OK, so why is Stevia hitting the headlines?
If you’ve been listening to the news lately, you’re likely to have heard the name Stevia. Stevia, or Stevia Rebaudiana is a small green plant, a herb actually, which is in the Chrysanthemum family and native to Paraguay and Brazil where it grows wild. It has small green plant bearing leaves which have a taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar. The food industry is going wild because Stevia is being hailed as the sweetener of the future.
Artificial sweeteners are important to the food industry, especially to those producing weight loss products, so Stevia is an important find. Saccharin is one sweetener that has been around for over 100 years and its sweetness is 200 to 700 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). It is also known as Sweet and Low, Sweet Twin, Sweet’N Low and Necta Sweet. Many studies have been conducted on Saccharin, most of these have taken place after a health scare in 1977 when saccharin was linked to cancer after research showed bladder tumours in male rats who had ingested saccharin. The FDA proposed a ban on the sweetener, but since it was used in most diet products, Congress intervened and the ban failed. Further studies using human subjects were conducted and saccharin has now been found to be safe for human consumption. However, an acceptable daily intake has been set at 5mg/kg of body weight.
The FDA’s position on Stevia is somewhat confusing. At first, in 1991, the FDA issued an import alert which effectively blocked the import and sale of Stevia in the USA, this decision was based on a study but the study was found to be flawed and its results were in question, so in 1995, the FDA revised its import alert to allow Stevia and its extracts to be imported as a food or dietary supplement but not as a sweetener.
Many countries are now cultivating Stevia, including California and the South of England, but is Stevia safe? Stevia has been used by native Indians in Paraguay for centuries as a herbal product, and for the past twenty years it has been consumed in massive quantities quite safely, in fact, it has been thoroughly tested around the world and found to be completely non-toxic. Stevia is being claimed to be better for us than refined sugar which is virtually devoid of nutritional benefits and also because it has none of sugar’s unhealthy drawbacks.
Stevia is being hailed as a safe, all-natural alternative to refined sugar and other sweeteners, and it is considered to be non-caloric which means the diet industry will be very keen to use it in their products. Therefore, the future for Stevia is very bright.
Stevia is available as a sweetener, an extract, and as tablets, etc., to find out more about the Stevia products available go to www.easiestwaylose10pounds.com/members and register your name and email address FOR FREE (don’t worry, I will never ever sell anybodies details to a third party). You will then get full access to my website which is full of articles, diets, reviews, recipes, gadgets, widgets, products, forums, etc, etc, etc It really is great and members receive a FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER and you will be eligible for all the OFFERS and FREEBIES we offer our subscribers. Great stuff so SIGN UP TODAY!
One Stevia user commented:
‘My mum has used stevia as a natural alternative to sugar for a while now and because I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners I was interested to know if I could handle this stuff. While at her place recently I was able to take a look at it and give it a taste test. What she had looked like grains of sugar so it must be some sort of stevia blend. I took a small amount on a teaspoon and put it in my mouth and just let it dissolve. I could not believe how much it actually tasked like white sugar! If anything, it was slightly sweeter than sugar, but not in a bad way. I waited for the horrible after taste but it never came. I’m very impressed and will be making the switch as soon as I get my hand on some.’
