Stevia: A Natural, Low-Calorie Sweetener?

Recently, artificial sweeteners have been showing up in in pretty much any type of food or drink out there. These substances, such as saccharin, aspertame and sucralose (splenda), have a sweet taste while promising to be nearly calorie-free. Unfortunately, many of these sweeteners have been (tentatively) linked to numerous health problems, including CANCER and possibly even weight gain (the mechanism for how this happens is debated). But there is another low-calorie sweetener available that is completely natural and seems to be much safer.

This natural sweetener is stevia, a derivative of the plant Stevia rebaudiana, which grows natively in Paraguay and has been used for centuries by the natives. “Discovered” in 1903 by Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, this natural plant is 300 times as sweet as sugar but with virtually no calories or carbs! As an added benefit, stevia can withstand cooking temperatures, so unlike many artificial sweeteners it can be used in cooking.

As you can imagine, there is quite a history behind a plant as wonderful as stevia. Long before Europeans even had encountered the plant, the natives of Paraguay, the Guarani, had been using this plant as a sweetener and as medicine for centuries. New research has suggested that even hundreds of years ago, these ancient tribes were already using stevia as a treatment for diabetes (today people with diabetes often rely on artificial sweeteners to help control their blood sugar). As soon as white people discovered this amazing plant, plantations soon began to pop up. But this movement was quickly killed, as the sugar market did not want any competition.

So today, stevia is not a major sweetener (or even a legal food additive) in the United States. This is partially because of its competition with sugar, but also because it has been banned from use as a food additive in the United States. But fortunately, it can still be legally bought as long as it as labeled as a supplement and not as a food additive. So why does the FDA consider stevia dangerous enough to ban it? Well, really for no good reason. In fact, stevia has been used in Japan as a natural sweetener for decades and has been shown to be safe. And I don’t just mean that stevia is occasionally used in Japan; stevia composes 40% of the Japanese sweetener market, and these are some of the healthiest people in the world!

Now this is probably starting to sound too good to be true, and in reality, it is. While stevia has many great qualities as a natural, low-calorie sweetener, there are a few small downsides. First of all, since stevia cannot be sold as a food additive (yet), it can be a pain to find and it is not present in commercially foods like diet soda. Another downside is that some varieties of stevia can have a bit of an aftertaste which can be unpleasant. But besides these two little complaints, stevia has presented itself as possibly the most attractive option for those of us who have a sweet tooth but don’t want to gain weight.