Stevia Facts Safety

What Is Stevia?

Stevia Facts Safety

Stevia is maybe unique among food ingredients because it's most valued for what it doesn't do. It doesn't add calories. Unlike other sugar substitutes, stevia is derived from a plant.

The stevia plant is part of the Asteraceae family, related to the daisy and ragweed. Several of stevia species called "candyleaf" are native to New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

But the prized species, Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni), grows in Paraguay and Brazil, where people have used leaves from the stevia in the bush to sweeten food for hundreds of years. In traditional medicine in these regions, stevia, also served as a treatment for burns, colic, stomach problems and sometimes as a contraceptive.

Today, stevia is part of the sugar substitute to market.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates Americans added more sugar to their diet every year since the 1970s until 2000. When the Americans dropped the added sugar, they turned on to sugarlike extracts. The sugar substitute market was recoverable to be worth $ 6.5 billion in 2012, according to an analysis by the Markets and Markets research firm.

And the market may be growing. Just 18 percent of U.S. adults used in low-or no-calorie sweeteners in 2000. Now, 24 percent of adults and 12 percent of children use the sugar substitutes, according to (a) the 2012 review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. [9 Snack Foods: Healthy or Not?]

Does stevia work?

Stevia has no calories, and it is 200 times sweeter than sugar in the same concentration. Other studies suggest stevia might have extra health benefits.

"The Available research is promising for the use of stevia in hypertension," said Catherine Ulbricht, senior pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and co-founder of Natural Standard Research Collaboration, which reviews evidence are herbs and supplements. Ulbricht became the Natural Standard stevia gave a "grade (B) for efficacy in lowering blood pressure. Other studies suggest stevia could benefit people with Type 2 diabetes, but Ulbricht says more research is needed.

(A) the no-calorie source of junior is an obvious diet solution in theory. But a few studies show that replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners or low-calorie may not ultimately lead to weight loss in real life.

A 2004 study in rats found in low-calorie sweeteners led the animals to overeat in, possibly because of a perceived mismatch between the junior and the expected calories from sugar, according to the paper in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders. The author of that study later argued that people who use artificial sweeteners may suffer health problems associated with excess sugar, including metabolic syndrome, which can be a precursor to diabetes.

"A number of studies suggest people who regularly consume ASB [artificially sweetened beverages] are at increased risk compared with those that do not consume the ASB," Dr. Susan e. Swithers said in a letter to the journal of opinion in 2013 in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Yet there is also evidence that stevia does nothing to change eating habits or metabolism of the hurt in the short term. A 2010 study in the journal Appetite tested several artificial sweeteners sugar and against each other in 19 lean people and 12 obese people.

The study found people did not overeat in the after consuming a meal made with stevia instead of sugar. Their blood sugar was lower after a meal made with stevia than after eating a meal with sugar, and eating food with stevia resulted in lower insulin levels than eating either sucrose and aspartame.
Is stevia safe?

The question of whether stevia is safe to consume is largely depends on what someone means by "stevia". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved stevia leaves or "crude extracts of stevia," for use as food additives. Studies in those forms of stevia is to raise concerns about the control of blood sugar and the effects on the "reproductive, cardiovascular, and renal systems, the FDA warns.

However, the FDA has allowed companies to use an includes chemical from the stevia as a food additive situated in, calling the chemical "generally recognized as safe." Now, with products such as Truvia and others have the legal, the go-ahead to use Rebaudioside A, which is also found in the stevia, in their no-calorie sweeteners.

But there are some health concerns surrounding the stevia plant. Stevia may cause low blood pressure, which would be of concern to some taking blood pressure medications.

"Caution is advised when using medications that may also lower blood sugar. People taking insulin or drugs for diabetes by mouth should be many UN-monitored closely by a qualified health care professional, including a pharmacist, "Ulbricht said.

Stevia may also interact with anti-fungals, anti-inflammatories, anti-microbials, anti-cancer drugs, anti-virals, appetite suppressants, calcium channel blockers, cholesterol-lowering drugs, drugs that increase urination, in fertility agents and other medications, Ulbricht said. People should talk with their doctor before deciding to take the stev