Karl Sprenger > wrote:
>Read about it, look it up, stevia is a real plant, Splenda is a chemical.
>
>Don't take our word for it. Check it out.

In reply to Fran who wrote:
>> Why are you assuming that stevia is safe and that Splenda is unsafe?
>> On what basis did you reach these conclusions?

This is a rant, a somewhat educated one and slightly on-topic to boot,
but a rant nonetheless. Your money won't be refunded.

Splenda is indeed a chemical, stevia is indeed extracted from a
"real plant", and of course the latter is also a mixture of chemicals
(notably stevioside). Karl, my friend (friends? or are you just using
the royal we?), what makes you think that this particular chemical is
safer than one concocted in the laboratories of McNeil Nutritionals?
Other real plants, eaten in large amounts whole or in extract form, have
been known to cause Parkinsonian-type and other neural disabilities, liver
damage, and an interesting variety of cancers (oh yeah, and lavender is
an estrogen mimic). There is a good reason why the FDA doesn't allow
stores to sell real root beer or adulterated Mexican vanilla, and I'm
grateful to them for this. But they aren't omniscient. To see what's
on the horizon, please read the attached abstract which is merely the
first result of a medline search on "stevia" (there are 114 others,
not all of which will contain bad news). I have no idea whether the
concentrations here are relevant to humans (and it is in general extremely
hard, sometimes impossibly so, to determine this relevance).

As another example, veering dangerously close to relevance, consider the
following excerpt from an article in _Lancet_ (2002, vol. 359, p. 1484):

"Tea is regarded a delicious, aromatic stimulant worldwide. However,
even tea may lead to health problems if flavoured and consumed in
extraordinarily high quantities. Bergamot essence in Earl Grey tea,
when consumed in excess, may induce muscle cramps, fasciculations,
paraesthesias and blurred vision."

In this case study the victim's symptoms disappeared when he limited
consumption to a liter per day.

I might suggest caution before consuming large amounts or high
concentrations of anything, herbal or not.

Best,

Rick.

******************

Food Chem Toxicol. 2006 Oct 27; [Epub ahead of print]

Analysis of genotoxic potentiality of stevioside by comet assay.

* Nunes AP,
* Ferreira-Machado SC,
* Nunes RM,
* Dantas FJ,
* De Mattos JC,
* Caldeira-de-Araujo A.

Departamento de Biofisica e Biometria, Universidade do Estado do
Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcantara Gomes,
Av. 28 de Setembro, 87, 20551-030 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Stevioside is a natural non-caloric sweetener extracted from
Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) leaves. It has been widely used in
many countries, including Japan, Korea, China, Brazil and Paraguay,
either as a substitute for sucrose in beverages and foods or as a
household sweetener. The aim of this work was to study its genotoxic
potentiality in eukaryotic cells. Wistar rats were treated with
stevioside solution (4mg/mL) through oral administration (ad libitum)
and the DNA-induced damage was evaluated using the single cell gel
electrophoresis (comet assay). The results showed that treatment
with stevioside generates lesions in peripheral blood, liver, brain
and spleen cells in different levels, the largest effect being in
liver. Therefore, these undesired effects must be better understood,
once the data present here point to possible stevioside mutagenic
properties.