Aspartame cancer risk getting new attention

I've heard about this cancer link and Aspartame before, but didn't know a lot about the details or how much Aspartame was fed to rats to get those results. I recently read an article/study about the subject and surprisingly, it doesn't take much to put yourself at risk.

The new study found statistically significant increases in lymphomas and leukemias in rats that were fed as little as 20 milligrams of the sweetener per kilogram of body weight—an amount that’s in the ballpark of what some people consume.

The article says this amount is equivalent to a 50-pound child drinking 2½ cans of diet soda per day, or a 150-pound adult drinking about 7½ cans of diet soda per day. You might be saying to yourself... "I don't drink that much diet soda each day!" However, if you are also consuming a lot of sugar-free products, many of those are also made with Aspartame, which could easily add-up to the same amount.

I wonder if Coke noticed this study and that's why they are planning to use Stevia. It might not be long before Aspartame generates more negative press and possibly banned.

If you can add Stevia to your drinks like tea and coffee, that's great and much better than using Aspartame based products. The article also says Sucralose is safe, but remember Splenda is not 100% Sucralose from what Ferbit has discovered recently. If the ingredients say Sucralose, then that's the safer ingredient than seeing Splenda.

What goes on the body... Not nearly as important as what goes in it...

*sigh*

What goes on the body... Not nearly as important as what goes in it...

is McDonald's slogan for the Happy Kids - Happy Moms - Happy Meals campaign. I've been meaning to write about this for quite some time, but kept fogetting. It all started with that ridiculous commercial showing the little girl dressed as a princess. The commercial points out that the mom doesn't care that the little girl is wearing princess dress-up clothes because what goes IN the body is WAY more important than what goes ON it.

This is true...

But then the mom takes her little girl to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal. You know, because is's WAY more important what goes IN her body. So the little girl chows down on:

chicken nuggets made with factory farm white meat (healthy dark meat has more nutrients and flavor), salt, enriched bleached flour and a bunch of other ingredients, FRIED in trans fat and some anti-foaming agent (eeeeeeewwwwwwww!).

dipping them in:

bbq sauce where the NUMBER ONE INGREDIENT is high fructose corn syrup, then water, then a bunch of other ingredients including "natural smoke flavor" and "natural flavors" - Can you say hidden msg???

Then to add to this craziness... Their LATEST commercial shows a kid eating apples. Yay for Micky D's, right? Except that the poor kid is dipping them in their disgusting caramel sauce! God forbid kids eat plain apples... No, they NEED to dip them in corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, salt and artificial vanilla flavor.

Mmmm Mmmm Gross...

Moose Poop Ice Cream

:) Girls picked the name. LOL

I made the yummiest dessert today that I just had to share with everyone. I sort of made it up as I went. We decided to call it Moose Poop. Moose, because we were explaining to the girls the three different uses for the word moose/mousse. Poop because... well, once finished, it totally looks like poop. LOL LOL LOL But it's so yummy!

Moose Poop

• 1 can organic coconut milk


• 1 dropper full of Vanilla Cream Stevia (or regular stevia with vanilla extract)


• 1 tablespoon local raw honey


• 1 rounded teaspoon cocoa powder


• 1/3 cup raw almond butter (or any nut butter of your choice - macadamia nut butter would be wonderful)

Warm the can of coconut milk by setting it in a bowl of warm water for about 5 minutes. It will liquify quickly. You'll probably need to do this to your natural nut butter too.

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix thoroughly. Blob into a container of your choice and freeze for about 4 hours. If you freeze it too long, it turns as hard as a brick so only make what you will eat right away. 3-4 hours is perfect though.

Stevia in Coke? Good for the sweetener industry...

My hubby brought up an interesting topic last week about Stevia being used in a future Coke product. Although I will probably taste it, I still don't recommend anyone drink much soda pop. Sparkling Mineral water is much healthier. Pop is NOT just about sugar or artificial sweeteners. There are a lot of different reasons soda pop is bad, but I won't go into that now. Also, because stevia greatly enhances the taste of other sweeteners, Coke might do a MIXTURE of sweeteners (artificial or not) in their new product. *sigh*

The biggest WIN here is that Stevia will be made an official SWEETENER!!!!!!! Stevia is still only considered a dietary supplement. But now that the Coca Cola Company has petitioned the FDA to approve it as a sweetener, companies can use it in all sorts of products! So if Coke succeeds (of course they will), we'll see a flood of new products like yogurts, beverages and desserts made with stevia!

Woo hoo!!!!!

Stevia in Coke? Ok... I'm listening

I ran across this article while connected to wifi here in Vienna. Sounds pretty cool eh? Well... I'm outside at 9:30pm under a tent in the pouring-down rain. Not the most romantic evening, but hey... I'm in Vienna!!

Anyway... we use Stevia a lot in our house. It's a great natural herb that's also VERY sweet. We use it in tea daily (excellent in Yerba Mate) and give it to our girls with lemon water, which they love and avoids them drinking sugar-water fruit juice. ;)

It doesn't surprise me that Coke is trying this since "healthy" is in. I'm anxious to see what they come up with. On the surface it sounds great, but knowing "Big Soft Drink," they might screw it up with some blend that will defeat the purpose. ;) We will still not give soda-pop to the girls and I only drink pop occasionally, but when I do at least it could have a better sweetener than aspartame.



Read the article on About.com and we'll see what they create.