Steeped in mystery Last week I told you about Cweet, a supposedly natural sweetener that may very well be making its market debut sometime this year, despite some question about just how natural it really is. But Cweet isn't the only new kid on the block. And despite its best efforts, it may very well get completely overshadowed by its competition, which comes courtesy of one of the food industry's big guns: Coca Cola. Coke is teaming up with another company to bring a product called Rebiana to the market. Like Cweet, Rebiana claims to be an all-natural sweetener. Except its primary ingredient is one that will undoubtedly be much more familiar to you -- stevia. On the surface, this news is the stuff natural medicine dreams are made of: A big-time company including a safe, healthy, natural sweetener in its products. Not only would it go a long way in increasing awareness and acceptance of stevia, but it would also make a huge positive impact on the lives and health of the general public. In reality, though, there are a lot of questions about rebiana that still need to be answered. For example, according to the fact sheet on this product, rebiana is produced by "a process similar to that of steeping tea." Apparently, this process isolates "the best-tasting part of the stevia leaf" and "the finished product is the pure sweetness of rebiana." But something tells me they're not "steeping" the stevia in good old H20, and this over- generalized explanation of the production process is more than a little disconcerting. My guess is that rebiana will turn out to be, as Dr. Wright says, "a twisted, misshapen, alien molecule" version of stevia. And I'd also be willing to bet that if problems start to emerge, despite its long-standing safety track record, stevia -- not rebiana or Coca Cola -- will take the hit. Here's to hoping against "I told you so." Sources:
"Cargill, Coca-Cola prepare to bring stevia to global markets," FoodNavigator (www.foodnavigator.com), 1/2/08
"Rebiana fact sheet," Cargill (www.cargill.com), accessed 1/22/08 | 
