Is Stevia Safe?
Stevia has been used since pre-Colombian times with no reports of ill side affects. Stevia has also withstood years of research that has proven Stevia to be safe for human and animal consumption.
What is Stevia Side Effects?
Side effects are related to the other ingredients that have been added to stevia extract to make it cheap and affordable. Most of these products don't just taste awful, they also cause health problems. Most of the blended stevia products contain very small amount of stevia, the rest are erythritol (sugar alcohole), dextrose (glucose) or maltodextrin (highly processed starch) and flavour enhancers. For example; CNN news announced that Erythritol, an ingredient in stevia, linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds. A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monkfruit and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a study.
Is Stevia Mutagenic?
No. The Japanese Food and Drug Safety Center has found stevia not to be mutagenic. Only one study has shown stevia to be potentially a mutagenic and this study has been criticized for errors in procedure. Scientist in Great Britain said that according to the study’s formula, distilled water is mutagenic.
Is stevia a contraceptive?
Two studies showed stevia to have a contraceptive effect. The first study was done in Uruguay over 30 years ago and since then no one has been able to reproduce the results. The second study was done by a graduate student in Rio de Janeiro and the results and methods have been questionable. Multiple other studies have shown that stevia has no contraceptive effect.
Where is Stevia Grown?
Originally stevia grew wild in the highland region of Northern Paraguay and Southern Brazil. It was later cultivated for use as a sweetener until the introduction of sugar cane by the Spanish and Portuguese. Today Stevia is grown around the world from China, Japan and other Asian countries to South America, Europe, India, the Ukraine and even North America.
Does Stevia have the same qualities as sugar in cooking recipes?
No! The molecular structures of sucrose and Stevioside are completely different. When Sucrose (Sugar) is heated it will caramelize making fudge and caramel, stevia will not. Some sweets, like caramel, is not possible, but other sweets like cookies and cakes are possible. You just need to add yeast and/or baking-powder.
Will Stevia break down at high temperatures like saccharine or aspartame?
No! The fact that stevia is heat stable is one of the real great properties of Stevia. Stevioside is heat stable to about 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). So it can be used in almost any recipe.
How come diet soft drinks are not sweetened with Stevia?
Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Cargill are starting to use stevia in Canada. The diet soft drink market is HUGH, worth billions of dollars. After December 2008 when US FDA stated it had no objection for use stevia as a general purpose sweetener, Coca-Cola and Pepsi start to introduce calorie-free beverages sweetened with stevia derivatives (Truvia for Coke, PureVia for Pepsi), including Coke's Odwalla juice and Pepsi's SoBe Life.
Does Stevia have any effect on hypoglycemia?
According to the report Effect of the ioside and of the aqueous extract of Stevia Rebaudiana (BERT) Bertoni on the glycemia of normal and diabetic rats By: Professor Carlos Eduardo Pinheiro, Presented to the II Brazilian Convention on Stevia rebaudiana (Bert) Bertoni - September 1982, they found that the use of Stevia did not produce any significant glycemic effects in normal or diabetic rats. In other words, stevia does not add sugar to the blood stream as sugar or even fruit can do. This allows the body to regulate the blood's sugar levels naturally. Of course if you drink tea with stevia with a twinkie, all bets are off but if you are careful with your diet, stevia is a wonderful way to satisfy your cravings for sweets without sugar.
What makes Ever Stevia different than any other stevia brands?
All our Stevia products are 100% pure free from any fillers, additives, preservatives or other ingredients. Our stevia powder is made out of one simple ingredient called "Rebaudioside A or Rebaudioside M". Both Reb-A and Reb-M are the sweetest part of stevia leaf. When they are extracted the color is as white as snow. The more they are purified and concentrated the better they taste. Reb-A and Reb-M are granted GRAS; Generally recognized as safe by FDA, and approved by JECFA and Health Canada.
Most of stevia you found online or in grocery stores contain some sort of sweet substances or fillers such as, Talin, Dextrose and/or Maltodextrin etc. to mask the bitterness, last longer and to reduce the costs and make it affordable for consumers. Pure stevia extract should not have any other ingredient than stevioside and rebaudioside which comes naturally in the stevia plant. Our stevia products are extracted from Rebaudioside-A (Reb-A) or Rebaudioside-M (Reb-M) the sweetest parts of all steviol glycoside found in the leaf. The Reb-A and Reb-M are refined to up to level of 99%. Their sweetness could go up to 400 times sweeter than sugar. They are the most expensive grade of stevia powder. However, they are still cost effective considering the intensity of the sweetness.
Although some may contain highly purified rebaudiaside, but it is still unclear how much stevioside or rebaudiaside in the product? Don't be fooled by the cheap stevia you see in grocery stores, they barely contain real Reb-A or Reb-M. If the label says it contains "90% or 95% Stevia leaf extract or Stevioside" and nothing about rebaudioside, it is simply misleading. Stevioside has an aftertaste even if it is 99% purified, but Rebaudioside A and Rebaudioside M do not possess an aftertaste and has a sweetness flavor comparable to sugar. In other word, best and good quality stevia is the pure Concentrated Reb-A or Reb-M.