All About Stevia
Stevia is touted as an all-natural zero-calorie sweetener. Is there any downside?
A couple of months ago, I did an episode on the pros and cons of artificial sweeteners such as Equal and Splenda. Since then, I’ve gotten a lot of listener questions about stevia, another zero-calorie sweetener that has gotten a lot of buzz lately. Is stevia is the penalty-free sweetener we’ve all been waiting for?
Although some new stevia-based sweeteners have just come onto the market, stevia has actually been around for quite a while. For eons, actually. Stevia is an herb that hails from South America. Its leaves taste sweet but contain virtually no calories.
Although stevia leaves were used as a sweetener by indigenous South Americans since pre-Colombian times, it was “discovered” by Europeans in the early 20th century. Since then, it’s been cultivated and used as an alternative sweetener—particularly in Asia. The Japanese first identified the several chemical compounds that give stevia its sweet taste and pioneered the extraction and purification of these compounds.
Stevia has been used in Japan for decades to sweeten beverages, condiments, candies, gums, toothpaste and mouthwash. It’s been slower to catch on in America. But late last year, the FDA approved a couple of stevia-based sweeteners for use by food manufacturers. And now some new stevia-sweetened foods and beverages, as well as some new sugar substitutes like TruVia and PureVia, are being rolled out with a lot of fanfare.
Just How Natural Are These New Sweeteners?
One of the things you hear about stevia-based sweeteners is that they are natural. Now, if you were to crush some fresh or dried stevia leaves into your tea, you’d have a truly natural, zero-calorie sweetener. And if you’d like to try that, you can buy green powdered stevia leaves as an herbal supplement at the health food store. You could even try growing a stevia bush in your garden.
But you might not like the way natural stevia tastes. It will sweeten your tea but it also has a sort of herbal, licoricey flavor and a slightly bitter aftertaste. To overcome this, green stevia is often refined into a snowy white powder—not unlike the process used to refine sugar cane into the white crystals we recognize as table sugar.
You can find refined stevia powder or liquid extract with the herbs and dietary supplements at a natural foods store. It has less of the characteristic plant flavors—but it still has some aftertaste. In fact, to me it tastes an awful lot like saccharine. It is extremely potent. I have a small bottle of stevia powder that I bought in the 90s. I use it every now and then to sweeten iced coffee, lemonade, or smoothies and I still have a third of a jar left!
Making Stevia More User-Friendly
Over in the baking ingredients aisle, you might find stevia that’s been cut with a filler like maltodextrin or inulin fiber to make it pour and measure more like regular sugar. This more user-friendly format is available in little packets and is often found right next to the Equal or Splenda.
The newest stevia-based sweeteners, Truvia and PureVia, take the processing even one step further. They take just one of the many sweet compounds found in natural stevia, purify it and then mix it with zero-calorie sugar alcohols in an effort to improve the flavor profile. By this point, I’m really not sure how natural you could say this product is. It includes ingredients extracted from stevia leaves. But it doesn’t bear a whole lot of resemblance to the stevia found in nature. These highly-processed proprietary versions also carry a hefty price tag.
Safety and Usefulness of Stevia
Even in its highly refined state, I think stevia is quite safe. And by that I mean that I think it’s unlikely to cause liver failure, brain cancer, or cause you to grow a third ear in the middle of your chest.
How does it taste? Well, if you hate the taste of artificial sweeteners, I suspect you won’t like stevia much better. If you’re accustomed to using Equal or Splenda, you’ll probably also find the stevia-based sweeteners acceptable. And if the idea of a more natural low-calorie sweetener appeals to you, I think stevia is definitely a step in the right direction.
The Fly in the Ointment
But if you’re hoping that stevia is a miracle sweetener that will allow you to eat all the sweet stuff you want without any consequences, I’m not sure that there is such a thing. In my earlier show on artificial sweeteners, I talked about the fact that people use them to cut calories but, paradoxically, often end up gaining weight.
Part of this may be psychological…the old “I can super-size the fries because I ordered a diet coke” mentality. But there also appears to be a biological aspect. When we eat things that taste very sweet but contain no calories, it seems to confuse our appetite regulation systems. Zero-calorie sweeteners can actually increase your appetite, especially for more sweets. They may also short-circuit the hormonal signals that tell us when we’ve had enough to eat.
Researchers are still trying to pin down the details and explain why people who consume more zero-calorie sweeteners seem to gain more weight. Up until now, they’ve been focused on artificial sweeteners like those in Equal and Splenda. But I don’t see why the same concerns wouldn’t also apply to stevia-based sweeteners.
Sweets Should Be Treats, not Mainstays
And that’s why I really think it’s in your best interests to limit your intake of sweet foods and beverages, no matter how they are sweetened. Here’s how I would think about it: Added sugars should take up no more than 10% of your calories. That’s about 50 grams, or the equivalent of about four tablespoons of granulated sugar per day.
When you’re totaling up your “added sugars,” you should include all the sugar, honey, or syrup that you put in or on your food as well as any sugars that are in beverages and packaged foods. You can see how much sugar is in these foods by checking the nutrition facts label.
Now, if you want to use zero-calorie sweeteners instead of sugar—you’ll save yourself some calories and might make your diet a bit healthier. But you still shouldn’t be eating more sweet stuff than you would if you were using sugar and following the 10% rule.
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Have a great day and eat something good for me!
RESOURCES:
Frequently Asked Questions about Stevia by David Richard, author of Stevia: Nature’s Sweet Secret
A Review Comparing PureVia, TruVia, and SweetLeaf Stevia Extract
Review of the Scientific Research on PureVia and TruVia
Stevia image courtesy of Shutterstock