I’ve been hearing a lot lately about this new sugar free sweetener that it has little or no calories, doesn’t affect the blood sugar and is “Natural.” I speak of course of the several derivatives of the Stevia Plant.
I know this sounds rather jaded, but of course that is because I am. Many companies in the US use the term “Natural” to define products that they want people with a mind for healthier products to purchase. What many consumers don’t realize is that there is no official definition of Natural for dietary supplements, which is what all of these are marketed as. While Natural is defined as no artificial flavors or colors added for food products, there is no definition of how the ingredients are manufactured. So things like sugar alcohols, while technically made from a natural ingredient, no longer resemble the original product, can still be labeled as “Natural.”
Stepping off of my soap box, let me move forward with the reason for this post. Recently PepsiCO and it’s partners released their product, Purevia™. On the other side of the cola war, Coca Colaand it’s partners released their sweetener Truvia™. Both of these products are derived from the Stevia plant, both claim to be extracts of the best tasting part of the Stevia plant. That compound is rebaudioside A, or Reb A, which is identified in the ingredients of Purevia™, while Truvia™ lists it as rebiana.
As in most sweeteners, these extracts aren’t the only ingredients that can be found in these sweeteners. Purevia™ also contains Erythritol, Isomaltulose, cellulose powder (keeps it pouring like sugar), as well as “natural flavors.” Truvia™ also contains erythritol and those wonderful “natural flavors.” Interestingly enough both Purevia™ and Truvia™ claim to be natural, though erythritol is a processed sugar alcohol. While technically it is processed from sugar, can you really still call it a natural product? Of course you can, because as mentioned earlier there is no official definition of “natural” for dietary supplements.
I attempted to do some research to come up with some information about how these stevia extracts are metabolized, unfortunately I have been mostly unsuccessful. While we do have information on what happens with erythritol. It is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine and is generally passed directly through urine. Interestingly enough it is the only sugar alcohol that is known to not cause intestinal distress. Isomaltulose is much more complex than glucose and is therefore digested much more slowly, making it’s impact on blood glucose very minimal.
On the flip side of my questions about Stevia’s safety we can look to it’s use throughout history. Stevia has been used in Guatemala for centuries and it’s use in Japan since the 70’s in diet sodas. While I located several, in my opinion, less than credible sources on the Internet that said the World Health Organization had declared Stevia to be safe and later that the Joint (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives declared that it did not promote any mutagens, I was unable to verify these sources. One site linked to a document regarding the JECFA to prove this statement, and a thorough search provided no such evidence in the document. Continuing to dig further the only other information I could locate spoke to the fact that insufficient evidence can be produced to qualify the use of Stevia as “safe.”
There is evidence in fact, that Stevia is still banned from being soldin the UK and the EU. In further support of how unsafe Stevia is, I must point to this alertfrom the FDA to it’s agents instructing them to block the import of all stevia leaves and it’s extracts, unless specifically labeled as a dietary supplement.
I know that perhaps I’ll get ripped to shreds by many people out there who think that natural is the only way to go, and that I’m simply being a negative Nancy, or reading into the hype of big brother or some such. But please, if you can find further information, from credible sources ie. governmental, that I may have missed, drop a note here and I’ll examine it and (maybe) change my view of the situation. But until that time, I won’t make use of any of these new sweeteners, and will continue to advise my friends and family to do the same.