Stevia

the Splenda thread below reminded me that I just heard about stevia, an herbal sweetener. any comments on this alternative?

Link: http://www.stevia.net/

[AngelSanctuary]

I just did a short presentation on this. After testing on rats, the males were almost infertile and the females produced smaller offspring. In Canada it is banned from being added to food and can only be sold in small packets.

[Miss Needle]

I have heard of a couple of negative studies about stevia. The females producing smaller offspring makes sense as stevia has no calories (provided that the control group was getting sugar). Do you have the names of the studies so I can check them out in further detail?

[AngelSanctuary]

Um...the textbook didn't have much to offer =/ anything about stevia is all on this site: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sweet+n...

[BamiaWruz]

I use it too, in fact I have the organic green plant form. It's like dried oregano, and you put it in tea..etc.

Good stuff!

[julietg]

I am attracted to Stevia because it does not spike your blood sugar, and I am dieting. I have heard enough horrible things about how saccharine and aspertame were passed by the FDA against the wishes of medical professionals to stay away from them forever. Splenda is made from corn, and smacks too much of the evil HFCS for this Pollen devotee.

I have tried two kinds- the TJ's (very saccharine) and the brand new FDA approved Truvia. I like the Truvia better, but it still has a slight aftertaste, like Splenda.

I am going to try to make some zucchini bread with Truvia, organic muscavado, and Kking Arthur whole wheat flour. Any comments or recipes are welcome!

[CDouglas]

I use Spoonable Stevia by Stevita Co. It is a lightly granular powder that dissolves quickly in liquid. I don't get any aftertaste from it and the sweetness is very reminiscent to confectioner's sugar in my opinion. I probably use 1/4 tsp in my morning tea and it sweetens it as much as a spoonful of sugar. It may be expensive (around $1 per oz.) but you use so little is lasts a long time.

Stevita also makes flavored drink mixes which taste great - grape, orange, lime and cherry.

I buy it at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spoonable-Carbo...

[taboo]

I use the packets of Stevia and find the product great. A much healthier alternative to chemicals that are in Equal. Splenda is an ok 2nd choice.

[Emme]

Growing Stevia is also very easy and produces a comparable and much less expensive product!!

[divya]

would love to hear the 'brand' names of stevia that have worked for others'.
I bought packets from 'Herbal Select", that have a strong ' aftertaste, even on using minute quantities.

[meatn3]

If your natural foods store has a coffee bar they might have single packets of stevia. They often keep it behind the counter since it "walks away". But this is a good way to try different brands before you invest. The flavor does vary from brand to brand and also between liquid and powder. I don't care for it, but my SO likes a powder form (packaged in individual packets) from Whole Foods. I don't see a brand name on them, but it was one of the less expensive choices they had.

[Emme]

trader joe's sells a stevia extract powder in a cylindrical plastic bottle, and i just saw it today, but can't remember the name... i've had it though and didn't have an aftertaste problem. that said, i don't have a problem with splenda either, taste-wise, so i don't know if my opinion is of any value to you.

[CDouglas]

Stevita Co.

I had to start using Stevia because yeast (overgrowth due to too many antibiotics) interprets Splenda in the SAME way as sugar!

The taste of Stevia reminds me of sacharine, bitter and overly sweet. Oh well...no choice right now.

Oh, I bought it at Trader Joe's. The bottle fits into my purse nicely.

I bought a bottle of the powdered form from TJ's and returned it, I don't like the after taste.

I really dislike anything that tastes remotely like Sweet&Low, Equal, Splenda, saccharin, etc. I can taste an artificial sweetener a mile away usually, so when I tried stevia I knew it wouldn't work for me.

I even sampled a leaf at a garden nursery just to see what it was like in it's "natural" form. I still can't get past that lingering weird taste. Too bad, would've been great to switch down to stevia.

Some people prefer Stevia as a "non-chemical" alternative, although supposedly people have allergic reactions to it just as they do to Splenda, etc. It isn't rated as safe by the FDA (while Splenda is rated as safe). Splenda is certainly easier to use -- too much stevia and youch, it makes things really bitter! I like it on yogurt as it gives a nice honey flavor, but I don't think I would bake with it because it would give a weird licorice note. I also bought mine from Trader Joe's and it has lasted months and months as you use very little.

I grow a couple of Stevia plants, it winters over nicely or you can bring it in to the window. It is a pretty little plant if you keep it pinched back. I just put a few leaves in some water and make a tea to use in stuff. Or just nibble on a leaf, which is excellent with a leaf of tarragon or mexican marigold and one of mint for a kind of sweet licorice mint treat-while-doing-yardwork. In garden catalogs the plants are often called "sweet plant" or something generic rather than Stevia for some reason.

If I need to, I make a small saucepan full of boiling water and steep a handful of leaves. Then I put it in a jar and keep it in the fridge to use for whatever. It is dark green but I like the flavor just fine.

Oh, I hadn't thought of that.

Thanks.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Stevia+Plants

Link: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/sr_stevi...

I started using stevia around 6 months ago when I started the South Beach diet-- sugar was prohibited, and I didn't want to use the splendas, equals, etc. that were allowed because I don't trust them as being safe. I like stevia now, but it did take some getting used to. It comes in both liquid and powder forms. The liquid has much less of an aftertaste. It is expensive, but you use so little of it in comparison with sugar that unless you are a huge sugar user, it lasts a very long time (eg., a small $14 bottle that we bought in January is still has plenty in it, and we use it every day on breakfast cereal.) I had to test a few brands before I found one I liked-- some have more aftertaste than others. My favorite is Sweet Leaf brand that I get at Whole Foods.

The trickiest thing about stevia is figuring out how much to use at first, because the conversion ratio is much different than other sweeteners. You can't just take a recipe that calls for equal or splenda and add the same amount of stevia.

I've been using it for about a year or more, mostly in my oat bran cookies that I bake once a week. I like it a lot and baking doesn't seem to harm its sweetening power. I sub half the sugar in my cookie recipe with Stevia, and the other half with brown sugar. I've found that's the best balance btw reducing the sugar and starting to detect the Stevia aftertaste, but I have a sensitive taste to it (my husband can't tell the diff as much).

BTW, my husband set up for me a blind taste taste of coffee sweetened with white sugar, Equal, Splenda, and Stevia, all sweetened to the same "not very sweet" level.

White sugar came out on top, but Equal was a close second. Stevia was third and Splenda was far behind and practically got the gag reflex going. I also can't stand any of the commercially available drinks (and now yogurt) sweetened with Splenda, but I can stand the diet drinks with Equal.

But when I bake with Equal (even using half sugar, half Equal), I can really taste its artificial taste.

In conclusion, I've found that in baking, the amount of Stevia needed to give the same sweetness taste as a certain amount of Equal will give a less artificial taste than Equal. So that's why I've been using Stevia in baking. Oh, and I get my supply at Trader Joes.

I thought I should correct myself: when I bake my cookies with Stevia, I reduce the original sugar amount by half; then half of that (1/4) is subbed with Stevia, and the other 1/4 is subbed with brown sugar. So basically I'm using a very small amount of Stevia, and maybe that's why the Stevia "aftertaste" isn't noticeable or bothersome.

I find the stevia I purchased at Whole Foods (Stevia Plus Fiber from the Sweetleaf Company) to have a noticable flavor, a bit like anise. This may be one of those compounds where some people detect the flavor at much lower concentrations than others.

I bought some tea bags that had it already incorporated in with the tea to use for iced tea. I thought it was good and had no aftertaste, I don't like the flavors of other artificial sweetners. This is the only instance I have used it. I think Trader Joe's sells Stevia, it might be less expensive there than some other stores.

My Great Uncle has been using it for several years. It is very concentrated. It is expensive. It definitely has NO aftertaste (unless you use an inordinate amount of it!).

It is a clear liquid, so it will add a little moisture whereas regular sugar is dry . . . .etc. That said, you only need a few drops.

I used it in lemon verbena tea first. Just steeped lemon verbena leaves and added a few drops of Stevia; that's it. If there were any aftertaste, I probably would have caught it there. Kind of got an idea of how much to use in relation to regular sugar.

I also used it in a carrot cake the next day. I subbed the white sugar for Stevia and put in the brown sugar. I used fresh ground oats for half the flour and added buckwheat and a little too much coconut oil, so the cake was dense, but not because of the Stevia. The color of carrot cake is already dark and I never even got to get it out of the pan before they ate it all, so I don't know about browning for cookies, etc. In fact, I didn't even get to take the cake out of the oven before they got to it!

I am not sure if there is a limit on how much you can ingest in a day. Malitol will affect your digestive tract, but I did not experience that with Stevia. But, I would watch yourself to see if you get dizzy or if it affects your innards. I had no problem.

I would ask your local health food store or herbologist store if you have concerns there.

I think politics has something to do with why it is not more widely used.

I have not yet bought some myself because I just heard of it about a year ago and haven't depleted my sugar stock yet. I don't use much sugar at all, maybe a tablespoon once a month, until Summer iced tea. It's great for that.

I use stevia in yogurt-based protein smoothies. It's tolerable. I think some artificial sweeteners taste better, but, I don't like to eat artificial stuff.

It's available in natural food stores. Be prepared to spend $10-20. Save yourself some time by asking for help to find it.

My daughter uses Stevia all the time and likes it very much. Prior to her conversion to Stevia she was a big honey user rather than a sugar user. I, who also tend to use honey rather than sugar, find Stevia to taste a bit too sweet and I am not crazy about the green herbiness of it. I find that the taste interfers a little bit. Neither of us have used it for cooking. So I guess this is a mixed report- one very positive, the other a guarded "it's okay".