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safe sweetener?

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Sienna

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Type 2
Hello All, Ive been away from the forum for some months and couldnt remember my name! Whew, the website remembered. I am Sienna !
Hope everyone here is doing well, things ok with me I think but Ive been too busy to worry, have got lax abt bloodchecking so better start that up again.

What is thought about the sweetener Truvia, made out of stevia leaves? Www. seems unclear. Is it " natural" (equals good) or is it "unnatural to our systems" (equals bad)?
i dont use it much not having a v. sweet tooth, just wondered if it is too good to be true.
 
Hi Sienna, nice to hear from you again 🙂 I haven't tried Stevia myself - the only sweetener I use is a Sweetex in my coffee, but I'm sure there are others here who have tried it, so hopefully they will be along to offer their verdicts 🙂
 
Hi Sienna, welcome back. Like Alan I don't use an Stevia products. The majority of Stevia products commercially available (like Truvia) and NOT natural. They are chemically extracted from the plant and have other chemically produced products added (like erythritol). The same thing applies to most sweeteners (Splenda, Canderel etc). Whether it is good, bad or indifferent to you is probably a matter of opinion and not scientific fact.
Nearly all sweeteners have had their critics. Snopes (www.snopes.com) is a good place to search for scaremongers (try looking up aspertame or Splenda)
Have a look here:http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/04/25/stevia-food-babe-investigates/.
A food program on TV the other night went to a stevia farm and had the farmer saying that he processed the leaves on his farm - I think this was a poor bit of tv journalism as there is no way that this farmer could produce enough stevia powder for the likes of Silver Spoon (makers of Truvia), and it isn't produced by the same methods.
If you really want a natural (non-sugar) sweetener then you can buy dried Stevia leaves or grow your own plant and process it yourself.
P.S. Stevia is supposed to leave a metallic aftertaste.
 
Also, don't fall into the trap of assuming that 'natural' is equivalent to 'good'.

Hemlock is natural. E. coli is natural. Arsenic is natural.

I would be less hung up on whether a product is 'natural' and more concerned about its overall track record and the evidence either way for its safety.
 
I have been using sweeteners for 30 years! I currently use own label Stevia at the moment in hot drinks, on cereal and in cooking. I don't notice any aftertaste, unlike saccharine-based sweeteners like ordinary Sweetex. I've also regularly used both aspartame and acesulfame-K based sweeteners without any bad effects, though I do have a friend who can't tolerate aspartame. I find that sugar-free sweets based on sorbitol/maltitol have a laxative effect, but other than that I ignore all the scare stories.
 
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