Healthy food >>>> Stevia is a natural sweetener

Stevia is a natural sweetener.

Global opposition to diabetes, obesity, and many other diseases in which the unacceptable use of sugars has led to a closer look at how such a plant Stevia rebaudiana (Stevia - sweet grass).

Stevia is a plant that most successfully combines a minimum of calories with a sweet taste, many times the sweetness of sugar (400 times). But the use of Stevia as a sweetener nevertheless raises many controversial opinions.

The analysis of the chemical composition of Stevia showed that its advantage among sugar substitutes is provided by the diterpenoid glycoside - stevioside, which in fact refers to substances that are dangerous by their effect on genes, causing their mutations. In addition, stevioside, undergoing chemical metamorphosis in the process of digestion, turns into steviol, which raises concerns as a carcinogen, mutagen and antiandrogen. Translated into domestic risks, steviol is suspected of guilty of infertility in experimental rats, E. coli mutations and the effect on a decrease in androgen activity.

Since the results of steviol exposure relate to pure steviol that participated in the research, and Stevia itself contains very little of it, it means that in order to justify the fears, a person needs to eat about a bag of sugar per day that corresponds to the level of sweetness of Stevia.

For those who don't take into account the dangerous properties of Stevia, it is a healthy natural sweetness. The benefits of consuming Stevia lie in its minimum calorie content and high qualities of a sweetener. Stevia is less toxic than its chemical sweeteners competitors. The WHO expert commission permits the use of Stevia as a food supplement per day no more than forty grams, which in terms of glycosides is 2 mg per one kg of Stevia.

The birthplace of Stevia is Paraguay, but civilization has long cultivated Stevia as a useful economic plant. Far from home, Stevia is grown as an annual plant, although its biological capabilities allow Stevia to grow as an evergreen shrub. To extend the life of Stevia for years, it can be grown in closed greenhouses or at home on a windowsill. Stevia is an unpretentious plant, but it requires growing seedlings, since the street plantings of Stevia will not have time to go through the entire growing season in a short summer.

Stevia is a natural sweetener sold as dried leaves, powder, capsules, tablets, and liquid extract. It is convenient to add it to cereals, teas, coffee, compotes, fruit drinks, cocktails, yoghurts, ice cream, creams and other dishes and drinks. Stevia is also used fresh, for example, by analogy with mint or linden. As a natural sweetener Stevia is able to completely replace sugar in food and at the same time does not harm health and does not provoke severe endocrine diseases.