Stevia rebaudiana

[affenbrot]

hi,

 

it's a really amazing plant! I ordered a stevia extract in form of white powder and received it today.

I put a tiny litlle bit (point of knife) into a big bottle of water and it's so sweet like it was a bottle of coke!!

They say you can do bakery and cooking with it as well, which I will surely try.

It contains no sugar! The herb is said to prohibit karies and is beneficial in cases of diabetes!

Guess why it was banned by the FDA, which unfortunately also influenced the ban in the EU

and Germany. In the meantime you can buy it as powder for tooth care

In Japan, I read a number like they do 40% of their sweeties with Stevia already.

Here it is also sold as liquid concentrate (the way it was traditionally prepared in paraguay), various kinds of extracts (i tried the one that claims to be the optimum so you experience no bitter taste when overdosing - called Chyrsanthin A), dried leaves, powdered leaves, tabs etc.

 

Have you known about it? I'm totally excited about my discovery! .. and outrageous why the government/industry prohibits its use in food!

 

affenbrot

[Trunk]

Interesting. Hadn't heard of it before.

 

Closest I know of is the common licorice root, which is very sweet, but the molecules are like super-duper large so they don't spike then drop in the bloodstream. But I wouldn't consider licorice necesarily a general use sweetener.

 

("Stevia", thought it was a person from just the title.)

[voice]

My wife bought some Stevia last year, and we both found it to taste bad. Memory is that it had a synthetic flavor. But, if you like it, that is great.

 

Chris

[affenbrot]

My wife bought some Stevia last year, and we both found it to taste bad. Memory is that it had a synthetic flavor. But, if you like it, that is great.

 

Chris

 

after reading a german stevia forum it seems that there are a lot of very different

products and qualities around, some mix in additional filling, some even sorbit. Maybe you had bad luck

and got questionable qualitiy?

 

(but in the moment I am so enthusiastic about it i would be not ready to notice anything unfavorable about it in any case )

 

 

a link about scientific research of the plant and its uses i just found :

european stevia center

 

and a quote for all conspiracy theorists:

USA: on May 20, 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered the destuction of 2500 books about the herbal sweetener stevia. A small company in Arlington Texas, Stevita, Co., was visited by the FDA and forced to stop selling stevia and books that mention that stevia can be used as a sweetener.

The Stevia Story by Linda & Bill Bonvie and Donna Gates was amongst the popular stevia books which came under FDA attack. According to the FDA order, "The presence of these publications renders stevia adulterated and unsafe for public consumption."

[Smile]

http://www.healthboards.com/autism/5408.html

[Lozen]

If you can get the fresh plant, it tastes really good. The leaves.

[affenbrot]

If you can get the fresh plant, it tastes really good. The leaves.

good idea! I'll get me seeds and grow my own