Isn't anything safe to eat?

If you know me, you know that I love food! But lately, I'm becoming more and more aware of what's in our food. I think it started when I caught Dr. Oz on Oprah a while back, and he had a big bowl of partially hydrogenated oil. It was totally disgusting, and I couldn't believe I was putting that into not just my body, but Little Man's body when he had his daily PB&J.

I've been on a mission to get rid of artificial and manipulated food stuffs, even though I know I'll never be rid of it all. And I can't control what goes into our food when we're not home, but I figure if I can just get a grip on it in our home, that will be a big improvement. I hate that places like Whole Foods, aka Whole Paycheck, are so expensive, but I feel like it's worth it to pay more to keep mess out of my kid's bodies. But it's kind of hard sometimes explaining to Little Man and Dear Hubby about why I refuse to buy certain products anymore, why full fat is sometimes better than low fat and why we need to buy pork without nitrates. And as the mother and wife of asthmatics, I'm amazed at some of the connections between asthma, allergies, symptoms and our diets.

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about Stevia finally being approved by the FDA to be marketed as a sweetner, and Coke and Pepsi both are coming out with sodas sweetened with this natural herb. In my quest to decide if Stevia is better than Splenda, I was shocked at what I found out about Splenda. I thought Splenda was relatively safe as far as artificial sweeteners go, but what I've read has given me second thoughts. Check out these links - I realize these are from one point of view, but they give me pause:

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/sugarfree_blues.html#sucralose
http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/articles/art_splendanotsplendid.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/024302.html

I can't give up artificial sweeteners for many reasons, including the prevalence of diabetes in my family, so hopefully, Stevia will prove to be a natural and safe alternative. I'm hoping that I like the new diet soft drinks, as I am totally hooked on them as it is.