Uh Oh! Bad News. Truvia kills fruit flies. A not-so-sweet marketing ploy by Cargill, Truvia has zero calories but sadly is loaded with toxins. Ingredients: GMO corn erythritol (with Monsanto’s glyphosate), Rebaudioside-A (chemical extraction, nothing to do with stevia.)

All the hype about “natural” is not true. In fact, Cargill recently lost a $6 million settlement in a series of US lawsuits. Plaintiffs won the case, proving that Cargill misled shoppers by marketing Truvia as “natural”, even though the Rev-A sterol glycoside is “highly chemical processed”, and the bulking agent is “synthetically made” from GMO corn.

The Big Food/Big Agri Connection

There’s a direct connection to Big Agri – Cargill, a privately held, multi-billion dollar corporation, was the driving force behind getting FDA approval of the sweetener, despite evidence that it might not actually be safe in its processed form. Cargill is also a major player in the meat industry (with all of its unspeakable feedlot horrors) and has been subject to numerous food safety recalls over the past few years due to contaminated meat. Cargill, that bastion of food safety, was the driving force behind the FDA’s decision to switch the status of stevia from a “supplement” to a food that is “generally recognized as safe”.

Cargill wasn’t alone, however. Big Food joined forces, since diet soda sales have plummeted over the past 10 years. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sale of low-calorie soft drinks has declined by billions per year over the past decade, as consumers became aware of the potential risks of neurotoxic artificial sweeteners.

So, to combat those health concerns, Coca Cola produced Truvia and Pepsi produced PureVia. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t consume anything produced by either of those companies (both Coke and Pepsi lobbied fiercely against the labeling of GMOs) and delude myself into believing the product is healthy.

Decades ago, diet sodas were touted as a healthy way to have a refreshing beverage without expanding your waistline. Unfortunately, the zero-calorie beverages were anything but healthy, and many people have suffered ill effects from the consumption of those drinks. Even corporate-funded Fox News was forced to admit that diet sodas were detrimental to human health.

Enter Truvia, the cure for all of those diet soda ills. Because, it’s natural!

Truvia is the second best-selling sugar substitute in the United States, most likely because the deceptive marketing is targeted at those who want to make healthier, less artificial choices. Remember how last week we discussed that Big Food isn’t making very much money? This is just the next volley of propaganda in which Big Food attempts to deceive the public into believing their processed food-like substances are actually food. Sales of Truvia in 2014 exceeded $400 million.

But…Truvia is not actually “natural”

Not so fast. While it’s true that the powdered stevia you get in the little packets is in part derived from a plant grown in Paraguay, it isn’t just the plant you’re getting. If it was just a powdered up plant, Coca Cola and Cargill wouldn’t be able to hold the patents to make it, right?

Traditionally, a leaf from the stevia plant was dropped into a hot beverage to steep and lend its sweetness. But the current product that’s being touted for its “natural sweetness” is a far cry from a leaf from the garden. (Despite how Cargill glosses over the heavy processing on the Truvia website.) In fact, Cargill had to settle a civil lawsuit a few years back because of their claims that the product was natural. The lawsuit forced them to put millions of dollars aside to settle future claims and they were required to put an asterisk on their tagline “Nature’s calorie-free sweetener.”

Nor is it actually mostly stevia…it’s mostly derived from GMO corn

Truvia is actually made mostly of erythritol, a sugar alcohol derived from genetically modified corn. Only 5% of the compound is actually derived from the stevia plant.

Here’s how Truvia is made