Stevia - Sugarless, Non-Caloric, All-Natural Sweetener
I just heard about this plant today and I’m amazed. I personally stay away from artificial sweeteners (I sometimes take a little bit of splenda though) especially aspartame and I don’t consume sugar. This find seemed like a God-send earlier today; finally a way for me to have something sweet in my diet that wasn’t going to make me fat.
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Banned!?
When I checked for it’s availability, however, I found that it was banned in the EU. I read and read articles and found conflicting statements about the safety of stevia. Personally, it seems to me that it is safe, especially because it is 100% natural and not tampered by technology at all. If anyone has any information on the safety of this product or its availability in Ireland/UK, please comment below.
Is it possible that the companies producing artificial sweeteners are pressurizing or financially enticing the authorities to state that it is unsafe? If stevia was unleashed on the market I would imagine a lot of these companies would go out of business.
This is from Wikipedia
“A 1985 study reported that steviol, a breakdown product from stevioside and rebaudioside (two of the sweet steviol glycosides in the stevia leaf) is a mutagen in the presence of a liver extract of pre-treated rats” but this finding has been criticized on procedural grounds that the data were mishandled in such a way that even distilled water would appear mutagenic”
I’d love to know what others think of this exciting product.
Mark McManus
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March 9th, 2007 12:14
This is the first time I’m reading about this. Seems like I have to research on this plant too. Looks like a good catch!
March 10th, 2007 00:35
Hi Mark,
I actually heard about stevia about 6 years ago. My brother- in-law owned a restaurant in the middle of of a sugar plantation in Brazil. At that time he told me about “this plant that is sweet, natural, and seems better than sugar for diabetics”.
We can buy stevia here in the US and I’ve found it to be a nice substitute…but I don’t use it very often.
I’ll be curious to see what your readers say.
Have a great weekend…should be about 90 degrees this weekend so I’m going to the beach with the kids.
Best,
Coop
March 10th, 2007 08:23
Thanks a lot Coop. At least I know there’s people out there using it. I hope it becomes legal here in the coming years. I think you’re teasing me with this beach stuff, the best I can hope for is that it stays dry this weekend!
June 20th, 2007 20:20
[...] Well, in Japan they can. It’s Diet Coke flavoured with all-natural plant extract Stevia. I blogged about this product back in March ‘07 asking why it was banned? I still can’t figure it [...]