Stevia

The Healthful Natural Sweetener

Stevia is an intensely sweet plant that has been used as a safe, healthy, non-caloric, all-natural sugar substitute by millions of people since the early 1970's.

It supports the systems that regulate blood sugar and is especially supportive of the pancreas.

It is useful in any weight loss program because it helps satisfy the craving for sugar and is very low in calories.

The indigenous people of Brazil and Paraguay have used it medicinally for hundreds of years for health conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, hypertension and heartburn.

It first achieved wide popularity in Japan where it is used in beverages, ice cream, candy, toothpaste, baked goods and other products.

It is estimated that over 1000 tons of Stevia extract are consumed every year in Japan, with no reports of toxicity.

It is also widely used in Thailand, Germany, Korea, China, Brazil and Paraguay.

Why Not In The U.S.?

Beatrice Foods, Coca Cola and others use Stevia extracts in place of aspartame or sucralose to sweeten foods for sale in Japan, Brazil, and other countries where it is approved as a food additive.

Unfortunately, in the United States, it is specifically prohibited as a sweetener or as a food additive.

(Note: The FDA has recently given approval to Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo to market their zero-calorie sweeteners, Truvia and PureVia respectively. Both use rebiana, an extract of the plant, rather than the whole plant that has been used safely for centuries. While these sweeteners are likely to be a huge improvement over aspartame and sucralose, they will almost certainly lack some or all of the many health benefits of the whole plant.)

Maurice Sonnenwirth, M.D., wrote in the Jan, 2001 Natural Pharmacy newsletter, that in the U.S....

"Before 1991, Stevia had been labeled as an item Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). In 1991, however, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claimed that it had not been adequately tested and confirmed as safe, and in a move that many felt was unwise, the FDA labeled it an unsafe food additive."

Why?

According to RainTree Nutrition of Austin, TX:

"Noncaloric sweeteners are a big business in the U.S. and the national sweetener giants have been successful in lobbying the FDA to prevent this all-natural, inexpensive and non-patentable sweetener from being used to replace their patented, synthetic, more expensive sweetener products."

In 1991, the FDA banned all imports into the country, an enormous benefit to the un-natural sweetener industry.

This questionable tactic created a huge public outcry in the natural products industry.

In 1995 the import ban was lifted and it was again allowed to be sold, but only as a dietary supplement under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.

The FDA, in a move that defied logic, ruled that Stevia was presumed safe as a dietary supplement, but unsafe as a food additive.

This, of course, was wonderful news to the synthetic sweetener industry.

Rob McCaleb, president of the Herb Research Foundation and a member of the President's Commission on Dietary Supplements, said:

"The FDA may have painted itself into a corner on this one. Its policy simply makes no sense."

Is It Safe?

Stevia has been found to be nontoxic in acute toxicity studies with rats, rabbits, guinea pigs and fowl. It has also been shown not to be mutagenic or genotoxic, and it produced no effects on fertility.

Dr. Sonnenwirth, speaking in relation to aspartame and saccharin, stated:

"By contrast, a vast number of studies support the safety of Stevia.

When the FDA was petitioned in the early 1990's to readmit Stevia to the market, none of hundreds of studies showed any effect of its use on chromosomes, enzymes, cell membranes, or other cellular characteristics.

Nor have any clinical effects been noted during the extensive human use of Stevia or steviosides."

Dr. Daniel Mowrey reports:

"More elaborate safety tests were performed by the Japanese during their evaluation of stevia as a possible sweetening agent. Few substances have ever yielded such consistently negative results in toxicity trials as have stevia.

Almost every toxicity test imaginable has been performed on stevia extract [concentrate] or stevioside at one time or another. The results are always negative. No abnormalities in weight change, food intake, cell or membrane characteristics, enzyme and substrate utilization, or chromosome characteristics.

No cancer, no birth defects, no acute and no chronic untoward effects. Nothing."

Medicinal Uses

Since Dr. Moises Bertoni first described Stevia in 1903, many studies have been conducted in a variety of therapeutic applications.

Conditions that it has shown to help include:

• high blood pressure
• diabetes
• hypoglycemia
• obesity
• poor digestion
• tooth decay
• wound healing

Research also suggests that it inhibits the reproduction and development of bacteria and other infectious organisms.

In 2000, a double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted in China on 106 hypertensive men and women. Each was given 250 mg of steviosides or a placebo three times daily for one year.

After 3 months, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the stevioside group decreased by 4 to 10%. The effect persisted throughout the year, with no apparent influence on blood chemistry.

The most important use would seem to be in the treatment of diabetes and hypoglycemia.

Stevia reduces blood sugar levels and increases glucose tolerance. Researchers in Paraguay and Brazil have found that hypoglycemics showed a significant drop in blood sugar levels six to eight hours after consuming the extract.

Researchers in Denmark published a study in 2000 regarding hypoglycemic actions of its extracts.

They concluded, "results indicate that the compounds may have a potential role as anti-hyperglycemic agents in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus."

Interestingly, it seems to have no blood sugar-lowering effect on people with normal blood sugar levels.

According to Dr. Sonnenwirth, a Purdue University study found the extracts to inhibit growth of the bacteria responsible for tooth decay.

In other studies it has been shown to inhibit the growth of dental plaque and reduce the incidence of tooth cavitation.

Disclaimer

The statements on this website have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration. The products referred to on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition or prescribe any treatment.