As far as I can tell, it looks like Coke and Cargill are on the right side and the FDA on the wrong side here. I still wouldn't drink this swill even if they switch it over to stevia, but at least Stevia won't convert to formaldahyde in your brain like Aspartame ( by the way, I probably can't prove that 'convert to formaldahyde' part...):
Did you know Diet Coke in Japan is sweetened with the plant-based stevia?
About a year ago I blogged about the controversial all-natural sugar alternative called stevia. At the time, I lamented that stevia was not approved by the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) to even be called a sweetener...yet! But that may be about to change if a joint venture with The Coca-Cola Company and a major food additive business named Cargill Foods has anything to say about it (and you KNOW they will because money talks!).
They have decided to take a serious look at a sweetener they want to call rebiana (a shortened word used for Stevia Rebaudiana), but remember that name because it's the term these companies are going to be using for stevia soon.
Stevia is extracted from plants and contains ZERO calories and carbohydrates. But the FDA has come down so strongly AGAINST approving it that it's gonna be a real challenge. But Coke has the name and money to make it happen!
herbal food site wrote:For hundreds of years, people in Paraguay and Brazil have used a sweet leaf to sweeten bitter herbal teas including mate.
For nearly 20 years, Japanese consumers by the millions have used extracts of the same plant as a safe, natural, non-caloric sweetener. The plant is stevia, formally known as Stevia rebaudiana, and today it is under
wholesale attack by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
What's going on? Money, of course.
Noncaloric sweeteners are a big business in the U.S., as are caloric
sweeteners like sugar and the sugar-alcohols, sorbital, mannitol and
xylitol. It is small wonder that the powerful sweetener interests
here do not want the natural, inexpensive, and non-patentable stevia
approved in the U.S.
In the 1970s, the Japanese government approved the plant, and food
manufacturers began using stevia extracts to sweeten everything from
sweet soy sauce and pickles to diet Coke. Researchers found the
extract interesting, resulting in dozens of well-designed studies of
its safety, chemistry and stability for use in different food products.
Various writers have praised the taste of the extracts, which has much
less of the bitter aftertaste prevalent in most noncaloric sweeteners.
In addition to Japan, other governments have approved stevia and
stevioside, including those of Brazil, China and South Korea, among
others. Unfortunately, the US was destined to be a different story.
Stevia has been safely used in this country for over ten years, but a
few years ago, the trouble began.
The attack begins:
FDA ATTACK ON STEVIA
Around 1987, FDA inspectors began visiting herb companies who were
selling stevia, telling them to stop using it because it is an
"unapproved food additive". By mid 1990 several companies had been
visited. In one case FDA's inspector reportedly told a company
president they were trying to get people to stop using stevia "because
Nutra Sweet complained to FDA." The Herb Research Foundation(HRF),
which has extensive scientific files on stevia, became concerned and
filed a Freedom of Information Act request with FDA for information
about contacts between Nutra Sweet and FDA about stevia. It took over
a year to get any information from the FDA, but the identity of the
company that prompted the FDA action was masked by the agency.
If you want to read a lot more, go
here.
