DALLAS - May 26, 1998 -- In an unprecendented move, US Food and Drug Administration officials threatened legal action against Texas-based Stevita Co., importers of the sweet-tasting herbal dietary supplement, stevia - for distributing books and literature about their product.

The latest volley in a bitter battle has been fired at Texas-based Stevita Co.by federal Food and Drug Administration officials. The FDA, an agency of the federal government, is responsible for upholding the U.S. Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and expression. This responsiblity was drawn into question on May 19th when FDA Compliance Officer, James R. Lahar faxed a letter to Stevita Co. addressing the destruction of 2,500 books he deemed "offending," at a cost to the company well in excess of $10,000. The letter further threatens that investigators will conduct a current inventory and "witness the destruction of the cookbooks, literature, and other publications for the purpose of verifying compliance" upon visiting Stevita Co. for a fourth time this year.

One of three books in question is The Stevia Story - A tale of incredible sweetness & intrigue, by Linda Bonvie, Bill Bonvie and Donna Gates with Foreword by James S. Turner, Esq.. Ironically, Chapter Four of the book the FDA wants to destroy is titled: "What's wrong with the FDA?" An attempt to strongarm critics into silence - similar to book burnings in Nazi Germany?

Tonya Rodes, marketing director for the Stevita Company said the FDA ordered the action because the books contain general information that includes: history, usages and scientific studies regarding stevia.

Currently, Federal law requires stevia herbal products can only be marketed as dietary supplements without any mention of having sweetening power.

Attention Assignment Editors and Producers

For Immediate Release

Contact Betty Martini, Mission Possible International

770 242-2599

It's hard to forget the FDA raids during the era of the passing of the Dietary Supplement Bill to protect vitamins and herbs. This culminated in the creation of the FDA Holocaust Museum in Hollywood, Florida.

"The FDA serves as the pharmaceutical industry's watchdog which can be called upon to attack and destroy a potential competitor, under the guise of protecting the public."

Racketeering in Medicine,

The Suppression of Alternatives

by James P. Carter,

M.D., Dr. P.H.

Here is the actual letter from the Department of Health & Human Services, dated May 19, l998 to Mr. Rhodes of the Stevita Co.

Dallas District

3310 Live Oak Street

Dallas, Texas 76204-6191

VIA FACSIMILE AND FEDERAL EXPRESS

Mr. Oscar D. Rhodes, President

Stevita Co., Inc.

7650 Highway 287, Suite 100

Arlington, Texas 76017

Dear Mr. Rhodes:

This letter is written in response to the May 13, l998 letter by Ms. Jaylene M. Sarracino, Esq., addressed to the attention of Ms. Stella Notzon of this office, on the subject of further detainment of Stevita co. stevia

products under Entry Numbers 125-0981854-3 & 125-0981567-1. Ms. Sarracino's letter documents a telephone conversation with Ms. Notzon on the subject of cookbooks and other publications used in the marketing of your stevia products. In her letter, Ms. Sarracino states that on May 14, l998, Stevita Co. will discontinue the sale of any publications, and will sever all links to web-site information referencing the questionable use of stevia products. She indicates the stevia products will be marketed strictly as dietary supplements with only the labeling currently appearing on the product containers.

The agency appreciates Stevita Co's expressed intention to comply with the law. However, a current inventory must be taken by an investigator of this office, who will also be available TO WITNESS DESTRUCTION OF THE COOKBOOKS, LITERATURE AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS for the purpose of verifying compliance. Additionally, your stevia products currently in distributor and retail channels with the offending cookbooks, literature and other publications continue to be in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the Act). These products are unapproved food additives in violation of Section 409, and adulterated within the meaning of Section 402 (a) (2) (c) of the Act. We are prepared to pursue further regulatory action against these products should they continue to be adulterated in distribution.

The inspection of your facility on April 27, l998 conducted jointly by investigators of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Texas Department of Health, along with visits to your consignees, documented your firm's continued marketing of your stevia products as conventional foods accompanied by OFFENDING LITERATURE, COOKBOOKS, AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS, in violation of the Act as cited in the FDA warning letter of March 6, 1998.

Further regulatory action will be considered against new shipments of stevia products marketed in this manner, as well as against those parent lots from which the adulterated products are being marketed.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, you may call me at 214-655-5318, ext. 517.

Sincerely,

James R. Lanar

Compliance Officer

CC: Jaylene M. Sarracino, Esq.

Capital Office Park

6301 Ivy Lane, Suite 102

Greenbelt, Maryland 20708

Betty Martini's Comments

Stevia is a perennial shrub, the extracts of which have been used for centuries as a safe, natural sweetener by people in Paraguay and Brazil. Stevia is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. After great pressure by consumers the FDA finally approved it only as a dietary supplement and lifted the embargo. The FDA with strong loyalties to Monsanto actually forbids this food source to come into the country. Zolton P. Rona, M.D., MSc said in Health Naturally, August/Sept l996: "In l991, the FDA banned stevia imports for use in foods, reportedly at the request of an aspartame manufacturer." That says it all - it appears the FDA and Monsanto do not want competition with their neurotoxin, NutraSweet.

In a letter to Dr. Kesslser of the FDA from William R. Pendergast (Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn) dated October 21, l991 about Stevia, he said: "American Herbal Products Association believes that FDA's position is incorrect in that stevia leaf is not a food additive within the meaning of Sec. 201 (s), 21 U.S.C. 321 (s) because it is exempt from that definition by reason of its "common use in food" prior to l958. For that reason, FDA approval pursuant to Sec 409, 21 U.S.C. 348 of the Act is not required and, indeed, AGPA does not seek such approval here. AHPA seeks only FDA's acquiescence in the marketing of stevia containing foods in interstate commerce, such acquiescence based upon the facts, data and legal issues as presented herein."

The sad thing is that Stevia is a wonderful herb that helps in the metabolism of sugar, and has been used to aid diabetics; and it doesn't keep blood sugar out of control. On the other hand, aspartame is a deadly neurotoxin, a drug that interacts with other drugs, and precipitates diabetes. Monsanto funds the American Diabetic Association and American Dietetic Association who even admit that Monsanto (NutraSweet) writes their material. Aspartame is a molecule composed of three components, aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol (wood alcohol). Methanol converts to formaldehyde and formic acid and causes metabolic acidosis. The phenylalanine in aspartame at 50% lowers the seizure threshold of the brain and depletes serotonin. Phenylalanine and aspartic acid are two of three amino acids that cannot be isolated from the other amino acids in protein and go beyond the blood brain barrier causing brain damage of varying degrees. H. J. Roberts, M.D., Board Certified and Recertified Internist (and diabetic specialist) has now declared Aspartame to be a Disease and worldwide epidemic. He says that in diabetics aspartame destroys the optic nerve, keeps blood sugar out of control and causes patients to sometimes go into convulsions. By the FDA's own report, aspartame triggers 92 documented symptoms from four types of seizures to coma and death.

The FDA has consistently fought against the healthy Stevia Leaf. In a country founded on freedom you can go to the library and buy a book on how to make a bomb, or buy trashy pornography, but its illegal to tell the consumer public the history of the Stevia Leaf, and the fact that it is a sweetener and has health advantages. Yet it is perfectly all right for the FDA to approve a chemical poison, aspartame, for human consumption, masquerading as an additive. And it was perfectly all right for them to turn a deaf ear when they were petitioned to ban aspartame in l986 by the Community Nutrition Institute because consumers were going blind from the wood alcohol.

The FDA in this letter speaks of compliance with law. Yet, in l985, their own FDA toxicologist, the late Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress that aspartame violated Delaney Amendment because it triggered brain tumors in lab animals. His last words were: "And if the FDA violates its own laws who is left to protect the public?" While the FDA speaks of adulteration have they not perverted the facts on aspartame? The brochure that the FDA sends out on aspartame, pure propaganda, is answered and rebutted on www.dorway.com

In August l995 the FDA unveiled a program to push pharmacists to prepare special patient information leaflets for every prescription they dispense. Yet, they do not consider it necessary to inform the consumer public that the DRUG aspartame has 92 documented symptoms and interacts with other drugs including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, alpha-methyldopa and L-dihydroxphenylalanine.

Just today, June 23 in the New York Times it says: "For the second time in two weeks, the Food and Drug Administration has taken the rare step of pulling a prescription drug, ,,, The drug, Duract, a painkiller manufactured by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories of St. Davids, Pa has caused a dozen cases of serious liver failure since it went on the market last July; four patients died and eight required liver transplants." Yet aspartame has caused more deaths and more symptoms and more diseases. Because it destroys the central nervous system (mimics MS), the brain (is escalating Alzheimers and other neurological horrors) and the optic nerve, it may be that aspartame has caused more deaths than many wars.

Redux and FenPhen were banned because they were causing cardiac problems and death. Aspartame causes cardiac problems and death. These three drugs alter serotonin. Did they react together and cause death? On June 8 Posicor was banned because it turned out to be potentially lethal when used with a long list of other drugs. Aspartame also interacts with drugs and potentially lethal, yet it is not banned!

In discussing the dangers of NutraSweet in Assault on Medical Freedom, P. Joseph Lisa wrote: "These complaints all came to the FDA's attention. There were thousands of them. Yet the FDA did nothing to take this apparently dangerous product off the market. In contrast the FDA took rather heavy-handed and drastic actions against Herbalife for fewer than six complaints, according to the California Food and Drug files."

Upon signing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act into law, President Clinton said: "The passage of this legislation speaks to the determination of the legislators involved and I appreciate their work. But most important, it speaks to the diligence with which an unofficial army of nutritionally conscious people worked democratically to change the laws in an area deeply important to them." But the battle is not over to save dietary supplements

G. M. Wolverton, M.D. in warning all patients off of NutraSweet said: "When you get the situation we now have in Washington with vast reaching bureaus that are given awesome power (such as FDA has) "Government," as George Washington said, "is not reason; government is not justice. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and fearful master!"

Dr. James Bowen in a statement to the FDA many years ago about aspartame said: "The recent revelations about the problems surrounding generic drug approvals are compelling evidence of what happens when an agency considers itself above the law in dealing with these matters. In my opinion, this has resulted in the mass poisoning of the American public as well as seventy-plus countries in the rest of the world. Watching FDA officials walk through the "revolving door" and be further rewarded by being promoted o other positions of high public responsibility is clear evidence of a government out of control.

Twenty-six questions to the FDA listed on the DORway web site remain unanswered going on two years. Congressman Newt Gingrich continues to demand these answers but FDA knows the facts would remove the neurotoxin, aspartame, from the marketplace. It is quite evident that neither the FDA nor Monsanto want competition from the healthy Stevia leaf.

Betty Martini

Mission Possible International

770 242-2599

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