• March 18, 2014
• admin
• Tea Talk

Here are some key facts on the natural sweetener Stevia…

Stevia(Stevia rebaudiana) is an herb in the sunflower family, and can be affectionately referred to as “sweet leaf” or “sugar leaf.”. Extracts from the stevia plant are known to be incredibly sweet; in fact it’s about 300x the sweetness of sugar.  

So what makes it different from other sweeteners like sugar, sucralose, and xylitol? Stevia is different from sugar because it contains zip, zilch, and no calories. Also stevia has no affect on a person’s blood glucose levels, and does not promote the storage of body fat. Sucralose (a.k.a. Splenda) is composed from sugar molecules that are chemically modified to inhibit your body from metabolizing the sweetener, keeping the calories at zero. The biggest difference between stevia and sucralose is that there are no chemical modifications with stevia; it’s simply extracted from the stevia plant. Xylitol (a sugar alcohol that has the taste and texture similar of sugar) has 40% fewer calories than sugar, which makes it still fall short of the 0 calories in stevia.

Ok, so we are sold for the heal reasons to use stevia, but how can we use stevia? Stevia most commonly is sold and used in liquid form, and sometimes can be flavored with vanilla and/or citrus fruits. Stevia also comes in a powder that is popular and can be found in small convenient travel sized packets.  

To start introducing stevia into your diet try adding it to your cup of tea instead of sugar or honey. Start with just a small amount because it can be so sweet, and take time to find the right amount. Also, you can try using it in lemonades of other cold drinks you wish to sweeten; eventually you can learn to bake with it as well! Overall, stevia is beginning to be used in more products that we find at the grocery store, like protein powders, and energy drinks. Just keep your eyes peeled for it and let us know where you find stevia as an ingredient!

Stevia At Sereni-tea:

Stevia Leaf- Tea Cut

Fructevia (Natural Sweetener that is great for baking!)

Green Tea Mints (sweetened with stevia)

Sassafrass Blend (sweetened with stevia)

 Find Stevia here at Sereni-tea; CLICK HERE to start shopping now!

Reference:

http://blog.vitacost.com/nutrition/stevia-how-sweet-it-really-is.html?csrc=EM-FULL20140130:STEVIA-cta&_mid=326622&_rid=326622.16001.197783

Read on 3/18/2014 at 10:30 AM pst.