Stevia, the sweet leaf!

Let’s re-cap real quick the artificial sweeteners.  All 3 major ones (sucralose, saccharin and aspartame) are acidic to your body which means precious mineral resources must be lost to alkalize your blood.  All 3 are chemically produced and have no documented health benefits what so ever.  In America we have grown up with sweets being practically force fed to us because of the ways of modern food production.  It is hard if not impossible to get away from a craving for sweets.  I have found some solace in drinking a lot more water and when I really crave something sweet trying to eat a piece of fruit as my primary go-to option.

Sweet drinks are everywhere and if you haven’t made a conscious choice before now to better your health, you undoubtedly have a taste for them.  Stevia is an all natural sweetener from a South American plant leaf.  I guess it is classified as an herb, but when I think herbs I don’t think of anything sweet.

“The Guarani Indians had known for centuries about the unique advantages of kaa he-he (a native term which translates as “sweet herb”) — long before the invaders from the Old World were lured by the treasures of the New.  These native people knew the leaves of the wild stevia shrub (a perennial indigenous to the Amambay Mountain region) to have a sweetening power unlike anything else; they commonly used the leaves to enhance the taste of bitter mate (a tea-like beverage) and medicinal potions, or simply chewed them for their sweet taste.  The widespread native use of stevia was chronicled by the Spaniards in historical documents preserved in the Paraguayan National Archives in Asuncion.  Historians noted that indigenous peoples had been sweetening herbal teas with stevia leaves “since ancient times.”  In due course, it was introduced to settlers.  By the 1800s, daily stevia consumption had become well entrenched throughout the region — not just in Paraguay, but also in neighboring Brazil and Argentina.”

Stevia is very popular and actually mainstream in many of the first world Asian countries.  It more than likely would have been in the United States as well but the sugar industry (probably also the artificial sweetener industry) was able to successfully block and delay its distribution for years after it had been deemed safe.

I will give you a little controversy because what’s a Body Blog entry without some.  Within the stevia industry there is a battle over who produces the best/highest quality stevia.  Apparently there are 4 components in the stevia leaf contributing to its overall sweetness.  Of these 4 stevioside and rebaudioside A are the sweetest.  Some people think stevioside has an aftertaste that is unpleasant.  I don’t get the aftertaste, but to each his own.  Anyway, you may want to be aware of this so if you start using stevia you can find a brand that uses whichever ingredient you like better.

To take it one step further, in order to process the stevia leaf down to its individual components, some companies use chemicals to process.  This inevitably leaves chemical residue traces in the product.  Consume at your own risk.  There are quite a few stevia brands out there so just read the claims.  The companies not processing with chemicals are likely to be the ones boasting about it on their box.  To conclude, stevia is a much better alternative to artificial sweeteners and has no calories.  Try it out and if you enjoy the taste you’ve taken another step towards a healthy new you!  Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you soon.