A Sweet
Alternative:
Raising Stevia
instead
of Cane
By Leslie Smith Jr., USA TODAY
By Shawn Sell, USA TODAY
 |
How really sweet it is:
Substitute 1 teaspoon of
stevia for 1
cup of sugar. |
What's
green and
leafy and trendy all over?
Meet
stevia, nicknamed
the "sugar herb." Once the well-kept secret of health-food
aficionados,
stevia (pronounced STEE-via) is fast becoming the rage with the
sugar-shunning
crowd in part because of the popularity of low-carb, high-protein
diets,
which discourage sweets.
"The public
is still
uncomfortable with artificial sweeteners and is looking for natural
alternatives,"
says Ray Sahelian, a general practitioner in Marina Del Ray, Calif.,
and
co-author of The Stevia Cookbook: Cooking With Nature's
Calorie-Free
Sweetener (Avery Publishing, $12.95). "Stevia is definitely
spreading
into the public, and I have seen a rise over the last two years of
people
who are familiar with it."
Word of mouth
has popularized
the plant, now available at garden centers and nurseries across the
country.
At Wisdom
Herbs in
Mesa, Ariz., the country's largest processor of stevia, sales jumped
from
$150,000 in 1977 to $5 million in 2000 — half of U.S. sales last year.
"It's tremendous stuff, and we've had positive feedback and lots of
inquiries
about it," says Michael Wood, vice president of Herb Herbert's
Traditional
Herbs in Valencia, Calif. "People are always surprised how really sweet
it is, but the word is finally getting out."
Recognized in
botanical
circles as Stevia rebaudiana, the little green plant native to
Paraguay
is the planet's sweetest known natural substance; the raw leaves have
been
used for centuries in South America. Stevia contains a white
crystalline
compound called stevioside, the molecule that makes the herb's leaves
10
to 15 times as sweet as table sugar, although extracts range from 100
to
300 times as sweet. Proponents say it contains virtually no
calories,
doesn't raise blood-sugar levels or promote tooth decay, and lacks the
chemical aftertastes of many artificial sweeteners, though the leaf
has a slight licorice taste.
For those who
opt to
grow their own, stevia thrives in warm temperatures and well-drained
soil.
(Seeds are hard to find, but many nurseries stock the plants, priced at
$2 to $6.) Mature leaves can be dried and ground or crushed into a
green
powder that can be used in cooking and to sweeten beverages. Infusions
are produced by steeping leaves in boiling water or alcohol. Processed
stevia ($8 to $15) — the kind you buy at health-food stores — comes in
a concentrated powder or liquid.
Nelinda
James, a gardener
in Spring Hill, Fla., says she makes a great Key lime pie using part
stevia
and part sugar. "Since we're in our 50s, we had concerns about high
sugar
intake, but also serious concerns about the aspartame we were
using.
Stevia just seemed like a good, natural thing to try."
The Food and
Drug
Administration didn't allow stevia into the country until 1995,
with the provision that it be sold as a dietary supplement, not as a
sweetener. Stevia has been used in Japan for more than 30 years.
Stevia lovers
are very devoted.
"I use it in
pies,
salad dressings and in my herbal teas," says Kathleen Suit of
Bellingham,
Wash., a stevia devotee for three years. "I don't use sugar anymore at
all."
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disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.
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