Stevia

[Raggle]

Hi everyone -
Has anyone tried stevia? I keep hearing all these amazing things about it - they say ti is 300 times sweeter than sugar.... but the only time I tired it some years ago it tasted really disgusting! Not so much when you first tasted it but it then left a sort of intense sweetness in your mouth for hours afterwards.
But apparently it is virtually nil on the GL index and can be beneficial for high blood pressure.
Any feed back on what it tastes like or how you can best use it?

[sandra-chef]

Hi Could you tell me what your using this for is it instead of sugar??if it is then i would use fruit sugar as you don't need to use so much of that as normal sugar in anything and it passes through the system quicker because of it being made from fruit

Thanks

Sandra

[Micki]

Careful here - some experts are starting to think fructose is contributing to the obesity problems we're having as it bypasses the liver and converts directly to fat. Not sure if this is true. However, I always recommend FOS powder (fructo-oligo-saccharides) which is the food your bowel flora feeds on in the gut, or Xylitol as it can't be used by yeasts like candida. However, sugar is sugar is sugar, if you know what I mean, so the best approach is to limit it, whatever you decide to use!

[James]

Returning to stevia…. I use it regularly as I am diabetic and it seems to help considerably with blood sugar control.

However, you should be aware that you can get stevia in two forms – either as the complete herb, powdered, or a refined version.

I use the complete herb which comes as a green powder and which is sweet but not oversweet – in fact it is quite pleasant. I use it on fruit, cereal etc although I must admit that I have not tried cooking with it – but then I don’t cook much anyhow!

The refined version, however, which looks like icing sugar, is VERY sweet – I find unpleasantly so - and leaves a clinging sweetness in the mouth.

If anyone does try cooking with it I’d be glad to know how they get on.

[John]

I recently tried stevia for the first time and found that I like it better than other sweeteners, so I decided to find out more about it.

Stevia is a sweet herb from a south American shrub, Stevia rebaudiana, which, in its natural form (powdered leaves) is approximately 10 to 15 times sweeter than white table sugar, and its extract (a white powder comprising 85 percent of the active ingredient, stevioside) can range from 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. A quarter teaspoon of stevia extract is equivalent to about a cup of sugar.

Whilst being much sweeter than sugar, stevia has virtually no calories and does not negatively affect blood sugar metabolism. It is low glycemic and, not only has it been proved to be safe (mainly by extensive Japanese studies) but it also has the added benefits of potentially helping to control obesity, enhance glucose tolerance, and reduce blood pressure. Preliminary research has also indicated that stevia may help people suffering from Type 2 diabetes by increasing insulin secretion and thereby reducing blood sugar levels. Due to this effect, it may interact with medications taken for diabetes. Also, people who are allergic to ragweed may be sensitive to stevia.

Adding stevia to your diet on a regular basis has been reported to minimize hunger sensations and cravings for sweets or fatty foods, to aid digestion, shorten recovery time from cold and flu, and to aid in addictions to tobacco and alcohol. When used in toothpaste or mouthwash, its antibacterial properties significantly inhibit the growth of plaque in the mouth, preventing tooth decay.

Stevia has been used for centuries in South America, Japan, China and Korea. For the last 20 years, it has also been widely used as a commercial sweetener in Japan and Brazil, but, with one very recent exception, is not permitted for use as a food additive in either the EU or the US on the basis of 'insufficient safety data'. Manufacturers are unwilling to fund the expensive safety research demanded by the regulators because, being a natural product, stevia cannot be patented so would be less profitable to them in the long run!

The US Food and Drug Administration's prevention of the use of stevia as a sweetener or food additive appears as clearly anomalous when considered alongside their approval for the altogether more dangerous, synthetic aspartame, and especially when, in Japan, stevia is widely used and aspartame is banned!

The reason for the FDA's irrational stance on stevia is likely due to the fact that non-caloric sweeteners are big business in the US and the national sweetener giants have successfully lobbied the FDA to prevent the all-natural, inexpensive and non-patentable stevia from being used to replace their patented, synthetic and more expensive sweetener products. However, now that the Coca-Cola company has developed its own stevia-containing combination sweetener, Truvia, the FDA is, very conveniently, allowing the use of this particular sweetener.

In spite of all these regulatory shenanigans to assist multinationals, stevia is readily available online, e.g. from NaturallyGreen.co.uk and SuperFoodco.co.uk.

Stevia is suitable for use in appetizers, beverages, soups, salads, vegetables, desserts - just about anything, in fact - and it's great in coffee and on cereal, but it can have a slightly liquorice-like flavour and a bitter aftertaste if it’s not processed correctly. As different manufacturers use different approaches to processing, it may be worth trying several alternative brands if the first one you try isn't exactly to your liking.

Some users have reported that they don't like the green stevia leaf powder because of its aftertaste and the residue that it leaves, preferring the white extract, whereas, James (see above) mentions that he finds the refined form of stevia unpleasantly sweet, and so did I until I started diluting the powder with water. I now add 1 part pure stevia extract to 10 parts water and dispense this from a dropper bottle, which I'm finding is a very convenient way to use this sweetener, although I think I may try making the solution stronger in future.

Anyone who still has difficulty with stevia could try mixing it with another sweetener, such as honey or sugar, then gradually reducing the amount of the other sweetener and increasing the stevia. However, you might want to avoid the commercially combined products that blend stevia with less desirable sweeteners such as erythritol, a polyol which is not completely absorbed by the body and can produce a number of adverse effects, including abdominal gas, stomach ache, diarrhoea and headache - see Mini's and John's posts).

Truvia is one brand that is made from a mixture of erythritol and stevia. This is marketed by Cargill and was developed jointly with the Coca-Cola company. PureVia is another very similar combination product developed by PepsiCo and Pure Circle. Combination products like these do not always make it sufficiently clear what they contain, often giving the impression that they are just pure stevia. I ordered one product online that was labeled only as "Stevia Extract" but which was in fact a stevia/honey powder/inulin combination!

Here's a short video with Mark Blumenthal, Founder and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council, which explains everything you need to know about stevia.