Stevia

Stevia is an herb that has been used as a sweetener in South America for hundreds of years. Native to Paraguay, the leaves of this small, green plant have a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 300 times sweeter than sugar.

Stevia, also known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf or sugarleaf, is a genus of about 150 species of herbs and shrubs in the sunflower family, and is native to subtropical and tropical South America and Central America. As a sweetener, stevia's sweet taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, although some of its extracts may have a bitter or liquorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations.

Stevia is gaining attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Stevia also has shown promise in medical research for treating such conditions as obesity and high blood pressure.  Stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, therefore it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets. However, health and political controversies have limited stevia's availability in many countries.  For a while, it was banned in the United States in the early 1990s. Stevia is widely used as a sweetener in Japan, and it is now available in the US and Canada as a food supplement, although not as a food additive.

Native Americans of Paraguay and Brazil used stevia as a sweetener in medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments.

In 1931, two French chemists isolated the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste.  These extracts were named stevioside and rebaudioside and they are 250–300 times sweeter than ordinary sucrose.  Stevia is heat stable, pH stable, and non-fermentable.

In the early 1970s, Japan began looking for alternatives to the cancer-causing artificial sweeteners cyclamate and saccharin.  In 1977, Japan began using stevia as a sweetener.  Stevia is used in food products, soft drinks (including Coca Cola), and for table use. Japan currently consumes more stevia than any other country.  Stevia accounts for 40% of the sweetener market in Japan.

China is the world's largest exporter of stevioside.  Stevia species grow in the wild in semi-arid habitats ranging from grassland to mountain terrain. While, Stevia does produce seeds, only a small percentage of them germinate. Planting cloned stevia is a more effective method of reproduction.

Steviol is the basic building block of stevia's sweet glycosides: Stevioside and rebaudioside A are constructed by replacing the bottom hydrogen atom with glucose and the top hydrogen atom with two or three linked glucose groups, respectively.  Government agencies have expressed concerns over toxicity, citing a lack of sufficient conclusive research.  Whole foods proponents draw a distinction between consuming only parts, such as stevia extracts and isolated compounds like stevioside, versus the whole herb.

In 2006, the World Health Organization performed a thorough evaluation of recent experimental studies of stevioside and steviols conducted on animals and humans.  The report found no evidence of carcinogenic activity. Furthermore, the report noted that "stevioside has shown some evidence of pharmacological effects in patients with hypertension or with type-2 diabetes", but concluded that further study was required to determine proper dosage.

Millions of Japanese people have been using stevia for over 30 years with no reported or known harmful effects. Similarly, stevia leaves have been used for centuries in South America spanning multiple generations in ethnomedical tradition as a treatment of type II diabetes.

In 1991, the United States Food and Drug Administration labeled stevia as an "unsafe food additive" and restricted its import. The FDA's stated reason was "toxicological information on stevia is inadequate to demonstrate its safety."  This was controversial, this designation violates the FDA's own guidelines, under which any natural substance used prior to 1958 with no reported adverse effects should be generally recognized as safe.

Stevia is a natural product and requires no patent to produce it. This is why marketers and consumers of stevia have shared a belief that the sweetener industry pressured the FDA to keep stevia out of the United States. Arizona congressman Jon Kyl, for example, called the FDA action against stevia "a restraint of trade to benefit the artificial sweetener industry."

The FDA requires proof of safety before recognizing a food additive as safe or unsafe, thus banning a substance. Stevia remained banned until after the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act forced the FDA in 1995 to revise its stance to permit stevia to be used as a dietary supplement, but not as a food additive.  Stevia proponents regard this as contradictory, since it labels stevia as safe and unsafe, depending on how it is sold.

In the United States, it is legal to import, grow, sell, and consume Stevia products if contained within or labeled for use as a dietary supplement, but not as a food additive.

People have consumed stevia for centuries with no known side effects. Individuals who cannot tolerate sugar or other sweeteners can usually tolerate stevia.

Stevia does not caramelize like sugar does. So, meringues may not look right since Stevia does not brown or crystallize as sugar does.  And, the green herbal powder may add a slight amount of color to your food, depending on how much you use in a recipe. You can use the white powdered extract or a clear, liquid extract of Stevia to avoid it changing a food's color.

Studies suggest that stevia has a regulating effect on the pancreas and could help stabilize blood sugar levels in the body, therefore making it a safe dietary supplement for people with diabetes, hypoglycemia, and candidiasis.

"Stevia has virtually no calories. It dissolves easily in water and mixes well with all other sweeteners...I use it myself..."
- Dr. Robert C. Atkins, MD, author of Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution