Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - After Mexico became No. 1 in obesity and diabetes in June, their new President Peña Nieto surprisingly recommended as a solution the no-carb herbal sweetener stevia discovered by the South American tribes. And while soda lovers criticized Mayor Bloomberg's campaign to reduce the size of sodas and the recently proposed tax on sodas in Mexico, most fit Americans and Mexicans cheered on their bold interventions.

While Mayor Bloomberg couldn't legislate how we eat and drink, his unprecedented stand, like President Peña Nieto's, raised awareness that they really care about the health of their people, and that soda addiction has gotten out of hand, particularly in the poorer neighborhoods where fresh produce is hard to come by.

The debate also spotlighted the Mayor's sane recommendation to limit the number of sodas for those on food stamps, with incentives to buy organic foods from farmers markets. This would help North Americans choose a lean, clean life of their dreams over costly insulin injections, amputations and bankrupting our healthcare systems.

The Big Apple adopting the bike share, like LA's Latino Mayor Villaragosa, was a further sign of Bloomberg's sincerity in wanting to restore the blue skies and streamlined bodies of New Yorkers. Hopefully, enlightened Manhattenites, like the trendy chefs and restaurants now serving organic foods from local farmers, the PTA's, the mass yoga gathering in Times Square to celebrate Mother Earth on Her April 21 Summer Solstice, and conscious people everywhere will carry on this awareness campaign – that there are now yummy alternatives to sugary soda addiction.

Having been for 25 years a Manhattanite, who loved rollerblading across Central Park to work, I hail Rachael and her show for clueing us in that the average American has been consuming about 168 grams of sugar a day - kids and Mexicans a little more. And while many know that the regular size soda has 40 grams of sugar, so supersize is over 80, few knew that the recommended healthy limit per day is 15 grams! That's "massive daily overdosing!"

"Stevia is the Holy Grail of sweeteners” – Good Morning America

Led by healthfood stores, top health spas, the Ritz Carltons, bottlers, Starbucks US and Mexico, and Bonefant in Mexico, companies everyday are offering new great tasting stevia products and beverages to provide healthy choices for people to reduce their sugar grams that add up fast since most processed foods have hidden sugars.

China and Japan who grow and use the most stevia since the 70's have the lowest diabetes. They likely inspired Mexico's new young fit President Peña Nieto to recommended stevia as a solution to turn around "a collapse in Mexico's healthcare system by 2030."

I learned about diabetes having a grandfather who was an obese diabetic, and through inspiring ski areas for the last 17 years to share the joy of skiing with tribal youth to reduce their highest diabetes and obesity rate in the U.S. Because the Indigenous, Asians and Mexicans have lived off the land until recently, they have less enzymes to process sugar. Learning 10 years ago about stevia, and coincidentally, my Olympic mom Stevia gave me my middle name, I naturally helped raise awareness about this blessed solution. Added to many tribes growing organic gardens now, progress is happening.

Since it takes a nation of villages to heal themselves, I hope some of this latest startling info will help you win your awareness campaigns:

• Doctors say processed sugar is more addictive than heroine, so of course the Mayor got flack for attempting his tough love soda intervention!

• A National Geographic study found that Americans and Mexicans drink more sugary sodas, especially colas, than any other countries. This is why Mexico and the United States lead the world in "diobesity."

• That adds up to "The average North American today consuming 150 pounds of sugar per year–compared to just 7 1/2 pounds of sugar per year in the 1700s. That's 20 times as much," said Dr. Mehmet Oz. The Mayor was responsibly helping educate New Yorkers to start reducing it.

• The LA School District, led by a heroic Mexican-American teacher I met, banned sugary soda machines in 2004 and found that it reduced ADD/ADHT and Prozac drug dependence. It also surprisingly reduced bullying and violence in the schools by 65% (NPR Radio). Since it also helped improve behavior and grades and gave teachers a break, PTA's across the U.S. joined the soda machine ban, why Coca Cola finally developed the stevia sweetened sodas and got stevia approved by the FDA around 2009.

• Cultivating stevia is also economically smart since it is the "fastest growing product in the alternative sweetener market worldwide with 6,000 products across 35 countries. And farmers can harvest new cash crops every 60 days. The World Health Organization expects Stevia to eventually replace 20% of the sugar segment of global sweeteners, or a $10 billion market opportunity," according to Stevia Corp. They are developing a way of processing stevia leaves using fermentation, which could preserve more of its extraordinary medicinal properties. In the U.S., Stevia is the biggest growing sweetener besides Splenda, which uses cheaper subsidized (by us) sugar and toxic chemicals to make bigger profits so they can afford to advertise, resulting in skyrocketing healthcare. So isn't it time to shift to subsidizing and investing in growing what's good for North Americans so we can shift from being laughing stock of the world to the shining model.

• Could schools across America, including the Big Apple's, prevent more Sandyhooks through some simple diet changes? Yes, says international research! "The U.S. has 15 times more gun violence than any other country, and we must learn from them," said CNN's Fareed Zakaria. Dr. Sanjay Gupte said on CNN that Japan has the least violence in schools thanks to 40% of their processed foods, including colas, using stevia since the 1970s.

• Massive daily overdosing of toxic sugar upsets the blood sugar balances, causing hypoglycemia and can put developing kids on rollercoaster of highs and lows that can lead to depressed, angry, abusive behavior and vulnerability to alcoholism, since alcohol is a fermented sugar. That is a main reason why 70% of our leaders of tomorrow, our college students, are binge drinkers, and why pre-teens are sniffing, which can lead to wanting to get high in other ways.

• Some doctors therefore call sodas "the sugar pipeline to prison and early death," which took the beloved legends Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse and so many of our friends. Leaders and families and especially moms armed with this info can prevent generations of their family from having the "Sugar Blues."

• Stevia is a unique sweetener since it does not raise blood sugar, why Good Morning America called it "the Holy Grail of Sweeteners." This sweet leafed plant was discovered by the Guarani Tribe of Paraguay and Brazil 1,600 years ago, and spread around the world by the Spanish.

• Stevia is also a medicinal, a powerful anti-viral (to replace flu shots), anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cavity, and anti-plaque to protect the heart. It also improves circulation, detoxes the blood to reduce stress and allergies, mellows kids, heals wounds and candidas, augments production of insulin in the blood, gives smooth energy, and reduces high blood pressure. That is why the least processed organic versions are in demand by athletes and moms for their children's development, overweight diabetics and those wanting to reduce cravings of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

• Up until about 2006, stevia had a bitter aftertaste, but today many U.S. brands taste as good or better than sugar, and are available nearly everywhere in packets, shakers, liquid droppers (also in yummy vanilla, lemon, cocoa), bulk, sodas, and 6,000 products worldwide.

• While the US has shamefully banned only 5 toxins (which cause obesity and diabetes), while the European Union 35, Japan 48, Mexico has banned only one toxin: Sugary products in their schools, which a doctor on CNN suggested we follow. Like Bloomberg's supersized sodas, Mexico's sugar ban in schools wasn't enforced because kids have a sweet tooth. In Mexico they haven't yet had access to sweet healthy affordable stevias and sodas, but the U.S. does.

• 1.3 million Mexican children died last year of malnutrition and starvation while drinking the most Coca colas in the world. Processed sugar robs nutrients from all our organs, especially the brain and calcium from our bones. Their poorest also do not have access to fresh produce, yet Mexico has the most (indigenous) organic farms located in Southern Mexico, whose certifications were wisely subsidized by the government. But most of these organics superfoods go to the U.S., though organic farmers markets are springing up everywhere. Kirlean photography reveals how organics have spikes of "life force energy," while the auras of pesticided food look like black blobs.

• Coke and Pepsi have no stevia colas, though Japan has one, but is likely radioactive after Fukushima. Fortunately, in the U.S. there are delicious stevia-sweetened colas called ZEVIA, which can also serve as the methadone for Coke addicts, though healthy! It also comes in a variety of flavors, like ginger root beer for floats with organic ice cream. Insiders say that to protect his waistline and great heart, more vulnerable since he has Cherokee blood, President Clinton takes ZEVIA on all his trips abroad.

• Coke and Pepsi did launch their brand of stevia, called Truvia, and PepsiCo PureVia as a tabletop sweetener and in their new zero carb or reduced carb drinks in U.S. and many countries: Coke's include: Sprite Green, Vitamin Water Zero, and Odwella plus Canada Glaceau Vitamin Water PepsiCo's include: SoBe LifeWater and Trop50, and Dr Pepper's Stevia/Rebiana drinks include Snapple and All Sport Naturally Zero. While their trademarked stevia are more processed with fillers, all stevias are healthier than sugar. Therefore, having stevia soda machines in schools could reduce violence by 65%, plus in homes and the streets. Leaders of the Sandyhook Moms and MADD Moms against drunk driving were thrilled to learn about this stevia solution.

• Zevia.com and most beverage companies and the Stevia sweeteners often have store locations on their websites and the best prices are online. ALWAYS check the number of carbs/sugars in "Ingredients" in all processed foods, including stevia. Google has lots of recipes and NOWFoods.com has a book of recipes.

• Since the 1970's, Japan also banned the toxic chemical sweeteners Equal, Aspartame and then Splenda. After admitting she was addicted to diet sodas, ABC's Diane Sawyer valiantly exposed the audacity of beverage companies making a fortune harming our health since Aspartame in diet sodas actually causes weight gain!

• So Tell-A-Mom, the CEO's of Family purchasing, so they can also easily, heroically lift the health, happiness and IQs of their families. They have the power to reduce bullying and violence against children and women, as Oprah says, by voting at the market place.

• Thanks to two recent U.S. studies by the Biggest Loser Show and the renowned naturopath Dr. Gabriel Cousins, we know that also "eating a diet of fresh raw organic fruits and veggies for one month helps significantly reduce weight among obese people and ends diabetes." President Clinton's doctor also prescribed eating organics to restore his heart.

• To help lose Mexico's titles of most obese and diabetic, President Peña Nieto is offering grants for innovative ideas. That is why Puerto Vallarta leaders love our team's idea of bringing in great tasting U.S. organic Stevia and the California Fruit Tree Tour that has spread organic fruit orchards across Southern California's schools, especially in malnourished areas like LA's Watts. Drug dealers are becoming ‘Happy Planters'-feeding their families by extending planting the fruit trees into their neighborhoods. See amazing video on Commonvision.org.

• The director Leo Buc said that "one tree can feed 1,000 people for 100 years." Therefore, spreading the Big Apple's urban gardens and terraces are priceless. There are also FREE or $1 TREES from each U.S. State's Forestry Department and free happy help from local Jr. and Master Gardeners and 4-H to plant them at schools, communities and churches, to also stop erosion. (Canada's are in each province).

• University of Guadalajara Professor Marie Elena Gonzolas Ruelas gets much better results as an acupuncturist when patients also shift from sugar to the Peruvian (VIA) stevia she brought in, along with another MD there. She also found that soaking stevia leaves overnight in water and using it on plants not only purifies the soil but greatly speeds up the growth of other plants – it's true. Soaking the leaves grown in the richest soils, like the Yucatan's Mayan Sweet Stevia, is also preserves its fullest medicinal benefits, and combining it with a small amount of the sweeter processed organic stevias, like (affordable) NOW Foods makes, is the best of all worlds.

• That combination makes increasing organic stevia growing in Mexico possible – which has only 3% of the sweetener share – to help get their citizens leaner while boosting business development, ecotourism (that drew Malea Obama to Vallarta for spring break), and winning more Olympic Soccer Gold Medals! That would be their sweetest revenge! Stevia plants also thrive on terraces and I put fresh leaves in my teas, smoothies and gazpachos.

• Using Stevia can help overcome genetic predispositions. One of my grandfathers was an obese diabetic and the other an abusive alcoholic. Yet I am better than my Olympic weight after replacing over 1,000 pounds of sugar over the last 10 years with stevia, thanks to a suggestion by my renowned Mayan dentist, Dr. Roberto Villafana. Plus I have no gray hair. Inspired by Anastasia, the mystic of Siberia, of the phenomenal power and wisdom of plants through her Ringing books, plus Mexico's medicinals, I recently got addicted to growing 20 organic fruits trees, veggies and herbs in my little garden of Eden terrace. This year when I did my annual health tests my doctor remarked for the first time, "you are very, very, very healthy!"

• Conduct your own tests to see how reducing sugar or using stevia sweeteners and sodas and planting trees restores harmony in your schools and improves test scores of all subjects. Prisons too. Spreading the word could miraculously result in the U.S. adopting background checks for gun sales.

An Oxford University study found that diabetes is projected to be the No. 1 healthcare challenge pulling down economies worldwide. So hail to Mayor Bloomberg and President Peña Nieto for raising awareness about reducing sugary soda carbs or using stevia sweeteners and sodas as solutions to diabetes and obesity. Added to First Lady Michelle's inspiring organic White House gardens, they are together dreaming up a new Dawn of North American healthcare.

They are also stimulating economic development by inspiring Wall Streeters to invest in these kinds of exploding natural solutions to restore the vibrant health and brainpower of their children so they have the tools to quickly brilliantly solve the environmental challenges we are leaving them. Clarity helped Mayor Bloomberg recognize that Climate Change is our biggest challenge even before Frankenstorm Sandy.

Mother Earth is the real Superpower who compassionately provides natural solutions for all our challenges, like stevia, if we open our eyes. More info on NAOTF.org.

Hope this research fortifies your campaigns to help your families, Nations and communities, like Manhattan Island, happily Rise!

Article is © 2013 by Suzy Chaffee and originally published on eNewsChannels.com – all commercial and reprint rights reserved. Contact: suzynativevoices, naotf.org. Opinions are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion or policy of this site or its publisher. Content has not been edited beyond simple typo checks in order to retain the author's unique voice.

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Suzy Chaffee, a former Olympic skier who helped invent dancing down mountains, has turned activist, journalist, filmmaker, and has worked with seven U.S. Presidents. She is now co-chairman of a non-profit partnership of the Elders of the Americas and Olympians, called the Native American Olympic Team Foundation, which aims to heal Mother Earth for all our children through joyful sports and education. For more information, contact Suzy at SuzyNativeVoices(at)aol.com or visit Snow-Riders.org or NAOTF.org.