Fw: Nectar, the High Fructose Health Food Fraud

[Guest guest]

This article just came to me via Body Ecology Coach Boddie. Very

interesting! R.

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[CBE-Net] Nectar, the High Fructose Health Food Fraud

I thought that you all would want to keep this article on hand.

Boddie

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Agave Nectar, the High Fructose Health Food Fraud

by Rami Nagel

Agave nectar is advertised as a “diabetic friendly,” raw, and a “100%

natural sweetener.” Yet it is none of these.

The purpose of this article is to show you that agave nectar is in reality

not

a natural sweetener but a highly refined form of fructose, more

concentrated

than the high fructose corn syrup used in sodas. Refined fructose is not a

‘natural’ sugar, and countless studies implicate it as a sweetener that

will

contribute to disease. Therefore, agave nectar is not a health building

product,

but rather a deceptively marketed form of a highly processed and refined

sweetener.

Agave nectar is found on the shelves of health food stores primarily under

the

labels, “Agave Nectar 100% Natural Sweetener,” (1) and “Organic Raw Blue

Agave Nectar.” (2) In addition, it can be found in foods labeled as

organic

or raw, including: ketchup, ice-cream, chocolate, and health food bars.

The implication of its name, the pictures and descriptions on the product

labels,

is that agave is an unrefined sweetener that has been used for thousands

of

years by native people in central Mexico.

Botanically, agave plants are in the lily order Liliales and the order

Asparagales (depending on which botanical taxonomic system you use) both of

which define agave as a flowering plant. For “thousands of years natives to

central Mexico used different species of agave plants for medicine, as well as

for building shelter,” so claims the fanciful pedigree of this plant. Natives

would also allow the sweet sap/liquid of the agave to ferment naturally, which

created a mildly alcoholic beverage with a very pungent flavor known as

‘pulque’. They also made a traditional sweetener from the agave sap/juice (miel

de agave) by simply boiling it for several hours. But, as one agave seller

explains, the agave nectar purchased in stores is neither of these traditional

foods: “Agave nectar is a newly created sweetener, having been developed during

the 1990's.” (3)

What is Agave Nectar?

The principal constituent of the agave is starch, such as what is found in

corn or rice. The process in which the agave starch is converted into refined

fructose and then sold as the sweetener agave nectar is through an enzymatic and

chemical conversion that refines, clarifies, heats, chemically alters,

centrifuges, and filters the non-sweet starch into a highly refined sweetener,

fructose. Here, a distinction must be made. Fructose is not what is found in

fruit. Commonly, fructose is compared with its opposite and truly naturally

occurring sweetener, known as ‘levulose’. There are some chemical similarities

between fructose (man made) and levulose (made by nature), and so the

synthetically refined sugar fructose was labeled in a way to make one believe it

comes from fruit. Levulose is not fructose even though people will claim it is.

Russ Bianchi is Managing Director and CEO of Adept Solutions, Inc., a globally

recognized food and beverage development company. Russ explains: “If fructose

were natural, I would be able to go out to corn field and get a bucket of

sweetener. I can go to a beehive and get honey that I can eat without processing

it. I can go to an apple tree and pick an apple and eat it. I cannot go out into

a cornfield, squeeze corn, and get fructose syrup, and I cannot go into an agave

field, and get the product sold on retail shelves, as agave nectar.

Falsely labeled agave fructose and high fructose corn syrup are both

products of advanced chemistry and extensive food processing technology.” (4)

Mr. Bianchi has an insider’s view of the health food industry and the food

creation industry, having worked in the industry for decades.

Take water for example. We all know that the chemical formula for water is

H2O: two hydrogens and one oxygen. The opposite would be O2H, which is nothing

close to water. Likewise, manmade fructose would have to have the chemical

formula changed for it to be levulose, so it is not levulose. Saying fructose is

levulose is like saying that margarine is the same as butter. Refined fructose

lacks amino acids, vitamins, minerals, pectin, and fiber. As a result, the body

doesn’t recognize refined fructose. Levulose, on the other hand, is naturally

occurring in fruits, and is not isolated but bound to other naturally occurring

sugars. Unlike man-made fructose, levulose contains enzymes, vitamins, minerals,

fiber, and fruit pectin. Refined fructose is processed in the body through the

liver, rather than digested in the intestine.(5) Levulose is digested in the

intestine. Refined fructose robs the body of many micronutrient treasures in

order to assimilate itself for physiological use. While naturally occurring

fruit sugars contain levulose bound to other sugars, high fructose corn syrup

contains " free " (unbound), chemically refined fructose. Research indicates that

free refined fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like

magnesium, copper and chromium. (6)

The reason why refined fructose is used so commonly as a sweetener is

simple: it’s extremely cheap in cost.

Agave nectar, as a final product, is mostly chemically refined fructose,

anywhere from 70% and higher according to the agave nectar chemical profiles

posted on agave nectar websites. The refined fructose in agave nectar is much

more concentrated than the fructose in high fructose corn syrup. For comparison,

the high fructose corn syrup used in sodas is 55% refined fructose. High

fructose corn syrup is made with genetically modified enzymes. Is agave syrup

(refined fructose) made the same way?

“They are indeed made the same way, using a highly chemical process with

genetically modified enzymes. They are also using caustic acids, clarifiers,

filtration chemicals and so forth in the conversion of agave starches into

highly refined fructose inulin that is even higher in fructose content than high

fructose corn syrup”, says Mr. Bianchi. Inulin is a chain of chemically refined

fibers and sugars linked together, and, this bears repeating, high fructose

inulin has more concentrated sugar than high fructose corn syrup!

In a confidential FDA letter, Dr. Stutsman (from the Food and Drug

Administration’s Office of Labeling Enforcement) explains the FDA’s food

labeling laws related to Agave Nectar:

“Corn syrup treated with enzymes to enhance the fructose levels is to be

labeled ‘High Fructose Corn Syrup.’” According to Mr. Stutsman, agave, whose

main carbohydrate is starch, requires the label “hydrolyzed inulin syrup.” Even

though, like corn, agave is a starch processed with enzymes, it does not require

the label high fructose agave syrup because the resulting refined fructose

sweetener is so sweet that it is chemically closer to inulin.

From this point forward, agave nectar will be referred to by a more

accurate name: agave syrup.

This name is also legally uncomplicated and non-deceptive, per US Federal

labeling laws, even though the true name would be hydrolyzed high fructose

inulin syrup. “The product called ‘agave nectar’ is really chemically refined

hydrolyzed high fructose, which is intentionally mislabeled to deceive

consumers,” states Mr. Bianchi.

In a stunning report released in October 2008, the U.S. government’s own

accountability office reported that of the thousands of food products imported

into the US each year from 150 countries, just 96 total food items were

inspected by the FDA to insure label accuracy and food safety. (7) The FDA

doesn’t usually protect consumers regarding food safety or food labeling, nor

does it usually take action against many misleading labels. This was seen with

the processed infant formula scandal from China, where infant milk powder was

tainted with toxic melamine.

High Fructose Agave’s Dubious History

In the year 2000, with warrants in hand, federal agents from the Office of

Criminal Investigations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came banging

on the door of North America’s largest agave nectar distributor, Western

Commerce Corporation in California. In an extremely rare case of the FDA

protecting consumer interests (rather than supporting big business, while

shutting down legitimate and health consciousness competition), they discovered

that Western Commerce Corporation was adulterating their agave syrup with high

fructose corn syrup (to lower the cost even more and increase profit margins).

While the federal agents confiscated the material in the warehouse, the owners

of Western Commerce Corporation were nowhere to be found. Those who ran the

company fled the country with millions of dollars in assets to avoid criminal

prosecution.

This adulterated agave syrup (refined fructose) was also labeled as

certified organic (8) to fool consumers into thinking they were getting a pure

product. This shows you how unverified organic labels were used in the USA, and

continue being used even now.

Today, high fructose agave syrup is made primarily by two companies,

Nekulti, and IIDEA. Yet a third agave marketer, by the name of ‘Volcanic,’ has a

suspicious claim on their website. “If your agave comes from one of the other

two companies in Mexico, something has been added.” (9)

They are referring to Nekulti and IIDEA. Their claim is based upon an

analysis, which claims that their agave nectar has a lower refined fructose

level.

Blue Agave Nectar is Not a Safe Sweetener

When the Spaniards came to the New World, around 1535, they brought with

them a

desire for brandy. When their supplies ran out they had to find a new

alcoholic beverage to replace their lost brandy. The Spaniards found that by

distilling the juice of the plant now known as the blue agave plant they could

produce a potent alcoholic beverage, which over time has evolved into what we

now call tequila. In order to produce a sweetener from the blue agave plant, the

entire pineapple -like, giant root bulb of the plant is removed from the earth.

It is then dried and juiced, making an agave starch juice. This in no way

resembles any form of traditional use of the blue agave plant. While great for

distilling tequila, the blue agave plant, when transformed through a chemical

process into refined fructose, may contain many properties that make them

dangerous and toxic for regular human consumption.

" Yucca species, together with other agaves, are known to contain large

quantities of saponins, " according to Tyler's Honest Herbal. Saponins in many

varieties of agave plants are toxic steroid derivatives, as well as purgatives,

and are to be avoided during pregnancy or breastfeeding because they might cause

or contribute to miscarriage. These toxins have adverse effects on nonpregnant

people and many health compromised consumer categories as well. They are known

to contribute to internal hemorrhaging by destroying red blood cells, and they

may gravely negatively harm people taking statin and high blood pressure drugs.

Agave may also stimulate blood flow in the uterus.(10) Other first hand reports

indicate agave may promote sterility in women. Since the agaves used for agave

syrup are not being used in their traditional way, there should be a warning

label on the sweetener packages that it may promote miscarriage during

pregnancy, through weakening the uterine lining.

What’s wrong with Fructose?

Once eaten, refined fructose appears as triglycerides in the blood stream,

or as stored body fat. Elevated triglyceride levels, caused by consumption of

refined fructose, are building blocks for hardening human arteries. Metabolic

studies have proven the relationship between refined fructose and obesity.(11)

Because fructose is not converted to blood glucose, refined fructose doesn’t

raise nor crash human blood glucose levels — hence the claim that it is safe for

diabetics.

Supposedly, refined fructose has a low glycemic index, and won’t affect

your blood sugar negatively. But the food labels are deceptive. Refined fructose

is not really safe for diabetics.

“High fructose from agave or corn will kill a diabetic or hypoglycemic

much faster than refined white sugar,” says Mr. Bianchi. “By eating high

fructose syrups, you are clogging the veins, creating inflammation, and

increasing body fat, while stressing your heart. This is in part because refined

fructose is foreign to the body, and is not recognized by it.”

The average person consumes about 98 pounds of highly refined corn

fructose per year in the USA, that roughly translates into half a cup of refined

fructose per day. In an average supermarket, at least 2/3 of all items contain

some form of highly refined fructose, because it is one of the cheapest

ingredients and fillers for foods, next to water, air, and salt. In health food

stores, some foods contain a sweetener called crystalline fructose or other

sweeteners labeled as fructose. Essentially, these are all refined corn

fructose, labeled in a way to trick people that it is something more natural.

Mr. Bianchi concludes:

“The simple answer tends to be the correct one. There is no land of milk

and agave. Milk comes from goats, cows, humans, etc., and honey comes from bees.

What I want people to understand is that mislabeling a sweetener like agave

syrup is about money and profit, to the real determent of your health. The

unethical factor is that the natural health food business has gone to great

lengths in the case of agave to defraud consumers, by deceiving and lying to

those who are trying to seek better health. There is something ethically worse

about a company pretending to sell something all natural to people seeking

health, than a mainstream company not pretending that their food is healthier.

For example, nobody selling fast and junk foods is advocating it is health food.

When you are in a natural health food store, you expect to pay extra money for

something that is good for you. We have con artists here, pretending to deliver

better health at a higher cost, when in reality it is equal to, or much worse

than the many other sweeteners or harmful junk food. People are expecting to

receive health, and are intentionally being defrauded for profit.”

Amber Agave Syrup (refined fructose)

Agave syrup (refined fructose) comes in two colors: clear or light, and

amber. What is this difference? Mr. Bianchi explains, “Due to poor quality

control in the agave processing plants in Mexico, sometimes the fructose gets

burned after being heated above 140 degrees Fahrenheit, it creates a darker, or

amber color.”

Chain Food Stores and Health Food Stores

When Western Commerce Corporation was shut down, due to their agave syrup

alteration scheme in 2000, the big guys in the food industry stayed away from

any agave syrups. They knew better than to risk lawsuits, and health consumer

fraud. “They were clear that agave was criminally mislabeled per US Code Of

Federal Regulation labeling laws, with an untried sweetener, new to the market,

that contained saponins, and was not clearly approved as safe for use.” explains

Mr. Bianchi. For many years following this bust agave syrup was not used.

But recently, some sellers in the agave syrup field, once quiet, have

begun sneaking back into the food and beverage chain. And retail food giants

like Whole Foods, Wegman’s, Trader Joes and Kroger, (12) who should know better,

and who should know the food labeling laws and requirements, still have no

hesitation in selling the toxic, unapproved, and mislabeled refined fructose

agave syrup, as well as products containing it. Mr. Bianchi explains the

legality of this practice. “The simple answer here, again, tends to be the

correct one. The stores carry agave products knowing that if they are caught,

the legal responsibility will be on the agave sellers and producers, and not the

stores. They will just pull it off the shelves. They may also be victims

themselves and lied to by the purveyors and sellers of agave products. So long

as agave products are profitable, the stores will carry them, regardless of

fraudulent labeling or health oncerns.

Stores will continue to carry agave until consumer fraud complaints to

local district attorneys, consumer unions, class action litigation or severe

reactions like death ensue.”

Conclusions on Agave Syrup

Without the FDA making efforts to enforce food-labeling laws, consumers

cannot be certain that what they are eating is even what the label says it is.

New sweeteners like agave syrup (refined fructose) were made to coin a profit,

and not to help or assist vital health. Due to the lies from many companies who

sell agave syrup (refined fructose), you have been led to believe that it is a

safe and a natural sweetener. The retail refined agave syrup label does not

explain that it goes through a complicated chemical refining process of

enzymatic digestion, which converts the starch into the free, man-made chemical

fructose that has a direct link to serious the degenerative disease conditions

so prevalent in our culture. While high fructose agave syrup won’t spike your

blood sugar levels, the fructose in it will cause: mineral depletion, liver

inflammation, hardening of the arteries, insulin resistance leading to diabetes,

cardio-vascular disease, obesity, and may be toxic for use during pregnancy.

If you want to buy something sweet, get a piece of fruit, not a candy bar

labeled as a “health food.” If you want to create something sweet, use

sweeteners that are known to be safer. For uncooked dishes, unheated raw honey

or dates work well. For cooked dishes or sweet drinks, a good organic maple

syrup, or even freshly juiced apple juice or orange juice can provide delicious

and relatively safe sweetness. In general, to be healthy, we cannot eat sugar

all day, no matter how natural the form of sugar is, or is claimed to be. One

should limit total sweetener consumption to approximately 10% of daily calories.

Or one sweet side dish per day, (like a bowl of fruit with yogurt.)

While it may be depressing news to hear about the lack of standards in the

health food world, let this news help encourage you to seek access to more pure

and unrefined foods and sweetener sources, so that you can be healthier.

Additional Reading – Published Books that Talk about the Dangers of

Refined Fructose and problems with food labeling and deceptive health practices.

Sweet Deception by Dr. ph Mercola

The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell

In Defense of Food by Pollan -

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan -

Sugar Shock! by Connie

Super Size Me by Spurlock

Fast Food Nation, Schlosser

Welcome to Food Politics by n Nestle

Generation Rx, Greg Crister

Bad Foods, Oakes

Food Fight by Dan Imhof

The Sugar Fix, Gower,

Please Don't Eat the Wallpaper, Dr. Irven

Understanding R Epidemic, Sylivia Ledoux 2008

Fat Politics by J. Oliver

Obesity Epidemiology, Hu

Articles Links

1. (http://www.madhavasagave.com/AgavePromo.aspx)

2.

(http://www.wholesomesweeteners.com/brands/Wholesome_Sweeteners/Organic_Raw_Blue\

_Agave.html)

3. (http://www.madhavahoney.com/agave.htm)

4. (http://servicesdirectory.ift.org/cms/?id=3003 & companyId=2380044)

5. (http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/annotate/node/132)

6. (http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html) (USDA in

Beltsville studies)

7. (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08597.pdf)

8. (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3289/is_/ai_55084258)

9. (http://www.volcanicnectar.com/blueagavefaq.html)

10.

(http://childbirthsolutions.org/articles/pregnancy/herbsandvit/index.php)

11. (http://news.ufl.edu/2005/12/06/fructose/)

(http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/825/ )

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081016074701.htm)

(http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537)

12.

(http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1706699_1707550_1814004,\

00 .html)

Bibliography for additional research

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics for the year

2003, from the Economic Research Service latest numbers, reports the average

consumption per capita in the USA population of approximately and estimated 300

million, of refined sweeteners (not including

high intensity sweeteners) is 161.90 pounds per year. This consumption

number must be contrasted by the first US official statistics in 1905, at just

under 6 pounds of total refined sweetener consumption per year, with a

population that was less urbanized, or prone to the consumption of processed

food or refined sweeteners. One might argue that mortality rates have actually

improved in comparison to the correlation of higher sweetener consumption rates

in this 100 or year period. In point of fact, diabetes, hyperinsulinism or

hypoglycemia, cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer, and correlated

diseases, have also rapidly and

epidemiological paralleled the rise of diseases medically and actuarially

linked with increased refined sweetener consumption.

November 10th, 2001, Wall Street Journal, Food? The Next Tobacco? Page #1,

5th Column World Health Organization Statistics for the Year 2000

Something About Sugar by M. Rolph, J. Newbegin Publishers of

San Francisco, 1917

Fat Land - How Americans Became The Fattest People In the World by Greg

Critser, Penguin Books, 2003, ISBN 0-713-99739-7

Sweet Deception by Dr. ph Mercola, Books, ISBN #0-7852-2179-4

Disease Prevention And Treatment - Expanded Third Addition, 2000, Life

Extension Media, ISBN 0-9658777-4-4

Los Altos Health Research Clinic Study conducted by Dr. Gene Spiller

Polarimetry, Saccharimetry and the Sugars, Circular C440, US National

Bureau Of Standards, by Frederick J. Bates & Associates, May 1, 1942

Sugarless - Towards The Year 2000, Edited by A.J. Rugg-Gunn, Royal Society

Of chemistry, Department of child Dental Health, University of Newcastle Upon

Tyne, UK, 1994

Food Politics: How The Food Industry Influences Nutrition & Health by

n Nestle

Physicians' Desk Reference, 2001, Chief Editor, Sheldon Hendler, PhD, MD,

Medical Economics Company, Inc.

Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia

Food Chemical Codex, National Academy Press, ISBN 0-309-03090-0

The Merck Index, Twelfth Edition, 1996, ISBN 0-911910-12-3

The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food & Nutrition, University of California,

Berkeley, Sheldon Margen, MD, Editor, ISBN 0-929661-0306

4. Physician's Desk Reference, 2001, Chief Editor, Sheldon Hendler, PhD,

MD, Medical Economics Company, Inc.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Scientific American, September

1998

Sugar Isn't Always Sweet - Living With, Understanding And Managing

Hypoglycemia, by Wilbur D. Currier, MD, Maura Zack, Harvey M. Ross, MD, 1983,

IBSN 0-88005-002-0

The Journal, Price-Pottinger Nutrition Foundation, Fall 2001, Volume 25,

number 3, Diabetes Prevention: Historical Analysis, , Editor

National Institutes Of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases of the US

National Institute of Health, December 13th, 2001, US Surgeon General

Satcher, MD, And US Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy F. , on

November 1st, 2001, announced a new emphasis on treating obesity, diabetes

through managing blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol, in conjunction

with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Key to this landmark

study was the medically based recommendation for regular exercise, a limit to

total calories consumed per day, with the SPECIFIC emphasis on the wholesale

reduction of refined carbohydrates, including but not limited to, refined

sweeteners.

The Associated Press On March 25th, 2004, by Steve Hartose, reported

'Refined Fructose Sweeteners Linked to Obesity Rise' which incorporated the USDA

sweetener consumption rate from 1967-2000 by Dr. A Bray, a longtime

obesity scientist at the Louisiana State University System's Pennington

Biomedical Research Center, whose conclusive results where published in the

April 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, linking HFCS

consumption and obesity in the American population. Food & Beverage Industry

spokespersons tried to deflect the findings, much like the tobacco Industry

denied any linkage between tobacco products and disease, but the evidence is

clear and irrefutable.

Fructose and mannose metabolism - 3D structure in PDB at the following web

site:

http://kegg.genome.ad.jp/kegg/metabolism_links/pdb/pdb00051.html

Isomerization of glucose and fructose at web site:

www.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Biotech-Environ/IMMOB/poppezz/hfcs.html

Measuring Blood Fat Vital To Heart Examination, March 24th, 1998, in The

Boston Globe, By Saltus. Triglyceride levels are a precursor to the

formation of low density lipoproteins (LDL or 'bad' cholesterol) conducted by

M. Gotto, Jr, MD, Dean of Cornell University

Medical College in New York, Jeppesen, MD of Copenhagen University

Hospital in Denmark. Key to the medically published study the direct causal

connection of high levels of triglycerides from refined fructose intake. Ronal

Krauss, head of Molecular Medicine at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in

California said of the study:

" a bunch of us who have been absolutely convinced that triglycerides are

a part of the missing equation that we have to deal with above and beyond

cholesterol " (are vindicated) in the predicting the risk of heart disease " . The

original study was published in Circulation, the medical periodical of the

American Heart Association, also in March of 1998.

Reuters Limited, April 26th, 1998: " Harvard Medical School in Boston,

concluded two studies presented at an international conference of the American

Lung Association and the American

Thoracic Society, involving 100,000 American nurses for obesity linkage to

asthma. Over 14.6 million in the USA suffer from asthma. Triglycerides, caused

primarily from refined fructose consumption, are a leading cause of obesity. "

Meira Fields, PhD, at USDA in Beltsville, land has conducted several

studies directly linking laboratory animals (rats and pigs) with rapid copper

depletion, leading to rapid and advanced heart disease, as a result of

" moderate " High Fructose Corn Syrup ingestion. , PhD, lead

scientist at the Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, land notes:

" Many people think that adult-onset diabetes and cardiovascular disease are

natural diseases of aging; we believe they are natural diseases of poor

nutrition. " This was published in Men's Confidential Magazine confirming earlier

tests and reported results in Science News of June 8th, 1985 by Norman Steele,

PhD, of USDA in Beltsville, land, delivered to the Federation of American

Societies For Experimental Biology in St. Louis, MO, in 1985.

The Metabolic Basis Of Inherited Disease, McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-060726-5,

Editors S. Lauffer, Ellen Warren & Donna McIvor, Chapter #5, The

Metabolism Of Fructose, And Chapter Some Specific Pathways Of Metabolism Of

Carbohydrates And Lipids

Metabolic Effects Of Utilizable Dietary Carbohydrates by Henning

Beck-Nielson, Oluf Pederson, And Niels Schwartz Sorenson, ISBN 0-8247-1710-4,

1982, page 261-284

'Is Fructose More Natural Than Sugar?' By Jack Challem, Natural Health

Magazine, June 1994, Page 40-44

Intestinal Fructose Absorption & Toddler's Diarrhea by Han Hoechst, A

Study Of Clinical Aspects & Pathophysiology, ISBN 90-900-97-14-7, 1997

Food Technology Magazine, Page 48, January, 1996, Refined Fructose &

Glucose Are Not True Energy Sources

Sugar & Cancer by Dr. Jon J. , MD:

www.alternativehealth.com/.au/sugar

www.mercola.com Power Bar Founder's Sudden Death from HFCS content in his

bars by Dr. Mercola, March 22nd, 2004

Carbohydrate Mimics - Concepts & Methods, edited by Yves Chapleur,

Wiley-Vich Publishers, 1998, ISBN 3-527-29526-7

An insulin replacement? Modern Drug Discovery, December 2000,

www.pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/mdd/v03/i09

Just a spoonful of sugar? Modern Drug discovery, May 2001,

www.pubs.acs.org/suvscribe/journals/mdd/v04/i05

Increased Glucose Transport-Phosphorylation & Muscle Glycogen Synthesis

After Exercise Training In Insulin-Resistant Subjects, New England Journal Of

Medicine, October 31st, 1996

Sugars & Sweeteners, edited by Morman Kretchmer, PhD, MD and Clara B.

Hollenbeck, PhD, CRC Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8493-8835-X

Report From the FDA's Sugar Task Force - 1986: Evaluation Of Health

Aspects Of Sugars Contained In Carbohydrate Sweeteners by Walter H. Glinsmann,

MD, Hiltje Irausquin, PhD & Youngmee K. Park, PhD

EU Sweeteners Directive94/35/EC, cleared last November 2003, states that

cyclamates in water, milk and fruit juice based drinks, as well as energy

reduced and no added sugar drinks and a range of confectionery products,

including chewing gum and breath freshening sweets are to be reduced. Cyclamates

are banned in the USA. Stevia was banned in all categories in the EU in late

2002.

High Blood Sugar Levels Increase Pancreatic Cancer Risk, May 17th, 2000,

Journal Of The

American Medical Association, M. Gapstur, MD, Gann, MD,

Love, MD, Kiang Liu, MD, Coloanglo, MD & Alan Dyer, MD, This

landmark 25 year study, with 40,000 subjects, conclusively proved lifestyle,

exercise and dietary intake (particularly refined sweetener consumption and fat

intake) have a direct medical correlation to the prevention of this form of

cancer. The authors are member of Northwestern University Medical School.

Approximately 24.9 billion pounds is the current production (2004) per

annum in the USA of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Divide this number by the estimate

population of 300 million and this gives you an average consumption per capita

per annum of 82.67 pounds of HFCS consumed per year for each man, woman and

child in the USA.

Approximately 420 million pounds per year of 'Honey' is produced in North

America, for human consumption, per USDA numbers. Most people believe honey is

produced exclusively by the natural enzymatic and digestive conversion of

pollen, nectar or other organic plant materials by bees to the digestible

multi-saccharide known and defined as 'honey'. In point of fact, true natural

honey, whether USDA certified or not, in various grades, is only produced in the

mid Spring to late Summer months of each year, when the biological materials are

readily available for bees to digest, convert and regurgitate. Then how is honey

production in many regions continuous into the Fall, Winter and Early Spring

when the raw material sources for conversion do not exist?

Apiarist would argue that higher latitudes produce more day light hours,

during the Summer, for honey production, or conversely the importation of

southern hemisphere honey, during the winter months of North America. In point

of fact, there is a very widespread and significant volume practice of feeding

bees refined sucrose and/or refined crystallized or liquid high fructose corn

syrup to merely flavor, partially convert and call 'honey', because it past

through the bee's digestive tract. The result of such a product (essentially bee

barf) labeled as honey, but is closer in saccharide break down to the refined

sweetener sources used. These additional months of stress on the hives, while

keeping the hives under light 24 hours per day, eventually cause mite

infestation in the hives and large bee kill-offs. These cyclical kills,

approximately every 4th or 5th year, cause a shortage in production and honey

prices spike upward. In addition to this growing honey production practice of

feeding man made refined sweeteners to bees, honey is allergenic, should not be

consumed by infants, pregnant women, or other health sensitive populations, is

unstandardized in water activity (Aw), as well as microbially and

bacteriologically active and unstandardized. Higher levels of refined fructose

in honey cause accelerated Maillard browning reactions when heat above 140

degrees F. Assertions by honey promoters that is beneficial for extended

kinesiological, sports or diet energy, have no independent scientific basis.

Honey's ability to extend shelf life in processed food products, or are a

better humectant than other products, like inverted sugar, is false.

Report from the FDA's Sugar Task Force - 1986 - Evaluation Of Health

Aspects Of Sugars Contained In Carbohydrate Sweeteners, Walter H. Glinsman, MD,

Hiltje Rausquin, PhD & Youngmee K. Park, PhD

US Freedom Of Information Act Request: In late 1994 the US FDA DENIED A

Generally Recognized As Safe Petition Submitted By TOWA Chemicals Of Japan for

MALTITOL (sometimes falsely labeled as HSH, hydrolyzed maltose syrup, or other

brand names to obscure what is being used) on the basis of laboratory animals

producing a very large percentage number, statistically, of malignant

carcinogenic (CANCER) tumors. Human testing was not approved based on these

ingestion tests. Polyol producers were quick to respond by citing Joint Expert

Committee On Food Additives of the United Nations Agricultural Organization as

well as the World Health Organization findings in 1997 and 1998 that there was

nothing wrong with maltitol or polyols. Such assertions, do not reflect or

refute the carcinogenic evidence that caused the FDA GRAS petition to be DENIED

on maltitol, nor are these organizations the governing regulatory bodies for the

USA or any other government food organizations in the world.

Assertions that polyols are safe for human ingestion are neither legally

based nor scientifically based and primarily marketing in conjecture. The Joint

Expert Committee On Food Additives of the UN/WHO, who are OFFEND also quoted as

saying 70 to 100 grams per day of polyols is an acceptable and safe level of

consumption in humans is dubious. This ingestion rate is LAUGHABLE, and we

welcome this joint committee, any polyol producers' sales staff, or any other

individuals or organizations to try to consume this " recommended " safe gram

level per day and maintain digestive normalcy.

In a related matter, polyols do not comply with US Code Of Federal

Regulation standards for GRAS status for the legal definition and ingredient

descriptor or 'standard of identity' for real 'Chocolate', because they are

non-nutritive and the US chocolate manufacturers do not want their value-added

product category associated with a laxative and cancer causing sweetening

system.

There have been several attempts to characterized imported compounds

coating products using polyols, even cocoa butter based, as " chocolate flavored "

or associating an identifiable chocolate brand name with the product. All have

eventually failed because consumers at the very least 'get the runs' by eating

these products and do not repurchase.

In 2000, The Center For Science In The Public interest submitted a

Citizen's Petition to the US FDA, requesting the mandatory front panel product

warning label for the use of any polyol (lacititol, xylitol, mannitol, maltitol,

isomalt, HSH, polydextrose, glycerin/glycerol, sorbitol, erythritol, etc.). This

petition's intent was to protect consumers from ingesting more than 1 gram of

these ingredients, due to the high propensity of children, pregnant women,

seniors, diabetics, and other health compromised populations of consumers who

will have adverse digestive side

effects. Additionally, the CPSI maintained, based on a large body of

evidence, that the total grams of refined sugars must be further emphasized in

the Nutritional Facts panel requirements under US NLEA legislation. Assertions

by marketers in the EU, Canada the USA and elsewhere that maltitol, or other

polyols, are naturally based, or derived from natural sourcing are false; unless

of course refined gasoline can also be considered and labeled 'dinosaur

juice'....

Polyols are extensively used in mouth wash, toothpastes, sugarless gums,

mints, breath products and spray, throat lozenges and cough syrup, which are

categories that are NOT under beverage or food CFR law in the USA, but rather

cosmetic, flavor, or pharmaceutical law, and are not considered sources for full

ingestion by humans. The rational, by promoters of polyols that because they are

OK to use in these oral categories, fails in medical evidence of the harmful

effects of polyols in total human ingestion.

The Healing Foods by Hausman & Judith Benn Hurley, Rodale Press,

1989, ISBN 0-87857-812-9

The Food Revolution by Robbins, forward by Dean Ornish, MD, Founder &

President Of The Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Clinical Professor Of

Medicine, University Of California At San Francisco, www.ornish.com, Conari

Press, 2001, ISBN 1-57324-702-2

Stanford Research International Report On High Intensity Sweetener Global

Consumption, published, July, 2000, by Sebastian Bizzari, Hossein Jansheker &

Yuka Yoshida at: www.ceh.sric.com/Public/Reports/543.6500

Maltodextrin, typically corn based, as a bi-product of the corn wet

milling and refining process in the manufacturer of High Fructose Corn Syrup or

Corn Syrup is not technically considered a sweetener below 20 DE (Dextrose

Equivalency) in sweetness value. These ingredients are touted to be 'complex

carbohydrates', natural and sometimes FALSELY labeled by the non-legal

descriptor of 'glucose polymers'. There is no credible medical or kinesiological

evidence to suggest refined maltodextrin provides any sustained blood glucose or

'energy' benefit to consumers. In point of fact, refined maltodextrins are

typically converted to blood glucose, through the human Krebs Cycle, even faster

than refined sucrose.

Aspartame: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You - a chronological and

scientific 40 page report on the history, development, regulatory approval and

previously suppressed evidence on aspartame at: www.trufax.org/aspartame

United State Code Of Federal Regulation standards, Book #21, US FDA at:

www.vm.cfscan.fda.gov

MAFF: www.maff.org.uk

High Intensity Sweetener Blends by Walters, PhD, Contributing Editor

of Food Product Design Magazine:

www.foodproductdesign,com.archive/1993

Sucralose Safety: www.mercola.com

As one example of this fundamental and permanent shift in consumer

awareness in the current food market place, is the category of snack, diet,

functional and energy bars. In 1989, in the USA and Canada, the total granola,

breakfast, snack and energy bar market, among the top 12 brands was less that

USD$60 million, per annum, in market penetration. Today, in 2004,per several

industry sources, and cross referenced periodical databases, the estimate market

share is approximately USDS $3.2 billion among the top 25 brands, with major

multinationals having acquired the smaller brands, who eroded breakfast bar,

granola bar, breakfast cereal, andconfectionery bar categories, of market share.

This is clear economic evidence that consumers are reading ingredient

labels, and avoiding refined sweetener intake, because this bar sector has taken

almost 100% of it's market share from refined sweetener and fat laden categories

or brands. The successful bar brands are avoiding polyols, glycerin, HFCS,

maltodextrin, refined sucrose, etc. Acquiring multinationals that failed to heed

the lesson on why these brands were bought, and consumer loyalty gained, based

on cleaner and safer ingredients, have lost market share to those who do

understand this fact. The days of confusing (or tricking) the consumer are long

gone.

A similar economic shift has occurred in the EU over Genetically Modified

Organisms, and to a lesser extent Organic ingredient sourcing. American

suppliers lost hundreds of millions of dollars in market share, virtually over

night, to suppliers who had foreseen that authentic GMO Free raw material

sources were not requested by consumers, but demanded. The refined sweetener

category is equally problematic in the EU, as elsewhere, because consumers do

now also read ingredient labels in ever increasing numbers. Major brands on

American supermarket shelves in the early 1990's, have been acquired, or are

completely gone, because their existing ingredient declaration, beyond being

refined sweetener laden, looked like chemistry catalogs. Phony and illegal

avoidance labeling, often found in the American natural health food sector, with

such fanciful labels like 'evaporated cane juice' to avoid the tern 'sugar',

which it is and metabolized exactly as sugar, or the successfully criminally

prosecuted 'agave syrup' for hydrolyzed high fructose inulin syrup (recently

showing up under the avoidance descriptor of non compliant 'chicory syrup' and

failing to reveal the highly refined high fructose nature of the ingredient),

have been exposed as " false and misleading " by the US FDA and not in CFR

compliance.

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