Stevia...have you tried it?
 

I just ordered a bottle of stevia extract in the hopes of giving up aspartame and splenda. I've been meaning to for a while, but one of the posts here on 3fc really spurred me to order the stevia. Anyway, I want to know what it is like and how I can use it. I am assuming it is just like a drop for a cup for tea or coffee, right? It said 1 tsp= 1 cup of sugar. Thanks!

I have tried it. It doesn't taste exactly like sugar....but if you're already on Splenda, then it may not bother you.
I only use it occasionally, I still think a little sugar is OK!

I've used stevia before after finding it in the store. It is expensive but I like it. Natural stevia is very very sweet and they use fiber to cut it down to a sugar like sweetness. I believe if you are getting the powdered form then use it as you would use sugar. If you are getting the liquid form, then I'd be careful about how much you use.

I use stevia in my tea and I love it. I have the powdered from NOW and it is not cut down. You only need a pinch to sweeten your tea!

Another Stevia fan...yes...love it. And I agree...just a pinch. ;)

I got a bottle from Trader Joes, and didn't really like it. It tasted bitter to me. Maybe I was using too much, but I only used a pinch because I've heard that it was so much sweeter then other sweeteners.
Sarah

Im a Raw Sugar girl myself. But I have tried Stevia and its not that bad. It is VERY VERY sweet. Supposedly its good for your teeth too.

I would stick with Stevia if your only other options are aspartame or Splenda. Stick with the naturals, not something grown in a lab. The reason I dont still use Stevia is because its not something I would do long term, so raw sugar is a better option for me. Plus I only use it in my coffee.

I actually don't really enjoy sugar in beverages anymore...it makes stuff taste heavier or sticker. I hope that makes sense, but I have lived with people who have diabetes all my life and it's just not "weird tasting" to me to have the blue stuff or splenda. It's more normal.

Anybody have stevia during pregnancy? I'm not pregnant, but hoping to be in the future. I only plan on drinking it in a cup or so of coffee and maybe a couple of glasses of iced tea. I definitely don't want to do any of the manufactured artificial sweeteners then.

It's really odd that stevia is treated like marijuana or something by the F.D.A just because "not enough is known" yet the stuff we do know about the artificial stuff is pretty scary. I guess the stevia lobby isn't big in Washington yet....

I have been considering trying Stevia, but have mixed feelings about some of the health concerns.

http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1677.html

The cancer and carb-processing portions of that are concerning, but hasn't it been proven that what we are currently using in the U.S. as artificial sweeteners definitely do those two things? Ya just can't win...if obesity doesn't kill you, sweeteners might :(

lol go with sugar in the raw its in its natural state. its brown because its not refined the molasses is still in it. tastes better than white refined sugar as well. Ive seen no reports of it causing cancer. who knows everything causes cancer these days.

I agree, sugar should be fine! It all depends on how much you consume. The World Health Organization, in response to the global problem of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, recommends that we limit sugar to 10% of our daily calories per day. This is in regards to added sugars (any type of added sugar whether it's the white stuff or honey or whatever) and is not regarding the sugar that occurs naturally in our foods such as fruits and dairy. After their recommendation was released, the soft drink industry complained and wanted it changed to 25% :lol:

I'm from the south... That isn't even one glass of sweet tea!!! A life of water and milk... :( Too depressing!

I personally think added sugars in any form, including turbinado (raw sugar), is the same thing as adding poison to my food. I actually prefer liquid saccharin and Ace-K, two "artificial" sweeteners that do not affect my blood sugar. Powdered forms of noncaloric sweeteners, including stevia, usually contain dextrose (sugar) or maltodextrin (a high glycemic ingredient that can cause insulin spikes in many people).

Small amounts of liquid stevia, per se, don't seem to me to pose a health risk that would outweigh what added sugar does to my body, but I don't really like stevia. I've tried, but it just tastes like tea leaves to me. The health food store does sell liquid stevia "extracts" with interesting flavors like butterscotch that I might try sometime, but mostly I think I'll just stick with the natural sugar that is present in food ... like milk, fruit and vegetables.

I'm a stevia convert. It is used a lot in other countries with no ill effects. Here is a site with info on studies that have been done:
http://www.stevia.net/safety.htm

It is better to start out with less than you think that you need and then add more if it isn't sweet enough. I get it in the little pre-measured packets and use about half a packet in a cup of coffee to equal a scant tea spoon of sugar.

Honestly, at the dose I'm using, I really don't notice any difference between it and sugar in taste.

I avoid Splenda when I can. I prefer to use Stevia instead. Stevia has been used for a long time in other countries (it is derived from an herb), but hasn't been approved over here yet as a substitute sweetener. You can buy it in healthfood stores and some pharmacies as a "nutritional supplement", though. It comes in several different forms - dried leaves, liquid extract, powder extract and powder extract cut with other ingredients and packaged into little single serving size packets (like they do for other sub. sweeteners.)

I find that I only use 1/2 packet per cup of coffee and that (to my taste) equals the 1 teaspoon of sugar that I was using in my coffee.

The only trouble with using stevia is in some recipes that require the bulk of sugar or a sugar sub. like Splenda. I use stevia in all other instances, though.

The trick is to start out with less and add more - it packs a sweet wallop! If you use too much, you may get a licorishy aftertaste or bitterness. It is pricey (though splenda is, too) but you will be amazed at how little stevia you have to use.

You can also grow the herb in your garden - though it doesn't over winter well in zone 5 where I live - so I treat it as an annual. You can brew the leaves with tea and it tastes great.

I switched because I wanted something a little less chemistry lab that had a track record of safety.

It is not approved by the FDA here, but it is used extensively in Japan and Europe and has been for decades.

I believe that the Curves brand protein shakes are sweetened with stevia. Uh, I mean supplemented with stevia, (in case the FDA gods are watching.)

PS: quite a lot of controversy surrounds the whole stevia FDA issue - some folks suspect that Big Business doesn't want stevia to be approved as it would cut into the profits of other sweeteners...you can find more info on the internet if you are interested in more info.

thanks so much for that link and your suggestions! I can't wait to get my liquid stuff in the mail!

One cool thing about stevia is how very little that you have to use - really tiny amounts.

I'm always leery of chemical foods/drugs. One minute they are fine and the next minute they are yanking them off the market which is why I was attracted to stevia.

I do still have splenda - mostly in products like pop or other sugar free stuff. I'm doing South Beach and just in general trying to limit sweet stuff.

Here is a longish article on stevia from about.com which I found interesting.

The Real Issue in the Stevia Battles
Guest article by Jen L. Jones

If you have followed the "Stevia Chronicles" for any length of time, you'll know that controversy dogs this unassuming ancient herb. Banned here ... praised there ... on a consumer alert over there ... yet still sought for around the world.

Just what is the purported danger in using stevia? It's hard to uncover any real evidence for harm.

In his book Stevia Sweet Recipes Jeffrey Goettemoeller has the following to say about stevia's safety:

"Stevia has undergone numerous toxicity tests. None of these tests have shown any harmful effects. Few substances can make this claim. The real test, though, was centuries of continuous use by natives of South America. In addition, thousands of tons of stevia extracts have been consumed over the last 20 years in many countries with no harmful effects reported."

Others have reached similar conclusions. In The Stevia Cookbook, by Ray Sahelian, MD, we read:

"Stevia has been used as a sweetening ingredient in foods and drinks by South American natives for many centuries, and there is no report of any plant toxicity to the consumers (Suttajit, 1993). Stevia has been added to a number of food products in Japan since the mid 1970s. No indications of any significant side effects have yet been reported after more than 20 years of use. Similarly, no reports of any adverse reactions to stevia have been reported in the United States."

In the same book you can read about one of the latest studies of the possible carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effect of stevia in rats. In a 1997 study conducted at the National Institute of Health Sciences in Tokyo, Japan, it was concluded that stevia had no adverse effects on the experimental rats.

Following extensive research, Dr. Daniel Mowrey MD, Herbalist and renowned scientist, reported:

"More elaborate safety tests were performed by the Japanese during their evaluation of Stevia as a possible sweetening agent. Few substances have ever yielded such consistently negative results in toxicity trials as have Stevia. Almost every toxicity test imaginable has been performed on Stevia extract [concentrate] or stevioside at one time or another. The results are always negative. No abnormalities in weight change, food intake, cell or membrane characteristics, enzyme and substrate utilization, or chromosome characteristics. No cancer, no birth defects, no acute and no chronic untoward effects. Nothing."

In the United States, Rob McCaleb, President of the Herb Research Foundation sees the irony in the ongoing FDA stevia (which he calls 'this embattled herb')saga. In a report on the Foundation's website he tells us that stevia has been under FDA import alert since 1991, but "actually, according to the HRF, numerous scientists, and tens of millions of consumers throughout the world, especially in Japan, the herb is safe."

Perhaps it's not the safety of stevia, but its sweetness which is the real sticking point as McCaleb goes on to explain. If stevia has the potential to become a popular non-caloric sweetener, where would that leave some other products currently on the market?

McCaleb says, "That's the problem, apparently, because someone (FDA won't say who, but it's a big company) doesn't want it on the market, and convinced FDA to ban it. Now, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 has forced FDA to allow it in dietary supplements. The agency says it's still illegal to use it as a food ingredient, placing them in the rather stupid position of saying it's safe if labeled as a supplement, but not when sold in or as a food. This would seem to violate the famous "Hee Haw" rule implemented by former FDA Commissioner Frank Young. Dr. Young implored his managers not to place the agency in a position which made it appear foolish by violating obvious common sense. The rule was reportedly prompted by the FDA's case against ginseng capsules years ago. A judge told the Agency that the position that ginseng was safe as a tea but dangerous in a capsule was ridiculous. Now they say stevia is safe in a capsule, but not in a tea, unless the tea is labeled as a dietary supplement. Go figure . . ."

Toxic or just tasty? We think it's time that the evidence on stevia be allowed to speak for itself.

About this article: First published in Stevia Canada's Newsletter, Issue 6.

About this contributor: [i[Jennifer Jones is the editor of Stevia Canada's electronic newsletter (Former editor and publisher of Herbs at Home: Gardens and Good Living, a Canadian magazine). Jones' email is jenjones at alumni.uwaterloo.ca

:rofl: Are you serious?? Ok.. you think that adding Turbinado is the same as adding poison to your food.. yet you will add something that does not occur naturally that is made in a lab somewhere, by some "mad scientist" Okie Dokie

Here are a few facts on Turbinado ( Raw Sugar):

Q : What is raw sugar?

A: Raw Sugar is a natural, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane grown in Maui. Juice is extracted from the sugar cane, and then crystallized through evaporation. These crystals are rinsed with a very small amount of water to remove just enough stickiness to make the product free flowing.


Q: What makes Raw Sugar different from other sugars and is it healthier?

A:distinctive color and taste comes from the sugar cane juice flavor that naturally occurs in the crystals. By contrast, white sugar is obtained by refining the sugar cane crystals to remove all the sugar cane juice flavor (and with that, all of the nutrients). Thus white sugar is basically 100% sucrose whereas Raw Sugar contains very small amounts of nutrients. Some nutritionists believe that these very small amounts of nutrients contribute to the advantages raw sugar over refined white sugar. Some commercial brown sugars are made by adding coloring and flavor back to refined white sugar; this is not the case with raw sugar.

Now as far has it spikeing the blood sugar.. sure it does.. however, if you know how to balance your nutrition that doesnt happen. For instance, if you have sugar in something.. it should always be with or after protein. Protein balances your blood sugar. I dont recommended eatting it by the spoonfuls. But I would hardely call it poison as opposed to artifical sweetners.

Dairy Fairy- I feel ya on the sweet tea. I had to give that one up myself. It wasnt easy but I did.

I did not care for it. I thought it had a strong after taste.

I bought a bottle of stevia and only used it once and threw the rest out. It had a bitter aftertaste to me. I guess everyone's tastbuds are different!

I just use teaspoon or two a day of sugar (16 cals. per tsp.) to sweeten my plain yogurt or oatmeal.

Awful aftertaste
 

I tried Stevia on the recommendation of a friend. Can't stand the stuff! To me it tastes even worse than saccharin. I still make a concession by using 1 tsp. of sugar in my occasional cup of coffee.