Email
Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth With Stevia
Can you imagine eating all the ice cream, cake and sweets you love and letting your children do the same without having to worry about your blood sugar levels?
It doesn’t sound as impossible as you might think. Keep your fingers crossed (I am) because the FDA may soon decide the future of stevia – dubbed by many as the world’s best natural sweetener.
Stevia is an herb that has been used as a sweetener in Paraguay and other South American countries for over 1,500 years. Stevia is touted as the “holy grail of sweeteners” for four simple reasons:
• It’s 100% Natural
• Almost 300% SWEETER than sugar
• Has ZERO calories, and most importantly,
• DOES NOT cause an increase in blood sugar levels
If you haven’t heard about stevia it’s probably because it has only been approved for use as a nutritional supplement but not as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) additive for foods.
Through research online, I learned that prior to the 1980’s, stevia was in the FDA’s GRAS list and was stricken off the list at about the same time that aspartame, one of the first artificial sweeteners, entered the scene.
It’s intriguing to say the least as to why this happened. It also makes me feel mad at the possibility that the FDA may be keeping something good away from consumers, including diabetics like my dad, because something like stevia could cause a lot of changes in the sweetener industry.
Merisant and Cargill, makers of stevia-based sweeteners PureVia and Truvia, both said that their products are safe for public consumption and are waiting for FDA approval. International scientists connected with the World Health Organization have confirmed that these forms of stevia sweeteners are safe. Beverage giants Pepsi and Coca-Cola have thrown their hats in the stevia market and are backing Merisant and Cargill, respectively.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives concluded that stevia extracts containing 95 percent steviol glycosides (the compounds that give the stevia plant its sweet taste) are safe for human use in the range of four milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day.
The Japanese have been researching the properties of stevia since the 1970’s and have found it to be completely safe. In fact, 40% of Japan’s sweetener market is estimated to be stevia-based.
Australia and New Zealand have also recently approved steviol glycosides for use in foods.
If the FDA approves the use of stevia as a safe food additive, it will open the doors to all sorts of stevia-based products and will put a smile on the faces of diabetics and sweet lovers. More importantly, it will help us avoid the potentially harmful effects of artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, Saccharin, Sucralose, Acesulfame-K and Neotame.
The ball is now in the FDA’s court.
|
|
Tags: FDA, natural sweeteners, stevia
