Fwd: Sweet Savvy Recipe #228 - Stevia News

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debraTo: cyndikrallSent: 12/26/2008 8:46:53 A.M. Pacific Standard TimeSubj: Sweet Savvy Recipe #228 - Stevia News

 

 

26 December 2008 Greetings! Since today is the day after Christmas, I figured none of us needed another dessert today. But I did want to pass along to you an item from the news this week about Stevia. Stevia rebaudiana, as you may know, is a naturally sweet herbal plant native to Sourth America. It is a perennial herb of the Composite family, related to lettuce, marigold and chicory. I have some stevia plants in my garden, next to the back door. I just pick the leaves off the plant and put them in my mouth. They taste almost like refined white sugar. You can use the fresh or dried whole leaf very effectively to sweeten hot or ice tea, or brew a "stevia tea" and use it as a liquid sweetener. It has no calories and will not elevate blood sugar. Many health benefits have been attributed to stevia, both in traditional use and recent scientific studies. Stevia one of the few natural sweeteners that has the same characteristics as an artificial sweetener--it has no calories and will not elevate blood sugar, yet it is super-sweet. Despite its many health benefits, the FDA stopped the sale of Stevia in 1986. In 1991 they said it was not suitable as a food additive, for the reason that "its safety had not been adequately demonstrated". However, this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated it had no objection to the findings of an independent expert panel which concluded that rebaudioside A (rebiana), the sweet component of stevia, is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as a general purpose sweetener. This means that stevia can now be used in food products.

Stevia is now sold in many forms: powders, liquids, and even flavored to add to drinks. I have been recommending it only as a whole herb, and will continue to do so. The reason I am recommending on the whole herb is that the commercial stevia products are industrial versions of stevia, not whole foods. They are refined, fractionated stevia. My nutritional doctor muscle tested me on refined stevia one day and it made my body weak. I had been using a lot of it at that time. But the fresh stevia leaves muscle tested strong. Now that the FDA has "no objection" to Stevia, you will be seeing it more and more in food products. The first stevia product I've seen advertised to the mass market as a sweetener is Truvia. Truvia will also be a sweetener used in processed food products. Since you will be seeing the Truvia logo on food products, I want to explain to you what it is. Though Truvia has some advertising that wants to lead you to think it is natural, it is natural only in the sense that it comes from plants--it is highly processed, and not pure stevia. The first ingredient is eurythritol, then rebiana extracted from stevia, plus natural flavors. Eurythritol doesn't occur in nature in any appreciable amount that can be collected. There is no eurythritol hive or tree or plant. The amount that nature has provided in fruits and vegetables is miniscule, and in the context of lots of water and fiber in other nutrients. Though eurythritol is made through a natural fermentation process, it is a manufactured product--you can't go collect eurythritol in nature somewhere and use it as a sweetener. So what we have here is a combination of two substances that occur in nature in miniscule amounts (along with water and fiber and other co-factors), extracted and concentrated into a sweetener (with no water and fiber and other co-factors). Stevia and eurythritol are perfectly fine to ingest in their natural context, but I would rather eat whole foods as nature intended, rather than concentrated extracts. Eurythritol is also used along with stevia in other brands of stevia sweeteners that are sold in natural food stores. So you decide for yourself. I've decided to limit my stevia use to the fresh or dried leaves, with an occasional treat of a little root beer flavored stevia to flavor my water. If you choose to use refined "industrialized" stevia, Stevia Smart is a good resource on how to use it. They have books on stevia and stevia cookbooks and a recipes section, which has lots of background information on stevia.

 

 

for more recipes and information on sweeteners and health, visitsweetsavvy.com got a question? want to share a recipe?, visitSweet Savvy Q & A Blog links to websites that sell natural sweeteners

 

SWEET SAVVY ~ NATURAL SWEETENER RECIPES is a weekly sampling of scrumptious sweets from Debra Lynn Dadd. All recipes are made only with natural sweeteners ~ no refined white sugar or artificial sweeteners. All ingredients mentioned can be purchased at natural food stores. more... The intention of this newsletter is to introduce readers to natural sweeteners of all kinds. The only intent is to show how natural sweeteners can be used to make a variety of favorite sweets. If there are ingredients in these recipes you choose not to eat, please make the appropriate substitutions. © copyright 2007 Debra Lynn Dadd.

 

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