I am sure you have all seen the major marketing campaign by Glaceau to promote the new “Vitamin Water 10″.
Here is their campaign slogan:
You see… it’s that “naturally sweetened” part that gets me. That’s the part that I needed to explore. So I did.
Crystalline Fructose:
I have written about this before,
here, and this is one of those “natural” sweeteners listed. By definition: NOT NATURAL.
It is produced by allowing HFCS (not natural.. made in a factory) to crystallize. It is then dried and milled into the desired particle size for packaging. As a result, it is 100% fructose.
Fructose is not the best thing for your body. Fructose exists in foods as either a monosaccharide (free fructose) or as a disaccharide (sucrose). Free fructose does not undergo digestion; however when fructose is consumed in the form of sucrose, digestion occurs entirely in the upper small intestine. As sucrose comes into contact with the membrane of the small intestine, the enzyme sucrase catalyzes the cleavage of sucrose to yield one glucose and fructose unit. Fructose, passes through the small intestine, virtually unchanged, then enters the portal vein and is directed toward the liver.
You should go to the original article for more information… like how it is made with arsenic.
Moving on….
Erythritol:
Although, this might be deemed “natural” by many people, it still has to go through a manufacturing process to be made. Of the limited information that is out there, this is what I have discovered about the process. (please understand this is being pasted from patent papers and scientific references… so it may be hard to understand as it is not in everyday English.)
The present method of producing erythritol by fed-batch and repeated fermentation of sugars by microorganisms which produce erythritol.
By fed-batch fermentation is meant a fermentation in which microorganisms are fed by the successive addition of substrates, and in which the product and the co-products of the fermentation remain in the medium until the end of fermentation.
By sugars is meant in the present invention all the carbonaceous sources which may be directly assimilated by the microorganisms which produce erythritol. Such sugars are chosen for example from the group consisting of glucose, saccharose, fructose, maltose, xylulose and maltulose, on their own or in a mixture. By extension, sugars also means certain sugar alcohols (or polyols) such as mannitol or sorbitol which, being assimilated by said microorganisms, will also lead to the production of erythritol.
I’m sorry… does that sound natural? I mean the “sugars” as defined by the patent are “sugars” that are not natural: saccharose, maltose,
polyols. Two more things.
1.) side affects: As a whole, erythritol is generally free of side-effects in regular use, but if consumed in very extreme quantities (sometimes encouraged by its almost non-caloric nature), effectively consuming it faster than one’s body can absorb it, a laxative effect may result.
2.) the patent is owned by
Cargill. You know. The same folks that bring you HFCS and Crystalline Fructose.
Truvia (rebiana):
Many people know this as stevia. Stevia has gotten a lot of good press lately because it is this pretty plant that is so good for marketing and showing how “natural” it is. I have had a hard time finding out how it is made other than it goes through an extraction and purification step. My personal note, having worked at a biological manufacturing company…. the purification step is probably more complicated than you think. Anyway…
It should be noted that up until 10 years ago, the FDA would NOT approve this for human consumption, stating that they did not have enough data to prove it was safe. This is a product that had been around since the 70′s. So, for thirty years, not enough data to prove safe. In ten years, all the data they need to say it is fine. Hmmmm. Oh. Guess what? Also, owned by Cargill.
Side Affects:
This is data from a toxicologist, Ryan Huxtable, Univ. of Arizona:
Reproductive problems. Stevioside “seems to affect the male reproductive organ system,” European scientists concluded last year. When male rats were fed high doses of stevioside for 22 months, sperm production was reduced, the weight of seminal vesicles (which produce seminal fluid) declined, and there was an increase in cell proliferation in their testicles, which could cause infertility or other problems.1 And when female hamsters were fed large amounts of a derivative of stevioside called steviol, they had fewer and smaller offspring.2 Would small amounts of stevia also cause reproductive problems? No one knows.
Cancer. In the laboratory, steviol can be converted into a mutagenic compound, which may promote cancer by causing mutations in the cells’ genetic material (DNA). “We don’t know if the conversion of stevioside to steviol to a mutagen happens in humans,” says Huxtable. “It’s probably a minor issue, but it clearly needs to be resolved.”
Energy metabolism. Very large amounts of stevioside can interfere with the absorption of carbohydrates in animals and disrupt the conversion of food into energy within cells. “This may be of particular concern for children,” says Huxtable.
This is my favorite quote from the report:
If you use stevia sparingly (once or twice a day in a cup of tea, for example), it isn’t a great threat to you. But if stevia were marketed widely and used in diet sodas, it would be consumed by millions of people. And that might pose a public health threat.
So, given all of this information, I believe that Glaceau has gotten away with lenient labeling laws in this country, along with the deep lobbying pockets of Cargill, to claim that this new drink is “naturally sweetened”. (See the label below… it is just not true. But, they can get away with it.)
In my opinion, this is another case of marketing health to the masses for their financial gain while the rest of us get sick because we are ingesting chemicals we otherwise would not.
Stumble it!