Stevia is a member of the daisy family, and Coca Cola teamed with Cargill to bring it onboard as a new sweetener in their family of products.

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, Coca-Cola has filed 24 patent applications for the product, which has been tentatively named Rebiana. It plans to use the sweetener in some of its beverages. Stevia is only approved in the United States as a dietary supplement, not as a food additive. The extract is claimed to be the world's only all-natural sweetener with zero calories, zero carbohydrates and a zero glycemic index.

Extracts are said to have up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar. As a sweetener, Stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar. Lower-calorie sodas are made with artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose. A recent report revealed that the US sweetener market is poised to increase 4% annually, to reach over $1 billion in 2010. A company that could offer a natural alternative to artificial sweeteners may have found a new sweet spot in this growing market.

If you've been around the diabetes online community you've certainly heard of Amy Tenderich. Her award-winning site is touted as one of the most influential diabetes sites out there. If you're looking for a gold mine of straight talk and encouragement -- Diabetes Mine is your destination. And now is your chance to speak to the celebrity herself! Amy will be chatting live on Tuesday, May 22, 9pm EST on Diabetes Talkfest.

Her charm comes through, loud and clear, in her cynically optimistic view of the trials of living with diabetes. Her journalistic flair derives from the heart and covers topics like breaking news and inside looks at diabetes research, as well as daily life with diabetes and uncovering the diabetics' deepest hopes and fears. Her all inclusive panache, along with her comedic nuances, make every moment of reading worth it.

Diabetes Mine has been featured in the Wall St. Journal, the UK Guardian, TechCrunch, NPR's Future Tense, and a number of other publications. The most recent feather in Amy's cap was added when she collaborated with Dr. Richard Jackson, a leading physician from Joslin Diabetes Center, to co-author the book Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes. True to form, the book is hailed as the first-ever straightforward guidebook providing a clear strategy for living well with diabetes and avoiding the long-term health damage it can cause. I look forward to the opportunity of chatting with Amy. Hope you all can join us!

The Wall Street Journal posted an interesting story about a man who needed a drug to treat his ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He could not get the funding for a large scale trial to approve the drug. I empathize, completely! See that picture of the Hulk? That's me. I'm angry. You won't like me when I'm angry.

As a type 1 diabetic, my concern for improving the lives of people affected by diabetes involves preventing and reversing the complications associated with the disease. The American Diabetes Association states the same somewhere in their mission statement. Ok ADA, put MY money where YOUR 501(C)3 is!!

When I called the American Diabetes Association and shared my excitement for the C-peptide treatment in human trials (in Sweden) reversing type 1 diabetic complications - I was floored when I heard their response.

Allie B: Can the American Diabetes Association please encourage a big pharmaceutical company to sponsor these trials here in the United States? The results in Sweden have conclusively shown reversal of complications associated with type 1 diabetes.

Mat P at the American Diabetes Association: The topic of C-peptide is very sexy in scientific forums. BUT - we don't like to tell big pharmaceutical companies what to do with their money because we don't like them to tell us what to do with ours.

Allie B (in my head): WHAT THE F%^&*)(*&^%$F do you DO as an organization to improve the lives of people affected by diabetes if you are not going to push for trials to prevent and arrest complications associated with the disease?

I'm afraid the American Diabetes Association and I do not share the same goals any longer. It was a long marriage, over 21 years - but I want a divorce. The largest diabetic organization in the United States is not willing to assist in getting a trial underway to prevent and reverse complications that could affect 2 million type 1 diabetics and between 2 and 4 million type 2 diabetics injecting insulin (without C-Peptide).

I didn't feel this way until I realized how disconnected their perception of diabetes is from the reality of the disease. What do you think?

James Hirsch, a type 1 diabetic, agonized when his three-year-old son started showing the symptoms of diabetes. His agony took the form of remarkable brilliance in his book, Cheating Destiny: Living With Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic. The book portrays diabetes from the perspective of someone living with the disease. He explains how diabetes is treated in this country, the shortfalls in the governance, both economically and physiologically.

Hirsch, a former reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal asks the editor of a hugely popular web site about the quality of care for diabetes in this country. The response he received: "It stinks." Hirsch details the physical complications that arise from diabetes and health insurance companies' reluctance to fully reimburse relatively low-cost education programs. These programs are designed to prevent the high-cost diagnostic testing and hospital care resulting from diabetes complications. Makes you wonder if it's unintuitive bureaucracy or intuitive capitalistic malfeasance. Don't be silly -- it's nothing personal, it's just business.

Being a person with diabetes is never simple. Hirsch explains, "insulin and food, food and insulin. I imagine them like armies in the night, battling inside a diabetic's body,"..."the battles never produce a winner. The armies simply live to fight another day." Fight the good fight, James. Thank you for sharing your perspective with remarkable brilliance and enlightening reality.