{"id":2738,"date":"2008-08-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/stevia-science.html"},"modified":"2016-08-12T13:40:38","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T13:40:38","slug":"stevia-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2738","title":{"rendered":"Stevia Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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. <\/div>\n

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It’s a plant. <\/div>\n

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But the FDA cites 1968 research conducted by Joseph Kuc, that showed a contraceptive effect on female rats. These animals were given very highly-concentrated doses of stevia. The consequence included lower fertility rates of up to 79 percent.<\/div>\n

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It’s not clear how this will translate into humans, especially since the consumption of stevia in Japan, for example, has not been shown to adversely affect birth rates among their populations.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

More contraception<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Another study cited by the FDA was conducted in 1988 in Brazil. Again, female rats showed a reduced fertility rate when they consumed stevia during the mating season. And, more recently, a 2006 study showed that stevia can have a harmful effect on male reproductive organs. With male rats this time, a high concentration of stevioside (a stevia extract) “hindered” sperm production, whatever that means. <\/div>\n

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So, the bottom line is that, over the long-term, reproduction-related problems can arise if this is used in high concentrations over a long period of time.<\/div>\n

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If you are a rat, and you are reading this, you are a genetic mutant. Nonetheless, rat, you should switch to normal sugar, because your chances of raising a progeny of little rattlets will be “hindered”, and we wouldn’t want that. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. … <\/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":false,"_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":[],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-2738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-stevia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qv5g-Ia","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2530,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2530","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":0},"title":"Stevia the Holy Grail of Sweeteners?","author":"Will Clower","date":"July 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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 is Aspartame. This article comes from a very food industry perspective. And, for them, Stevia may really be the Holy Grail\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2740,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2740","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"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":2739,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2739","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":2},"title":"Growing Stevia","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't wait to grow this. Andrew Weil pointed out that he grows this naturally occurring herb on his ranch. A place called directgardening.com sells them on the internet.And actually, I've read that Stevia will grow in almost any climate, if it is given good soil, fertilizer, and light conditions.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1933,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1933","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":3},"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:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.huffpost.com\/gen\/2166848\/thumbs\/o-STEVIA-PLANT-570.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":4},"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":1988,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1988","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":5},"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:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ArtificialSweeteners.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738","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=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3733,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions\/3733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}