This newsletter keeps you up-to-date with new articles, columns, and Web pages that I have written. I list and link most of these on my Diabetes Directory at www.mendosa.com/diabetes.htm
From time to time Diabetes Update may also include links to other Web pages of special interest.
My most recent contributions are:
- Insulin Resistance
My current "About the Internet" column for the American Diabetes Association's Web site looks at one of the two causes of type 2 diabetes and why interest in it has increased in the past few years. The URL is
http://www.mendosa.com/resistance.htm
on January 29, 2002
- The Most Exciting Product that You Can't Buy
Nothing has stirred up has much enthusiasm as a continuous monitor being developed by Cygnus Inc. in Redwood City, California. This monitor, which the company calls the GlucoWatch Biographer, promises to be the best device to detect nighttime hypoglycemia. The only problems, despite years of testing, are:- It is not available yet and
- When and if it will be available, the conditions of use may be discouraging.
http://www.talkondiabetes.net/viewpoint.htm - It is not available yet and
on January 31, 2002
Update:
- Will the FDA Approve Stevia?
When I reviewed Sugar Busters! for Diabetes Interview in September 1998, my sidebar on "Busting the Sugar" didn't mention stevia. It didn't mention sucralose (Splenda) either, because that was understandable given that the Food and Drug Administration hadn't yet approved it. But ever since 1994 stevia has been available as "a dietary supplement." But this strange law, offered up by our Congress to appease the vitamin and supplement industry, forbids the sale of stevia as a sweetener—the only thing that it is used for.Stevia extract is 200-300 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories and has little if any effect on blood glucose. Because stevia—Stevia rebaudiana—has been grown and used for centuries in South America and has been used extensively in Japan, Korea, and China for two decades, many people argue that it must be safe. But it is not generally recognized as safe, or GRAS, the FDA's category for food ingredients like sugar that have been used so long that they predate premarket testing.
"Mounting another effort [to obtain FDA approval] is unlikely because it would be costly to conduct more studies and collect more data. And because stevia is a plant, whoever financed the research would have to share eventual marketplace profits with anybody else who wanted to grow and sell stevia," according to an excellent review of the situation in a Detroit Free Press article in February 2000.
Now, however, the president of the world's largest producer of stevia tells me that his company will seek FDA approval. The company is Skyland International Group Ltd. in Hong Kong and its president is James T. Osugi. The company's Web site says that "Skyland produces over 65% of the world supply of the Stevia extracts."
"We will file a petition with the FDA to address the current shortcomings in the product approval categories, i.e. GRAS status, food additive etc. We are currently evaluating a proposal by Washington DC lobbyists to assist us with this application. It is a formidable task, given the historic effort by sugar lobbyists and others to block the usage of stevia in the food and beverage industry."
If Mr. Osugi follows through, this will be big news indeed. Shortly I will be meeting with the company's officer in charge of North American operations. Stay tuned.
on January 30, 2002
- From Jelly Beans to Kidney Beans
The American Association of Diabetes Educators is one of the last bastions holding out against the glycemic index. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I heard that its official publication, The Diabetes Educator, had published a most favorable article on the subject. The problem was that the article was not available on-line. So I asked the author, Patti Geil, for her permission to reproduce it on my site, which she kindly granted. The URL is
http://www.mendosa.com/geil.htm
on January 28, 2002
Boilerplate:
I send out Diabetes Update e-mail in HTML format, which all Web browsers and most modern e-mail programs can display. HTML has live links to all the sites named in the text so that with a simple click of a mouse you can connect to the site you have just been reading about.
This newsletter is free and will never include advertising. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone without your permission.
Archives:
I send out Diabetes Update about once every two weeks. Previous issues are online:
- Diabetes Update Number 1 of December 10, 2000
- Diabetes Update Number 2 of December 18, 2000
- Diabetes Update Number 3 of January 3, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 4 of January 17, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 5 of January 31, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 6 of February 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 7 of March 1, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 8 of March 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 9 of March 30, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 10 of April 2, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 11 of April 16, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 12 of May 2, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 13 of May 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 14 of May 31, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 15 of June 21, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 16 of July 2, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 17 of July 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 18 of August 2, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 19 of August 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 20 of August 30, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 21 of September 14, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 22 of October 1, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 23 of October 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 24 of October 31, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 25 of November 15, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 26 of December 1, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 27 of December 14, 2001
- Diabetes Update Number 28 of January 4, 2002
- Diabetes Update Number 29 of January 14, 2002
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