gram methanol impurity (one
part in 10,000), which the body quickly makes into formaldehyde and then
formic acid - enough to be the major cause of "morning after" alcohol
hangovers.

Methanol and formaldehyde and formic acid also result from many fruits and
vegetables, tobacco and wood smoke, heater and vehicle exhaust, household
chemicals and cleaners, cosmetics, and new cars, drapes, carpets, furniture,
particleboard, mobile homes, buildings, leather. so all these sources add up
and interact with many other toxic chemicals.

"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority, to enjoy peace, joy,
and love by helping to find, quickly share, and positively act upon evidence
about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

http://RMForAll.blogspot.com new primary archive

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 125 members, 1,542 posts in a public archive

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/messages
group with 1,112 members, 22,714 posts in public archive

"Application of the hair of the dog may sound like nothing more than a way
of getting yourself drunk enough so that you don't notice you have a
hangover, but, according to Wayne Jones, of the Swedish National Laboratory
of Forensic Medicine, the biochemistry is probably more complicated than
that.

Jones's theory is that the liver, in processing alcohol, first addresses
itself to ethanol, which is the alcohol proper, and then moves on to
methanol, a secondary ingredient of many wines and spirits.
[ Just over 1 part in 10,000 = 100 mg methanol per liter -- the same level
of methanol as in 2 liters (6 12 oz cans) diet soda ]

Because methanol breaks down into formic acid, which is highly toxic, it is
during this second stage that the hangover is most crushing.

If at that point you pour in more alcohol, the body will switch back to
ethanol processing. This will not eliminate the hangover - the methanol
(indeed, more of it now) is still waiting for you round the bend - but it
delays the worst symptoms. It may also mitigate them somewhat. On the other
hand, you are drunk again, which may create difficulty about going to work."

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/26/080526fa_fact_acocella?currentPage\
=all

Annals Of Drinking
A Few Too Many
Is there any hope for the hung over?
by Joan Acocella May 26, 2008 themail@...;
[ more at initial URL ]
____________________________________________________