Product Review: Stevia

Stevia Natural Sweetener

I discovered this wonder through reading Skinny Bitch. I had never heard of it before. I am not usually one for "no calorie" sweeteners of any sort. Lets face it aspartame is scary stuff that, amongst other things, causes cancer in white lab rats. Splenda is equally, if not more so, scary. I remember reading an article (I wish for the life of me I knew where it was so I could link to it) about the "Science Behind Splenda" describing how people had concocted this miracle sweetener. I then remember how wide my eyes got when they announced, with a weird sense of pride, that it was made through combining part of the sugar molecule with part of the chlorine molecule. Wait.... chlorine? The stuff that if the pool had too much of I wasn't allowed to go in? Yeah.... I stopped consuming it right then and there. Which was really too bad because I quite liked the taste.

So I was a bit hesitant, needless to say, with the idea of even an "all natural" zero calorie sweetener. But I did my research on this new found wonder and decided to invest in some to see if I even liked it.

I bought the packets originally at Whole Foods (my usually stop for alternative foods and such as it is within walking distance of where I live). I found that for my sense of what is "sweet" a half packet was more than enough for a 16 oz glass of iced tea. Other people may think that's not sweet enough, or entirely too sweet still. But I will say one thing, when they say Stevia is an herb 300 times more sweet than sugar, they're not pulling your leg.

I then experimented with the liquid version of the same while baking. It just combines better with baked goods than the powdered stuff. Plus it was quite a bit easier to figure out how much to add to the mixture to make it "sweet enough" and since I was making frosting, this was quite important. I found that it had a bit of an aftertaste at first, however this was quickly countered with my use of vanilla extract.

All in all, if you're looking for a low calorie, low carb solution to sweeten your life, I think that Stevia (being an all natural herb) is your best bet.