Stevia Candy

Good news for those who like eating candy: you can now give your desires because people did something softer, but safer than sugar is available. No, this is not a new form of artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet and Splenda. This is something all-natural and 100% safe.

Stevia rebaudiana, or simply stevia, is a plant found in South America that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for centuries. The leaves of this shrub has green taste delicious and refreshing that can be 300 times sweeter than sugar. In addition, unlike sugar, stevia has zero calories and does not increase your blood sugar in the blood.

The Guarani Indians have been enjoying the unique benefits of using it kaa-he (a native term stevia, which means "sweet herb") long before the Spaniards arrived. The natives commonly used stevia leaves to sweeten the taste of Mate (a bitter drink made from tea) and medicinal potions, or simply eat them. This widespread use of stevia native was reported by the Spaniards in historical documents preserved in the National Archives of Paraguay.

Vote for "stevia discovery" in the 1800s is an Italian botanist, Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, director of the College of Agriculture in Asuncion, Paraguay. Bertoni efforts paved the way for the introduction of stevia outside and beyond of Paraguay in Latin America. Prior to 1900, stevia has only risen in nature, and only those who have access to their natural habitat have been able to eat.

Stevia was first introduced to the United States in 1918 by a botanist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who had learned on the grass drinking mate. However, despite the interest in the beginning, stevia has remained largely unknown in North America.

In 1931 two French chemists isolated stevioside, the compound that gives its sweet stevia, but only a few decades later that the true potential of stevia as a sweetener has been performed in Japan.

Japanese scientists were able to determine the extent stevioside was really helpful and found that the stevia extract has been refined as the ideal replacement for sugar and artificial sweeteners.

In 1988, stevia stevioside and other products accounted for nearly 41% of the market share of alternative sweeteners consumed in Japan. The Japanese have also started to use stevia to sweeten a variety of foods like ice cream, bread, candy, pickles, seafood, vegetables and soft drinks.

Today, the phenomenon of stevia has reached 10 other countries outside South America, including China, Germany, Malaysia, Israel and South Korea. So why is the card still stevia in the U.S.?

For years, the FDA did not allow stevia to be marketed as a natural sweetener, but can not be sold as a dietary supplement. Stevia is the FDA's GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list before the 1980s. He was removed from the GRAS list at about the same time that aspartame came on the scene.

Now, why the good old FDA do something like that? If stevia has been available to the public at the time, which would have dealt a blow to the industry considerable artificial sweeteners, which is backed by companies such as Pfizer, Monsanto and Johnson & Johnson. NutraSweet and Splenda may not have sold as much if consumers have the choice to buy a natural alternative to sugar like Stevia.

The good news is that the FDA has finally approved two versions of stevia-based zero calorie-free sweetener developed by competitors of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Truvia Coca-Cola and Pepsi's PureVia rebiana use both, an extract of the Stevia plant. The entry of these new products on the market is a welcome development. You could soon see soft drinks, ice cream, cereals and other products sweetened with stevia instead of artificial chemical synthetic sweetener.