They're Called Artificial For A Reason

Definition of Artificial -
       
        1. Made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, typically as a copy of something natural: "artificial light".
        2. Not existing naturally; contrived or false: "the artificial division of people into age groups".

Artificial sweeteners are chemical substances not naturally produced on this planet. All of them are made in a laboratory by scientists mixing chemicals together. Chemicals that are proven to cause major human health issues. The general population needs to wake up and realize that the more we use artificial sweeteners, the more we are poisoning our bodies.

How Our Artificial Sweeteners Are Produced:

Aspartame: Synthesized from combining phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol into one compound in the form of a white powder. Phenylalanine is harvested from the feces of bacteria that have been genetically modified to produce more phenylalanine. All three chemicals are hazardous, even if phenylalanine is naturally produced in humans. Aspartame consumption can lead to an excessive build up of phenylalanine.

Sucralose: Made by replacing three Hydrogen-Oxygen groups with three Chlorine atoms on a normal sugar molecule.

Saccharin: Can be created by either Remsen-Fahlberg process or Maumee Process.

• Remsen-Fahlberg: Combines toluene (sweet-smelling chemical) with chlorosulfonic acid (colorless liquid), then synthesized with potassium permanganate and ammonia. Then heated to produce saccharin.
• Maumee: Converts phthalic anhydride (used to make plastic), into anthranilic acid. This is mixed with nitrous acid, sulfur dioxide, chlorine and ammonia. No heat needed

Neotame: Created the same way as aspartame, but adds a neohexyl group to it as well. As Taylor said in an earlier post, it's aspartame on steroids.

Acesulfame-Potassium: This sweetener is synthesized through the combining of a potassium salt and acetoacetic acid.

Here's the problem with all of these non-nutritive, artificial sweeteners. They are a mix of hazardous chemicals used to "solve" a short term problem with little care about what problems lie in store for consumers in the future. I'll say this and stand by it for the rest of my life, stick to all natural substances and be wise about sweet consumption, rather than settle for "diet" products.

Sources:
http://discovermagazine.com/2005/aug/chemistry-of-artificial-sweeteners#.UYQjNIKSZ1k
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/worlds-top-sweetener-is-made-with-gm-bacteria-1101176.html
http://www.foodinsight.org/Resources/Detail.aspx?topic=Everything_You_Need_to_Know_About_Sucralose
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7483545_saccharin-made.html
http://www.janethull.com/newsletter/0410/neotame_what_is_it.php

Sources for photos found via Google:
images.yourdictionary.com

More on Stevia.

Stevia, set to some nice elevator music.

Enjoy.

Stevia: The One Beacon of Hope

As depressing a blog as this may seem, we at Non-Nutritive Sweeteners want you to know there is a middle ground. There is hope among a chemical filled world with questionable ethical food standards. Stevia.

Our story takes us to what is now Paraguay, where the Guarani Indians have been averse to this sweet taste since ancient times. When the Spanish Conquistadors came to Paraguay in the 1500's, they learned of the sweet plant, but it was not until the 1800's when they took a heavy scientific interest in it. In the late 1800's a Spanish physician named Pedro Jaime Esteve named the genus type for the plant giving it the (clever) name, Stevia, a play on his last name. Little developments happened after that until the 1970's, when Japan introduced it to their sweetener market. Also at this time Japan completely eradicated artificial sweeteners (nice!) and allowed Stevia to make a heavy dent in the sugar market. Stevia now occupies roughly 40% of the total Japanese sweetener market.

Stevia is still a relatively small player in the U.S market for sweeteners, dwarfed by sugar and non-nutritive sweeteners. That being said, Stevia possesses all the tools to make large impact in improving the overall health of Americans. It is sweeter than sugar, but still heat and pH stable, and non-fermentable making it safer to consume than Sucralose and the like. It has also been show to have negligible effects on blood glucose levels, making it a viable option for those with diabetes.

It is my opinion that Stevia will never make heavy waves in the U.S. sweetener market, or at least not anytime in the near future. Sweeteners such as aspartame and Sucralose are owned by large conglomerate corporations with vested interests in keeping them in many of the beverages we see daily. These corporations are the same ones who have a heavy hand in Congress and the laws passed in this country. Business is business, and eradicating these sweeteners from the market would be exceptionally difficult, if not impossible in this current climate. The best course of action one can take against these harmful sweeteners is to choose not to buy them, and encourage others to do the same.


Protect your health, drink water!



http://www.livestrong.com/article/347247-the-history-of-stevia/

Diabetes and Aspartame

We are already aware of the wide range of adverse health implications ingesting artificial sweeteners can have, but how exactly can your intake of an artificial sweetener, such as aspartame, affect your risk of diabetes?

People with diabetes are inherently forced to find alternative to sugar, or at least steeply limit their intake of it. One way of replicating the sweet taste sugar provides is to turn to sweeteners. Initially when these sweeteners came out onto the market, it seemed there was finally a good alternative to sugar. However tests in recent years have shown diabetes sufferers to be among the highest risk for the adverse effects of sweeteners such as aspartame.

According to diabetes specialist, Dr. H.J. Roberts, many patients develop "serious metabolic, neurological and other complications that could be specifically attributed to using Aspartame products."Aspartame can lead to an intensification of hyperglycemia, convulsions due to insulin levels, and neuropathy.

Another doctor, Dr. Russell Blaylock states, "excitotoxins such as that found in aspartame can precipitate diabetes in persons who are genetically susceptible to the disease."The number of people in this country who are already at hereditary risk for diseases such as diabetes and hyperglycemia is already very large, and the continued influx of aspartame in foods and drinks consumed on a regular basis is worsening the problem.

Hyperglycemia is one of the largest linked diseases stemming from diabetes as aspartame is generally known to cause the pancreas to emit too much insulin. Aspartame has also showed to change cellular receptor sites for insulin, in turn making diabetic patients increasing resistant to insulin.

To conclude, aspartame has so many other more mainstream side effects, it should not even get to this point where one is learning about them. Those with diabetes are already at such a health risk where everything put into their body needs to be carefully managed. Aspartame is affecting the pancreas in very direct, harmful ways, and should not be ingested by those who have diabetes, or are at risk to get it.

Protect you health, drink water!




http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/aspartame-and-diabetes.html

The Precursor to Them All: An Informative History of Saccharin

Saccharin is one of the "Big 6" artificial sweeteners. It was once the most widely demanded sweetener on the market but has since endured a decline. Here is an informative history.

Saccharin was discovered in 1878 in a laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. A chemist named Ira Remsen was commissioned by H.W. Perot, an importer, after he and the U.S. government questioned the purity of a batch of sugar sent into Baltimore.

Remsen sat down to dinner one evening after work and bit into a roll. He immediately remarked at its exceptionally sweet taste and determined that the sugar and compounds he was testing were the cause of it. The next day he went into work and began mixing sugar with each different possible compound the solution could be. Finally, he found the taste to come from a mixture of phosphorus chloride and ammonia, producing benzoic sulfinide. He had discovered Saccharin.

The chemist who commissioned Remsen to the test then filed for patents in the U.S. and Germany, where Remsen was from. Remsen put up little fight, saying he preferred recognition in the scientific community over monetary gains.

The first questions to Saccharin's nutritional value came in 1882 but were quickly dismissed. The next criticism came in 1908 when Department of Agriculture's Head Chemist, Harvey Washington Wiley took his case against it directly to President Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt quickly struck down the warnings of his appointed chemist, claiming he used Saccharin everyday to no adverse health affects.

In 1912 Saccharin was legally banned from being an ingredient in processed foods. This is also around the time when it became immensely popular among dieters, a craze which continues virtually unblemished over 100 years later.

Saccharin had it's greatest rise during the sugar shortage of World War II. During this time it became necessary to substitute it in for sugar as so much sugar was devoted to the war effort. It retained its popularity even after the war, and became used in many more products than before. However, as always, there were critics of Saccharin who realized early the potential health risk.

1968-1975 were highly important years for Saccharin. The government was becoming savvy to tests showing the link between the sweetener and certain cancers. Also during this time, Sweet'n'Low was produced by the Cumberland Packing Corporation. They and their peers, including Monsanto and Sherwin-Williams chemical company, vowed to fight any legislation against their products.

Despite much backlash, Saccharin was banned in 1977. Government officials couldn't hold onto the ban though, as fierce debate sparked questions like, "How much is too much?" and "Isn't too much of anything bad for you?" It was determined more research was needed, and with that Saccharin was back on the market.

One of the biggest repercussions of Saccharin's creation is the market for non-nutritive sweeteners it created. Aspartame, Sucralose, and Neotame are all by-products of Saccharin's incredible success.



Protect your health, drink water!

Not So Sweet Findings, Part 2

Video uploaded to Youtube by: HealthRanger7

I Couldn't Resist...

I couldn't resist....

Source for photo found via Google:
www.newmediaexplorer.org