Mostly good points. I think some comments are necessary on a few though:
Agave nectar and stevia as sugar substitutes are also not without controversy. I find it easiest to get my sugar from whole, ripe, and fresh fruit. Once sufficient fruits are eaten on a regular basis, the desire for refined sugary products disappears.
Stevia: Potential problems, including cancer, reproductive issues, and interference with energy metabolishm: This article is a good start: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/4_00/stevia.html
Remmeber, stevia is an herb. Treating an herb as a food, i.e. the amount used in order to function as a replacement for sugar, is not necessarily a wise idea. Would you use ginkgo balboa or St. John's Wort as a food? Also, most people don't use actual stevia leaves, so it is still a refined product. Moving from refined sugar cane to refined herbs is not necessarily a good move. Developing a taste preference for whole fresh fruits over refined sugar products would serve our interests far better in the long run.
Agave nectar/syrup: this one certainly has a lot of hype behind it, but mostly it appears to be marketing tactics. Just think about the fact that excess fructose can raise general risk markers (triglycerides and VLDL) and has been linked to increased risk for insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
High fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose.
Agave syrup is 70-90% fructose.
So if you think too much fructose is bad, you must think HFCS is better than agave syrup.
Lastly, the recommendation for cyanocobalamin to be shunned in favor of hydroxy seems a bit off. The known highest active form of B12 for humans is methylcobalamin. Hydroxy is more efficiently converted than cyano, but methyl has the general current consensus, in the medical research world, of being best. Fortunately, B12 supplements of the methyl form are easily obtainable (e.g. Jarrow is a brand with 1000 and 5000 mcg sublinguals cheaply available, and there are a number of other brands). I've never even heard of a hydroxycobalamin tablet - only that it is the standard form used for shots in some countries. It is important to realize that most US and European doctors are still behind the times and administer cyanocobalamin (in some European countries, hydroxy is used, but this is still not as preferable as methylcobalamin) for B12 shots when a patient is found to have a problem with B12 levels. However, shots are almost never needed anyway, as the diffusion process of sublingual tablets is so great that they are just as effective as shots.
Agave nectar and stevia as sugar substitutes are also not without controversy. I find it easiest to get my sugar from whole, ripe, and fresh fruit. Once sufficient fruits are eaten on a regular basis, the desire for refined sugary products disappears.
Stevia: Potential problems, including cancer, reproductive issues, and interference with energy metabolishm: This article is a good start: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/4_00/stevia.html
Remmeber, stevia is an herb. Treating an herb as a food, i.e. the amount used in order to function as a replacement for sugar, is not necessarily a wise idea. Would you use ginkgo balboa or St. John's Wort as a food? Also, most people don't use actual stevia leaves, so it is still a refined product. Moving from refined sugar cane to refined herbs is not necessarily a good move. Developing a taste preference for whole fresh fruits over refined sugar products would serve our interests far better in the long run.
Agave nectar/syrup: this one certainly has a lot of hype behind it, but mostly it appears to be marketing tactics. Just think about the fact that excess fructose can raise general risk markers (triglycerides and VLDL) and has been linked to increased risk for insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
High fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose.
Agave syrup is 70-90% fructose.
So if you think too much fructose is bad, you must think HFCS is better than agave syrup.
Lastly, the recommendation for cyanocobalamin to be shunned in favor of hydroxy seems a bit off. The known highest active form of B12 for humans is methylcobalamin. Hydroxy is more efficiently converted than cyano, but methyl has the general current consensus, in the medical research world, of being best. Fortunately, B12 supplements of the methyl form are easily obtainable (e.g. Jarrow is a brand with 1000 and 5000 mcg sublinguals cheaply available, and there are a number of other brands). I've never even heard of a hydroxycobalamin tablet - only that it is the standard form used for shots in some countries. It is important to realize that most US and European doctors are still behind the times and administer cyanocobalamin (in some European countries, hydroxy is used, but this is still not as preferable as methylcobalamin) for B12 shots when a patient is found to have a problem with B12 levels. However, shots are almost never needed anyway, as the diffusion process of sublingual tablets is so great that they are just as effective as shots.