Carbohydrates
Doina Golub
DeVry University

Stevia
Stevia is a sweetener and sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of the plant species Stevia Rebaudiana. Stevia was discovered about 1500 years ago by the people of Paraguay, South America, when they used to crush a few of the sweet leaves for their hot mate tea. In 1887, Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni started studying the “very strange plant” as described by the locals. Dr. Bertoni named the plant Stevia Rebaudiana in honor of a chemist Rebaudi, who identified the plant’s sweetness component.
The first crop of stevia was harvested in 1908, but it wasn’t until 1931that stevia became more commercially available when two French chemist isolate stevioside, the pure white crystalline extract that gives stevia its super sweet taste. Later on, the Japanese government highly regulated chemical additives to their food supply and once stevia established its safety, Japan became one of the first countries to use stevia on a large scale commercially.
In United Stated, FDA banned all imports of stevia at first because of the newly-presented Naturasweet and Equal sweeteners on the market but Stevia gained its popularity once more doctors recognized its health benefits; two and a half years later FDA approved stevia as a dietary supplement. They needed extensive research in order to establish that Stevia is safe to use as an additive for food and beverages.
The active compounds of stevia are stevioside and rebaudioside, which have up to 200 times the sweetness of regular sugar. Also they are heat-stable, pH-stable and non-fermentable. In addition to that, it has negligible effects on blood glucose and it makes it very popular amongst people who are on carb-controlled diets.
Stevia’s taste has a longer duration that the one of sugar but some of stevia’s extracts may have a licorice-like taste when used in high concentrations. In the digestive tract, rebaudiosides are metabolized into steviosides. Then steviosides are broken down into glucose and steviol. The glucose that is released in this process is used by the bacteria in the colon and it is not actually absorbed into the blood stream, it is not further digested and it’s excreted.
While stevia has been documented to have medical purposes such as an antimicrobial, anti-diarrheal, diuretic, anti-inflammatory actions, the evidence is strongest and most promising in two directions: high blood sugar and high blood pressure.
The question whether stevia is safe to consume, largely depends on what someone means by “stevia”. The FDA has not approved for stevia leaves to be used as food additives and there are studies that show that consuming whole stevia leaves may have some effects on the reproductive, cardiovascular and renal system.
You can find many types of stevia sweeteners on the market today but it is essential to know which one is safe to buy. Some of them may have other added ingredients which make the sweetener more artificial than natural.
All in all, there are not enough studies to show us the long term effects of stevia’s use and side effects but most studies showed that stevia is safe to use for human beings. As long as it is consumes in reasonable amounts, stevia is an exceptional natural sugar-substitute.
Stevia and obesity
Obesity has become of the most health concerns around the world. Studies have shown that generally people are unaware of the amount of sugar they are eating, for example the average American unknowingly consumes around 26 teaspoons of sugar a day, which is around 650 calories.
As the population increases in size, more and more people are looking for a way to shrink down in size. Cutting down the sugar intake can definitely help and stevia is one of the food-products that are 100% natural, containing zero-calories and can be a great sugar-substitute for our daily use. The downside of suing stevia is that it takes some getting used to its aftertaste. Most of consumers reported that it has a licorice-like aftertaste. Companies like Danone, had to change its recipe for stevia-sweetened yogurts, after receiving complains about the aftertaste. That is definitely one thing dieters should watch for since some companies are still adding sugar to their products in order to combat the aftertaste.
At the end, if you get used to the taste of stevia sweetener, you’ve got yourself a great way of satisfying the sugar cravings without all the additional calories that you need to worry about in regular sugary foods. We are creatures of food desire but food additives like stevia can make some contribution to decreasing the rate of the obesity among us.

References
Muth, N. D. (n.d.). The Truth About Stevia—The So-called "Healthy" Alternative Sweetener. In ACE. Retrieved July 15, 2015, from http://www.acefitness.org/certifiednewsarticle/1644/the-truth-about-stevia-the-so-called-quot-healthy/
Engber, D. (2014, January 1). The Quest for a Natural Sugar Substitute. Retrieved July 15, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/the-quest-for-a-natural-sugar-substitute.html?_r=0
Gates, D. (n.d.). History of Use. In Stevia. Retrieved July 15, 2015, from http://www.stevia.net/history.htm
The Nutrition Source. (n.d.). Retrieved July 15, 2015, from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/artificial-sweeteners/