It’s strange that in Australia and the USA, the two largest sugar producing nations on earth, that sugar is so well promoted, yet, little attention is given to any other forms of sweetening, be they natural or artificial.
In Europe, the situation is reversed, and in fact Europeans consume very litte refined sugar, or artificial sweeteners, preferring instead the two natural alternatives. Stevia and Xylitol.
Stevia is also widely used in Russia, China and Japan, yet, Australia, and America, two of the most advanced industrialised nations on the planet, still promote sugar… why ?
Have you ever noticed the ratio of diet drinks to non-diet drinks in the supermarket ? It’s about 10-1 in favour of sugar.. definitely more sugar drinks than diet ones, although the gap is starting to narrow as people become more informed.. however, are they correctly informed ? Or just conned by government and big business.
Try to buy Xlitol in Australia and you will find a huge tarrif placed on it’s import… why ?
Sugar is readily available in the supermarket for something like A$1.00 a kilo, but Xylitol is only available at specialist Health Food shops and on the net for A$20.00 for 500gms… why ? In Europe it is as cheap as sugar.
Xylitol is a natural substance, much like Stevia, yet the Australian and American governments have seen fit to place huge import tarrifs on these safe sugar alternatives .. why ?
Is it to protect their sugar industries ?
Read the research articles on Xylitol and you will not touch sugar, or aspartame again… Sugar when mixed with saliva turns acid in the mouth, and this promotes tooth decay, among other things….. Xylitol however, is the opposite base carbon to sugar, and turns Alkaline in the mouth..no acid… no decay..
Sugar has a Glycaemic Index of 100, Xylitol is 7.. there are many, many other benfits and studies… as for Stevia, widely used in Japan, why is it that when the Minister for Health in Brazil several years ago proposed only Stevia be used for sweetening diet drinks, the whole idea was thrown out of parliament.
It seems that Monsanto, makers of NutraSweet, had made a substantial financial committment in the construction of a plant for making the sweetener in San Paulo, which would employ hundreds of locals..
A report funded by the Rural Industries Research Board and the Central Queensland University in 2002, found that 50 hectares of Stevia plantation could produce the equivelant of $1million of sugar, that would normally require about 250 hectares of sugar cane plantation.
Hmmm.. what ever happened to that project ? Or more to the point what would happen to the sugar industry ?
References : Nexus Magazine