If there is one thing I have learned it is the best way to fight big business is with big business. For those who did not want to or could not consume the sugar levels being marketed to people, artificial sweeteners have been produced. Unfortunately, they have been less than perfect.

Early artificial sweeteners such as saccrhin just tasted bad. I believe the first beverage to be sweetened with something that didn't taste bad was Fresca, sweetened with cyclamate. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered to be cancer-causing. Subsequent artificial sweeteners have continued to introduce some combination of bad flavors and health problems.

One obvious question is why artificial? That is, isn't there something natural that can be used to sweeten things that doesn't have the bad side effects of refined sugar? The answer is yes. Unfortunately, big business tends to discourage this and the U.S. government tends to help big business.

The health food industry introduced some "natural sugar" products. One brand name I remember was "Sugar in the raw" which came is little packets suitable for sweetening a cup of coffee. A bit if researched showed that this was refined white sugar with some molasses added.

This seemed pretty absurd as it meant refining what you actually wanted to eliminate any possible benefits and then adding another product to make the consumer think they were getting something natural. But, that's what we got.

Sugar as a Sugar Substitute

Twenty or more years ago, I read about the lack of tooth decay among boys that harvested sugar cane in Peru. What was particularly significant was that they typically would suck on pieces of sugar cane while they worked. The logical conclusion was that there were substances in the cane that prevented tooth decay but the refining process removed them.

After I moved to Nicaragua, I thought about this again. Here you can buy Tapa de Dulce which is basically sugar cane juice boiled down to produce solid blocks. Thus, the only thing lost in processing is the water.

One day I got to test my "refined vs. unrefined" theory. A friend (who, within a year, died of cancer) was over for lunch. Dessert was a pineapple upside down cake made by another friend. She had sweetened it with dulce rather than refined sugar. When offered a piece, my friend turned down the offer saying that sugar caused him to fall asleep.

I told him about the Peru story and how I was guessing that unrefined sugar worked different in the body. He tried a small piece of the cake and had no problem. He went on to eat a big piece, again with no problem. This added another data point to my "don't refine it" equation.

I now tend to use dulce in most things I cook that need a bit of sugar including bread. There is no noticable flavor difference and it might just be healthier.

The Natural Alternative

Well known in Paraguay for over 100 years, there is a plant whose leaf seems to be sweet. The plant is Stevia and unlike sugar and sugar substitutes, it just seems sweet but does not cause any sort of "sugar reaction" in your body. Sometimes known as sweetleaf it has been used for tea.

Once it looked like a good alternative to sugar, the U.S. FDA made its use illegal as a sweetener. Why? There is really no conclusive reason other than something natural tends to conflict with corporate profits.

There have been some corporate attempts to turn Stevia into a non-natural corporate product rather than a garden plant. For example, you can buy products that contain Stevia padded with other allegedly inert stuff to preserve the sweetening effect of one teaspoon of white powder. But, that has never become big business.

Well, things are changing thanks to corporate America. Enter Coca Cola and Cargill to save us from natural. They invented a new sweetner and submitted it for FDA approval. Actually, there are two: Trademarked stevia sweeteners are Truvia™ (Coca Cola and Cargill) and PureVia™ (Whole Earth Sweetener Company LLC and PepsiCo).

What is it? Stevia. But, their patented extract from the Stevia plant. Thus, they have managed to deal with the threat of a natural alternative to dangerous artificial sweeteners by creating their one version of a natural one.

The good news is that new sugar-free beverages from Coca Cola and Pepsico will at least be less harmful and with the guarantee of corporate profits for the sweetener used, it will become available quickly. The bad news is that, just like the patent medicine industry, something that is natural and inexpensive has been converted into another corporate profit center.

Pick your poison. For me, I will stick to my Stevia-sweetened organically grown coffee, and Dulce-sweetened bread. Yes, I grew the coffee. I'm working on the Stevia.