Stevia - The Natural Alternative To Sugar

Good news for those who love eating sweets: you can now give in to your cravings because there's actually something sweeter but safer than sugar that's available. No, it's not a new form of artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet and Splenda. It's something all-natural and 100% safe.

Stevia rebaudiana, or simply stevia, is an herb found in South America that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for centuries. The leaves of this small, green shrub have a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 300 times sweeter than sugar. Also, unlike sugar, stevia contains zero calories and does not increase your blood sugar levels.

The Guarani Indians have been enjoying the unique advantages of using kaa he-he (a native term for stevia which means "sweet herb") long before the Spaniards arrived. The natives commonly used stevia leaves to sweeten the taste of mate (a bitter tea-like beverage) and medicinal potions or simply chewed them. This widespread native use of stevia was chronicled by the Spaniards in historical documents preserved in the Paraguayan National Archives.

Credit for stevia's "discovery" in the late 1800s goes to an Italian botanist, Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, director of the College of Agriculture in Asuncion, Paraguay. Bertoni's efforts paved the way for the introduction of stevia outside Paraguay and beyond Latin America. Prior to 1900, stevia had grown only in the wild, and only those who have access to its natural habitat were able to consume it.

Stevia was first brought to the United States in 1918 by a botanist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who had learned about the herb while drinking mate. However, despite early interest, stevia remained largely unknown in Northern America.

In 1931, two French chemists isolated stevioside, the compound that gives stevia its sweet taste, but it was not until several decades later that stevia's true potential as a sweetener was realized in Japan.

Japanese scientists were able to determine just how useful stevioside really was and discovered that refined stevia extract was the ideal replacement for both sugar and artificial sweeteners.

By 1988, stevioside and other stevia products accounted for almost 41% of the market share of alternative sweeteners consumed in Japan. The Japanese have also began using stevia to sweeten a variety of food products like ice cream, bread, candies, pickles, seafood, vegetables, and soft drinks.

Today, the stevia phenomenon has reached 10 other countries outside South America, including China, Germany, Malaysia, Israel and South Korea. So why is stevia still off the map in the U.S.?

For years, the FDA has not allowed stevia to be marketed as a natural sweetener but can only be sold as a dietary supplement. Stevia was on the FDA's GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) list before the 1980s. It was removed from the GRAS list at almost the same time when aspartame entered the scene.

Now, why would the good old FDA do something like that? If stevia was made available to the public at that time, that would have dealt a substantial blow to the artificial sweetener industry, which is backed by companies such as Pfizer, Monsanto and Johnson & Johnson. NutraSweet and Splenda may not have sold as much if consumers had the choice to buy a natural alternative to sugar like stevia.

The good news is that the FDA has finally approved two versions of a stevia-based, zero calorie sweetener developed by rivals Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Coca-Cola's Truvia and Pepsi's PureVia brands both use rebiana, an extract from the stevia plant. The entry of these new products in the market is a welcome development. You could soon see soft drinks, ice cream, cereal and other products sweetened by stevia instead of chemically-synthesized artificial sweeteners.

If you need something to sweeten your food and drinks, regular stevia is an ideal choice. Limit your sugar intake, forget about the artificial sweeteners and don't jump into the Truvia and PureVia bandwagon just yet until more studies and tests have proven their safety.