My SO has been doing a lot of research lately on the effects of aspertame and Phenylalanine on our bodies and he came across Stevia so I was wondering if anyone has tried it and if so what are you thoughts?
Stevia is quite sweet. To my palate, it has a faint vegetable taste, which I prefer to the faint or not-so-faint chemical taste of aspertame and Phenylalanine. You can’t taste this in, say, hot tea.
Stevia may also exert some positive control on blood glucose in and of itself (i.e., not just as a sugar substitute).
I’ve had mint tea sweetened with stevia. It tastes good. My understanding is that it is pricey, but you only need the tiniest bit. For everyday use, we use Splenda, with good results.
I have not tried it. Stevia is a South American shrub whose leaves have been used for centuries by native peoples in Paraguay and Brazil to sweeten their yerba mate and other stimulant beverages. Although the FDA has not approved its use in foods, you can buy it in health food stores as a dietary supplement. The European Union concluded in 1999 that it is “not acceptable” as a sweetener because of concerns about its toxicity. Infertility has been shown in rats fed megadoses and mutagenicity has been demonstrated in the lab. Very large amounts can interfere with the absorption of carboydrates and disrupt the conversion of food intoenergy. (Nutrition Action Health Letter, April 2000)
I have used it. It is a ok alternative, but not the greatest. It is worth a shot.
I have tried 3 forms, the 1st was a grean liquid extract, it was the most natural and also had the worst taste. The white powder is the most common form used for sweettiing and is (as I said above OK, not great but not bad either) and then I have tryed a very refined clear liquid extract (IIRC NOW brand) and it was a step above the powder in taste.
I usually don’t use it by itself as it has a slight off-taste that I could not quite get used to. But I find I can cut my other sweetners to about 1/2 by using a small quantity of stevia.
Stevia is very sweet, 100’s of times sweeter then sugar, so much so that if you pick up a sealed bottle then taste your hand you will most likely notice the sweet taste.
Stevia is cheep too and a bottle should last you many years. So I give it a go just to reduce the amount of artificial sweetners you consume. The liquid won’t last as long but my next bottle will be the liquid. It’s easier to measure out to by drop.
Also you may want to check out splenda, it is artificial but unlike the others only a small portion gets digested (or so they tell us).
better prices at:
http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/GreenCanyon?quest=p101810&proclivity=express&specie=US
http://www.vitaminusa.com/sweeteners.html
http://www.alwaysaffordablevitamins.com/stevia.html
or just search google
I’ve tried Stevia and it kinda tastes like licorice to me. For my money, I’d stick to Splenda.
I know this is GQ and all but this to me is just crazy that aspertame is used everywhere and does things like this to our bodies, but is widely used and accepted.
Thanks for those links kanicbird. I’m gonna give it a try.
So what’s up with Splenda? What are the ingredients and how does it taste?
Splenda is made from sugar, has no calories and you use it like sugar. Here is their site.
Stevia tasted like licorice to me, too.
So much so, that I won’t use it again.
I’ve used both the powdered extract & the liquid extract. It’s got tons of supposed health benefits like leveling out blood sugar/insulin, killing gum disease germs, staving off hunger during famine, etc. Who knows? But as for the taste it really depends on what you use it with.
I got used to using one or two drops of the liquid in my coffee and kinda liked the taste. Used in tea it tasted a bit mediciny. Tried it in kool-aid type mixes & it tasted good in lemonade, but bitter & mediciny in other flavors.
Never tried it in cooking. I’d suggest using half the sugar & adding tiny amounts of steavia to balance it out. It’s often too mediciny or artificial tasting in many things, but seems to compliment other flavors really well.
I hate, absolutely hate the taste of licorice & never thought it tasted like that. YMMV.
Go ahead & try it. Used in moderate amounts, it hasn’t killed anyone in South America & they’ve been using it for what, centuries?
It’s so strongly sweet I doubt you’d ever be able to ingest large enough amounts to be toxic. And sugar’ll kill ya dead in high enough amounts too.
IANAD!
Dreamer, at the risk of appearing foolish, having a tongue-in-cheek post go over my head, I can’t let a link to the rense.com web site, with an article written by Betty Martini, go unchallenged. That lady is nuts. The whole rense.com site is nuts, and I don’t think she has anything to do with it (her article is simply posted there). She is on this bizarre mission to get aspartame banned, but has no real facts to back her up. So she just spews BS like the article you linked to.
You might want to see what Snopes has to say.
from http://www.caloriecontrol.org/sucralos.html
this site reviews the classes of artificial or reduced calorie sweeteners. The polyol or sugar alcohols taste best to me and seem relatively unproblematic.
Well, neither Splenda (sucralose), stevia, or the sugar alcohols make my blood sugar go up appreciably, whereas sugar, bread, and juice certainly do.
Stevia definitely has a flavor to it. I didn’t think “licorice,” but it is one that I don’t like.
Splenda has less so. It tastes closer to sugar than the other sugar substitues, but not exactly like it. I’ve had it in a cake recipe and it was ok, and I don’t mind it in coffee, but I tried to make a hot cocoa mix with splenda, and it flat out didn’t work. Not at all. Really, really bad.
Since you’re looking for opinions, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
A popular sports drink here in Japan (“Pocari Sweat”) has a Stevia version. I much prefer it to the regular stuff. It’s good. No funny taste at all. Or rather, I don’t know how much of the taste is Pocari Sweat and how much is Stevia, but it tastes fine to me.
CurtC: Thanks for posting that Snopes link. I was wondering where I had heard that line before…
I take it you must have read everything on that site to come to your conclusions? Which I might add are only your opinions.
I happen to believe many things on that site and I also believe aspartame is very harmful and IMO if there is controversy over it then it’s worth researching for the sake of our health.
I’ve wondered if the disagreeable taste in Stevia comes from whatever they cut it with. Perhaps in time they’ll work out versions that aren’t bitter or mediciny tasting. I’ve also read they’re more experienced using it in soft drinks in Asia.
Is there such a thing as pure Stevia extract?
I have a bottle of Stevia powder. I put it in my water bottle to make the water more palatable. To me, it tastes sweet, but not exactly like sugar-- more of a slight medicine taste, but not nearly as noticeable as with NutraSweet (bleah!). Overall, I like it well enough.
There’s a restaurant around here that has Stevia packets as an option with the sugar and Equal, which is how I tried it. Look around, maybe you can sample it that way (try a hippy or vegetarian or natural foods place).