Stevia is held up by many to be a natural product. It certainly starts out that way. Stevia is an herb (Stevia rebaudiana) that has been used, in its natural form, for at least 1500 years in Central & South America. Beginning in the 1970s, manufacturers began creating extracts and aqueous solutions from the plant. In my opinion, that is always the beginning of trouble because we can’t expect an extract to behave in the human body in the same way as the whole plant. That has been shown to be a problem.
How can you know your stevia is natural and unprocessed? Someone told me once that you should choose stevia that is green. But that’s not really a certainty because processing could include a green dye. Here’s some pointers:
- Steer clear of white powder stevia products.
- Avoid stevia products that use the word extract.
- Seek out the leaves. If they’re dry you can crush them.
- If you have a green thumb, consider growing your own. Apparently it’s easy to grow.
Stevia Rebaudiana Photo Courtesy FarOutFlora via Flickr (Stevia-Rebaudiana.jpg)
Stevia Packets Photo Courtesy …-Wink-… via Flickr (stevia-packets.jpg)
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