{"id":2530,"date":"2009-07-28T12:09:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T12:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/stevia-the-holy-grail-of-sweeteners.html"},"modified":"2016-09-21T10:14:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T14:14:50","slug":"stevia-the-holy-grail-of-sweeteners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2530","title":{"rendered":"Stevia the Holy Grail of Sweeteners?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a>Yes, Stevia is derived from a plant, but so was ephedra (ma huang<\/em>) — which contributed to heart valve problems.<\/p>\n

Yes it is GRAS (generally recognized as safe), but so is Aspartame. <\/span><\/p>\n

This article comes from a very food industry perspective. <\/a>And, for them, Stevia may really be the Holy Grail of sweeteners. They can market it as “all natural”, zero calorie, and the latest greatest thing.<\/p>\n

From a consumer perspective, though, we have to wait and see. Just like Aspartame when it came out to save the day, and hydrogenated oils when they came out to save your heart (so eat, eat, eat the margarine), we will not know if Stevia is safe until it has been on the shelf long enough to see its effects.<\/p>\n

The GRAS status from the FDA does not protect you. Your best solution is to do what you know is right — eat food — because brown sugar will not collapse your heart valves like ephedra, honey will not break down in your body to formic acid and formaldehyde like Nutrasweet.<\/p>\n

Let others be the test animals. We should withhold judgement and usage, until we’ve seen it work for 50 years or so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, Stevia is derived from a plant, but so was ephedra (ma huang) — which contributed to heart valve problems. Yes it is GRAS (generally recognized as safe), but so … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[494],"tags":[371,311],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-artificial-sweetener","tag-stevia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qv5g-EO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":0},"title":"On Your Mark, Get Set, Stevia!","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here it comes, the next new thing. Stevia has been locked out of the U.S. sweetener market but, perhaps in a battle of the titans, the soda industry has opened a path for its entry.Over the next few days, I'll be highlighting the science, nutritional and political, behind the new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"artificial sweetener\"","block_context":{"text":"artificial sweetener","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?tag=artificial-sweetener"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2740,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2740","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":1},"title":"Stevia History","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For centuries, the Guaran\u00ed tribes of Paraguay and Brazil used a plant tthey called ka'a he'\u00ea (\"sweet herb\"), to sweeten medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments. The leaves of the stevia plant have 30\u201345 times the sweetness of sucrose (ordinary table sugar).To prepare it in the traditional way,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"stevia\"","block_context":{"text":"stevia","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?tag=stevia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1933,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1933","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":2},"title":"Stevia and The Tooth","author":"Will Clower","date":"October 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Stevia comes from a South American plant (Stevia rebaudiana) that happens to be very very sweet, but doesn't contain calories or nutritive value. It's like a natural form of the synthetic versions found in the wedding mint colored packets (powder blue, sunshine yellow, and It's-A-Girl pink) in any coffee shop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"stevia plant","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.huffpost.com\/gen\/2166848\/thumbs\/o-STEVIA-PLANT-570.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1988,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1988","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":3},"title":"Which Sugars Are Best? Just remember the 3 rules …","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I was on KDKA-TV this morning talking about all the sweeteners out there -- there are tons of them!!Here is the link for the video:\u00a0Real and Artificial Sweeteners - YouTubeFirst we moved through the artificial ones ... the synthetics that are between 100 -- 200 TIMES as sweet as sugar.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ArtificialSweeteners.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2738,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2738","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":4},"title":"Stevia Science","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Get ready for controversy. The FDA has blocked Stevia. Advocates cry foul, saying they are held to an unrealistic standard, given that this plant has been used indiginously for centuries. It's a plant. But the FDA cites 1968 research conducted by Joseph Kuc, that showed a contraceptive effect on female\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"stevia\"","block_context":{"text":"stevia","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?tag=stevia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2689,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2689","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":5},"title":"Soupy Sales","author":"Will Clower","date":"October 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's great to finally see some GOOD news for our culture of health for a change. This recent article reflects the fact that consumer demand is pushing the supply. In other words, if WE purchase healthy foods, food manufacturers will have to comply.We are probably most familiar with the organic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"MSG\"","block_context":{"text":"MSG","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?tag=msg"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3525,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/3525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}