You already know that for the last 50 years, our society has been pounded with the evils of smoking, drinking, eating red meat, and that we should cut as much salt and fat from our diets as possible. Under the trumpet of healthy living, we are being programmed to replace our intake of butter with margarine, red meat with soy alternatives and sugar with artificial sweeteners. When it comes to sugar and artificial sweeteners we are literally being sold a bill of goods simply because the sugar industry also controls both industries. It's like the fox guarding the hen house. We are being offered alternatives but only if it is beneficial to the industry promoting it.

It's funny how the things that taste the best always seem o be so harmful. Refined white sugar, Fructose and artificial sweeteners should be at the top of the list. Sugar is by far the largest worldwide addiction that is openly protected by the FDA. White refined sugar is not even a food, it is a chemical that would be better classes an addictive drug. Yes, that's right, an addictive drug and when you remove it from your diet you can experience withdrawal symptoms including headaches, nausea and irritability. Refined sugar is used in everything from bread, canned vegetables, juices and condiments. It's in just about everything you eat and drink short of water. You'd be hard pressed to find any processed food that doesn't include a heaping helping of refined sugar or fructose added to it.

The so called "Natural Sweeteners"

If you consider fructose a safe, natural sugar, think again. You've been had by one of the biggest nutritional bait-and-switch ploys in years. Fructose does not come from fruit, it IS refined sugar! High fructose consumption has been fingered as a causative factor in heart disease. It raises blood levels of cholesterol and another type of fat, triglyceride. It makes blood cells more prone to clotting, and it may also accelerate the aging process. So the next time you see a commercial touting the virtues of Fructose as the actor sucks on her Popsicle... know that they are lying to you.

Even though there are healthier natural alternatives, BIG SUGAR continues to protect their interests in much the same way the tobacco industry has for decades. They own both the sugar and sugar replacement markets which meant that getting other, healthier alternatives are slim at best and getting these truths are nonexistent.

Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial replacements are known to have carcinogens. They cause CANCER and the companies making them know it. They are being re branded constantly to keep consumers confused and from understanding the true hazards of ingesting such products. Imagine renaming a product, changing the color of the box and calling it healthy!

Such artificial sweeteners are; Acesulfame potassium - Nutrinova, E950 (FDA Approved 1988), Alitame - Pfizer (Pending FDA Approval), Aspartame - NutraSweet, E951 (FDA Approved 1981), Salt of aspartame-acesulfame - Twinsweet, E962, Cyclamate - Abbott, E952 (FDA Banned 1969, pending re-approval), Dulcin - (FDA Banned 1950) Glucin, Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone E959, Neotame, NutraSweet (FDA Approved 2002), P-4000 (FDA Banned 1950), Saccharin E954 (FDA Approved 1958), Sucralose - Kaltame, Splenda, Tate & Lyle, E955 (FDA Approved 1998)

Natural Sweeteners that truly are healthy (honestly!)

Naturalists and foodies are just now starting to expound the virtues of natural sugar alternatives such as stevia, mannitol, glycerol and the primary subject of this article miraculin. Miraculin is a glycoprotein extracted from the miracle berry or miracle fruit plant, a shrub native to West Africa (Synsepalum dulcificum or Richadella dulcifica). Rather than acting as a sweetening agent, miraculin changes the way our taste buds interpret flavors. It makes sour limes and lemons taste like lemon aide. It makes healthy unsweetened dark chocolate taste like fine milk chocolate. And it does all of this without adding a single calorie or grain of sweetener.

The ad read-- Are you diabetic? Would you like to eat chocolate cake again? How about a chocolate cake with no sugar that tastes like the most decadent brownie you've ever tasted? Are you overweight? Would you like to eat fruit that tastes like candy, except without the sugar that is killing you?

YES! Of course I would! Is this a course in miracles real?

Keep in mind that I myself am a sweetaholic and I crave sugar. I drink my coffee sweetened and have become addicted to flavored (artificial) creamers. I do love fruit, however, getting good naturally ripened and sweet fruit is next to impossible these days. With that said, for my test I got a melon that was not very sweet, out of season and the flavor was, well... blah! Imagine biting into a piece of candle wax with a dash of sugar on it.

After chewing on the miracle berry tablet and rolling it around in my mouth for a minute or two (as directed), I took a bite of my blah melon. OH MY GOODNESS! It was like I'd never eaten a cantaloupe before. Is this what God intended fruit to taste like? I can't wait to try a miracle fruit berry now. I've read that they are twice as potent as the tablets and are the purest way to really exploit the power of miraculin.

A little about my research on the Miracle Fruit itself;

The Miracle Fruit was first discovered and brought attention to by the western world by explorer Chevalier Des Marchais during a 1725 excursion of West Africa when he became aware that local tribes in West Africa were using this berry to add flavor and make appetizing their otherwise bland foods. Then In the 60's and the 70's an Entrepreneur Named Robert Harvey who had studied this amazing berry after Des Marchais's discoveries managed to raise tens of millions of dollars to create an all natural alternative to sugar using the Miracle Fruit. He successfully managed to synthesize the active ingredient inside the berry the natural protein known as Miraculin