What's stevia? Stevia, is a plant. Also called sweet leaf, it originates from South America. It tastes sweet, but slightly different than sugar, and has a long lasting after taste.
Benefit of Stevia:
1. NO calories. (but that does not mean you can eat tons of them, in my opinion)
2. Approved by FDA as food addictive in 2008. It is commonly used by diabetes as a sugar substitute because it has no impact on blood sugar level. The herb is sold in some South American countries to aid diabetics and hypoglycemics, Candidiasis. The plant has been used widly in Japan for decades.
3. NO worries about teeth cavities (but that's a bad news for dentists, sorry)
dot dot dot....
How much more should I say? Sounds good enough to use it often, right? That's not the end of the story.
I met a lady at a tea tasting event who told me, you should drink tea with sugar, not stevia. She said her nutritionist told her that when people drink sugar sweetened beverage, they are cautious about calories. So they drink less. When people drink beverage sweetened by stevia, they intend to drink more because they know stevia has zero calory. The result is people can gain weight!
I get the point: suppose we drink 1 gallon of sugar sweetened tea per day. if we switch to stevia, according to the nutritionist's theory, we will intend to drink 2 gallons? Does the real world really work that way? if that's the case, we need to make sure to install a rubber stomach to hold that much water/food! Everybody would walk like a pregnant woman.
I found her nutrionist's advice is amusing! what do you think? have you tried Stevia? Do you like the taste?
