The Whole Food Blog

Stevia may be the only natural sugar free sweetener that is really healthy.  A calorie free sweetener that registers zero on the glycemic index, stevia can help individuals sustain normal blood sugar levels.  This makes it a very beneficial product for diabetics and other health conscious people who are striving to maintain a sugar free life.

Stevia is a plant in the Chrysanthemum family, which grows wild in parts of Paraguay and Brazil.  The plant’s extracts are up to 300 times sweeter than sugar, but have a negligible impact on blood glucose.  Stevia leaf extract has been used for centuries by native South American tribes as a sugar free sweetener in yerba mate and other teas.  It is also known for relieving ailments such as heartburn and for its antiseptic properties, which can be helpful in treating irritations of the skin.

Dr. Tei-Fu Chen, an herbalist and pharmacist from Taiwan, perfected a method to extract the nectar from the stevia leaves without using chemicals.  His company, Sunrider, successfully petitioned the FDA in 1995 to lift the import alert on the extract of stevia. This paved the way for other companies to use stevia as a sugar free, “dietary supplement”.  In 2007, Coca Cola petitioned the FDA for approval of stevia as a sugar free “food additive”.  That approval was given in 2008, and Coca Cola has now joined other major manufacturers in the production of stevia based, sugar free products.  Sunrider was one of the first companies to introduce stevia sweetener to the United States with the product Sunectar, in 1984, and later with SunnyDew liquid stevia.

More than twenty-five years of experience with stevia sweetener in the United States reveals that the benefits of this sugar free herbal extract seem to outweigh any negative consequences.  Through my own daily use of liquid stevia since 2001, I can say that it has helped to reduce cravings for sweets, and I am no longer searching for a healthy sugar free substitute.