Hiya

Isn't it always the way... you join a forum with nothing to say, then two questions come along at once! I'll stick to the heading question for now though...

I've been on the Atkins diet less than one week and already seeing fantastic results! Even breaking my formerly unbreakable sugar addiction! But I'd really like to know there's something out there for those days when it just has to be sweet...

Even if I weren't chemically intolerent, the prospect of eating foods linked with Multiple Sclerosis (12 years of its milder cousin ME tells me I so don't want that) or ones processed with a little help from chlorine, etc is abhorrent to me.

So we come back to Dr Atkins' favourite, Stevia. Illegal in this country... you can't even buy it in plant form and dry it yourself. (You can, as an aside, buy it in seed form from the US and grow, then dry it yourself )

Which leads me, at last, to my question...

What is being done to put pressure on the UK government to reverse their ludicrous decision to ban it in any form?

Meanwhile, forgive me if I take out my frustration with them through the medium of smilies...

No idea what is happening on the Stevia front in the UK. We have only just got splenda and I am yet to try that. Don't have much call for using sweetner, so my jar of Hermasetas Gold lasts for around a year!

I notice that your goal weight is in stones. To make it like your other weights you might like to amend your profile to 115 pounds which is what 8 st 3 is.

Thank you for that Anne.

I've been doing some research and am hoping I might have found someone in this country who supplies stevia in plant form. Watch this space...!

Sucralose (AKA Splenda) and aspartame are two products with too many health risks attached for me to be prepared to try them, though I do appreciate many folk are very happy they exist! Its taken me this long to find something which sorts the ME and hypoglycaemia out... I'm not about to risk taking something else on in their place!

There's a couple of interesting articles on Splenda at http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/ and http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm, with some follow up articles on sweeteners in general at http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/ for those who are interested.

Of course, my "sugar" intake being on much the same level as yours (the only thing I ever had with sugar was coffee, and I've got rather fond of the taste without now!), watch as any stevia plant I buy becomes nothing more than a pretty ornament!

Meanwhile... thank you for the nudge about my weight record! Blame the heat; I'd meant to change all three...

"You can add me to the list of people who have had a bad experience with sucralose. I purchased and ate a bag of jelly beans yesterday afternoon.

No carbs sounded wonderful, and they really did taste great, so I grabbed another bag on my way home

Unfortunately, a couple of hours later, I started experiencing food poisoning-like symptoms. It was clear to me that my system is trying to rid itself of something, so I looked at the packaging of the only thing I ate last night and found your web page. I was up all night and my normally flat and trim tummy is distended to the point that, when I lay on my back, I look seven months' pregnant!

I am grateful I now know what is causing my discomfort -- I will definitely avoid this product at all costs when shopping for my family!! Thank you for an informative article!!"

Karen
Fort Lauderdale


Urban Gypsy~ I checked out the links you posted, and definitely agree that artificial products merit extreme caution. I don't want to make light of your concerns. However, this testimonial against Splenda only clarifies that mostly it is not absorbed and passes right through... explosively, if you overdose on it. (sorry, not very sympathetic to Karen's plight)

Well put Alexa!

I never claimed sympathy for the downright stupid! After two packets of jelly beans in quick succession, I'd say she's missing the bigger picture on why she was sick!

I posted the links mainly so those who hadn't heard of the possible side-effects (of sucralose and aspartame that is; not of overdosing on jelly beans!), not to mention the chemicals they use, wouldn't be left wondering what I was talking about!

I'm devastatingly chemically intolerent as a result of organo-phosphate* poisoning, so I guess I'm extra quick to speak out on stuff like this.

To be honest with you, in cases like this I only ever look at the facts being presented... I hadn't noticed the derranged ramblings at the bottom!



* Particularly pesticides, which the government insist are safe, despite the origins as warfare nerve gas and despite their refusal to test it in the combinations in which it is used. But that's another topic...!

Sorry for being very slow off the mark here but i hadn't even heard of Stevia until a week or so ago.
When i found out it wasn't available in this Country i just thought it was yet another American product which will reach our shelves in a few years!!

Why is it banned in this country? With what i have read on artificial sweetners surely nothing natural could be worse?

I'm sure you're not alone in having assumed that. Nor does anyone seem to be doing much to challenge the government's decision. Alas they can pretty much rely upon the apathy of the British public in matters like this... But let's not get me started on that particular rant!

Obviously we can only speculate at the real reason the government banned it. Their official line is that it hasn't been tested sufficently to be proven safe...

Which is odd, really, because the chemical alternatives have indeed been tested and proven to have major flaws. But why let a little thing like that stand in the way of big business eh? Suffice to say there is much talk of behind the scenes intervention from the makers of aspartame et al.

I've been trying to find the URL for the full government report so you could judge for yourself, but what was popping up top of the list on a google search only a couple of days ago seems to have mysteriously disappeared now.

Meanwhile I just read an interesting article at http://www.whatreallyworks.co.uk/st...?article_ID=247 which makes reference to a substance called fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS for short!). Obviously "fructo" flags it up as containing fruit sugars, but the ingredients listed look hopeful, so it would be interesting to know the carbohydrate content and creation process involved in it...

Lest I repeat the jelly bean incident, I'll make a hasty note I'm only talking about the article itself... not the sugar alternatives suggested at the bottom!

Hope that helps a little. I'm fairly hopeful at the moment of establishing a UK source for the plant although, as I say, should that fail you can always order in the seeds online from the US and grow your own.

Try //www.godshaer.co.uk/prices.htm// for stevia in the UK (from another forum I am on so I hope he is not flooded with requests!)
SL

Thank you Sunny

Fantastic Sunny, thank you!

One thing I would say though... what they're doing (selling it in tincture and dried form) is, sadly, illegal. It might be worth checking they don't mind their URL being publicly posted?

Just a thought...

But oh boy do I have it bookmarked! You're a star!

My understanding of how it was being sold was that it was okay. Incidentally one can get Stevia from USA and Canada but I have never done that!
SL

This is really interesting. After looking at these web sites I will certainly more closely scrutinize my love affair with Splenda. Thanks.

What about good old fashioned saccharine? the banning of stevia is an E.U. thing by the way.

Saccarine has a horried after taste. I find for now Splenda works for me - less of it than they say - if a recipe says 3 teasp of sugar I use 2 teasp of Splenda granula. However have not yet tried mixing the two which might give a greater sweet taste for less and avoid the aftertaste perhaps?

As for Stevia : I think Belgium was the first to review it and as you say EU supported them but not on the basis that it was actually dangerous but on the basis that they couldnot prove its saftey...
SL