Stevia Leaf

Stevia rebaudiana is a naturally sweet herbal plant native to Sourth America. It is a perennial herb of the Composite family, related to lettuce, marigold and chicory. I have some stevia plants in my garden, next to the back door. I just pick the leaves off the plant and put them in my mouth. They taste almost like refined white sugar.

You can use the fresh or dried whole leaf very effectively to sweeten hot or ice tea, or brew a "stevia tea" and use it as a liquid sweetener. It has no calories and will not elevate blood sugar.

Many health benefits have been attributed to stevia, both in traditional use and recent scientific studies.

Stevia one of the few natural sweeteners that has the same characteristics as an artificial sweetener--it has no calories and will not elevate blood sugar, yet it is super-sweet.

Despite its many health benefits, the FDA stopped the sale of Stevia in 1986. In 1991 they said it was not suitable as a food additive, for the reason that "its safety had not been adequately demonstrated". Canada and the European Community have also not found it acceptable for use in food.

Why, I don't know. Looking at the overwhelming number of known health benefits of stevia and the centuries of use will no reported ill effects, I have to wonder at their logic. In comparison to the widespread known negative health effects of white sugar and artificial sweeteners, not to mention artificial colors, flavorings and preservatives--which are allowed to be sold freely--stevia is relatively benign. So despite this warning, I will continue to personally use and recommend stevia.

Today, stevia has received approval by the FDA to be sold only as a dietary supplement.

Stevia comes in many forms. I am recommending it only as a whole herb. Stevia is now sold in many forms: powders, liquids, and even flavored to add to drinks.

The reason I am recommending on the whole herb is that the commercial stevia products are not whole foods. They are refined, fractionated stevia. My nutritional doctor muscle tested me on refined stevia one day and it made my body weak. I had been using a lot of it at that time. But the fresh stevia leaves muscle tested strong.

Stevia products are also difficult to work with. Though it can be used to sweeten a variety of foods, however you cannot substitute it cup-for-cup or even teaspoon-for-teaspoon for sugar. Cooking with it takes some familiarity and practice. I can't even give you a general guideline for substitution, as the sweetness of stevia is different from brand to brand.

The difficulty in using stevia as a primary sweetener is that it cannot be easily substituted for white sugar. Because so little stevia is used, it does not have the "bulk" of white sugar, which is often as crucial to the recipe as the sweetness. And stevia does not have the same physical properties as sugar, so it cannot be used, for example, to make candy. But it's fine to use when all you need is sweetness, such as to sweeten a smoothie, for example, or a salad dressing and for that, you can brew your own.

In other parts of the world, Stevia is popular as a no-calorie sweetener. In Japan, it holds 52% of the entire sweetener market, which includes sugar! No ill effects have been attributed to its use in the 30 years since its introduction in Japan, or in the thousands of years stevia has been used in South America.

So you decide for yourself. I've decided to limit my stevia use to the fresh or dried leaves, with an occasional treat of a little root beer flavored stevia to flavor my water.