Debbie Baumgarten

Here are a few excerpts from an article about Truvia, a sweetener that says it is all natural stevia:

Truvia sweetener is made from about 99.5% erythritol (a sugar alcohol), and 0.5% rebiana, an extract from the stevia plant (but not at all the same thing as stevia). A shocking new study published in the journal PLOS ONE (1) has found that Truvia, an alternative sweetener manufactured by food giant Cargill, is actually a potent insecticide that kills fruit flies which consume it.

The study is titled, Erythritol, a Non-Nutritive Sugar Alcohol Sweetener and the Main Component of Truvia, Is a Palatable Ingested Insecticide.

Erythritol is often indirectly derived from genetically modified corn, by the way. Cargill was forced to settle a class action lawsuit last year (2) for labeling Truvia “natural” when it’s actually made from a fermentation process whereby yeast are fed GM corn maltodextrin.

In short, not only is this unbelievable that a company can label a product with such bold-faced lies that is calls itself something that is actually less than 1% of its content and promote it as being natural and healthy, but this might actually be quite unhealthy and unsafe to consume.

There are other brands of natural sweeteners that are also labeling themselves as Stevia that are mostly maltodextrin. “Stevia in the Raw” and other “in the Raw” products are similar sulprits. So read the ingredients carefully, despite what the label says on the front. 

The full article can be found here: https://www.naturalnews.com/045450_Truvia_erythritol_natural_pesticide.html#ixzz3I7jiT8cW

It is primarily the thyroid gland that sets your metabolism rate. An underactive one can result in weight gain and less energy. Lack of Iodine has been found to be a leading cause of underactive thyroid. There are other causes. But moderate levels of iodine in your diet is important as your body doesn’t produce iodine on its own. Unless you have a fairly high intake of iodized salt daily or you eat a lot of seaweed, you may be starving this important gland of a vital nutrient for its optimal performance. Without enough iodine your body cannot produce enough of this ever so important hormone and it can be affecting your metabolism.

Here’s a very good article on the subject with even more information:

https://www.womentowomen.com/thyroid-health/iodine-and-the-thyroid-worth-a-second-glance/

Kelp is a natural source of iodine. Since chewing on kelp isn’t too tasty,  you can get ground kelp in capsules quite inexpensively. I recommend taking 1 or 2 kelp capsules a day. You won’t get any instant jolt of energy from it, but over time a more nourished thyroid will perform better and might just help with improved energy and easier weight loss. 

Did you know that Fluoride use to be used as a Thyroid suppressing drug for people with overactive thyroids? Yes, it’s true! Fluoride was found to be effective at suppressing or reducing thyroid function, according to research, and the dose needed to reduce thyroid function was low — 2 to 5 mg per day over a period of months. This is about the same amount of fluoride (or sometimes even higher levels) that is routinely put into the water supply throughout the U.S.  It’s estimated that 70% of the water supply in the United States is fluoridated.

This was done to “solve the problem” of tooth decay. But this “solution” is just causing more problems. Fluoridation of water is not done in nearly all developed countries around the world except for the U.S.

One of the common side effects of an underactive thyroid is weight gain. Meanwhile the U.S. has absolutely obscene rates of obesity. Well, aside from the many shortcomings in the American diet, which I would say is the major culprit in our overweight problems, suppressing thyroid function certainly isn’t helping matters. Fluoride and your thyroid function are definitely linked.

What I recommend is filtering the fluoride out of your drinking water, and of course a healthy diet. Most common water filters do not effectively remove fluoride (such as Brita and Pur). The two types of filters that do reliably remove fluoride are reverse-osmosis filters and activated alumina filters. We have the reverse-osmosis filter in our house and it works great. We use it for drinking water (much better than buying bottled water) and for cooking. 

You can still get fluoride to your teeth by using a fluoridated toothpaste. Just make sure you rinse your mouth well afterwards.