Did You Know That Stevia is Safe For Diabetes?

Submitted By: Darrell Miller
If you love sweet foods and beverages but hate the weight-increasing effects that they bring, then you must have heard about stevia. Lately it has been taken on to provide alternative to aspartame as a sugar substitute. Japan in particular has used it as a sweetener over the years. Now there is good evidence in support of it use not only as a dietary supplement but also as a food additive.

Historical Use

Stevia, or Ka’a he’ as known to some tribes native to Latin America, has been cultivated and harvested for its sweet extracts as well a number of herbal uses over the centuries. The Guarani tribes make use of ka’a he’e to treat heartburn, aid digestion, and keep skin healthy-looking. The first European to take note of it as a natural sweetener was the Italian Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, and it was later commonly used as the sweetener Yelba Dulce, sweet herb, in Erva Mate teas.

Sweetening Substances

The Royal Botanical Gardens in London, England supervised the cultivation of stevia in an attempt to understand its sweetening effects in the 1940’s. The researchers were hoping to utilize stevia as an alternative to sugar as the latter proved to be inadequate to meet commodity demands when the Second World War broke out, but the research was later abandoned. It was in Japan where the herb Stevia rebaudiana was successfully grown in hothouses to yield commercial results as early as the 1970’s, and, since its production by the company Morita Kagaku Kogyo, has accounted for fifty per cent of all sweetening products.

Two compounds are largely responsible for the sweetness in stevia’s extracts: (1) stevioside, up to 300 times sweeter than the sugar sucrose, accounts for 5 to 10 per cent and (2) rebaudioside A, up to 450 times sweeter, accounts for 2-4%. These compounds produce the non-sugar compounds now called steviol glycosides being used as the commercial sweetener. Steviol does not get altered by heat and acid-base states, making it ideal as a sweetener to a huge list of foods and beverages. In addition, steviol exhibit properties that are known to obstruct the growth of microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and protozoans, and reduces inflammation in the human body.

Safety Concerns

In Japan, which has a strict regulatory body governing the use of food additives, the use of steviol glycosides has never been associated with any harmful effects. The Japanese have been adding steviol in virtually all sweetened products, from table top sweeteners to soft drinks, including Coca Cola. Stevia’s centuries-old ethnomedical uses in South America have not shown any interference in insulin’s job to lower blood sugar. Now it is alleged that they may even play a crucial role in promoting insulin production. One thing is for sure: steviol compounds do not add to the levels of glucose in the blood at all, hence the popularity among diabetic patients and carb-conscious people alike.

Stevia and related sweeteners like xylitol is available at your local or internet vitamin store in liquild and bulk powder forms. Always choose name brands to ensure quality of the sweetener product you purchase for your tea.

Stevia powder is available at VitaNet(R), LLC Vitamin Store.