stevia as a sweetener???

My mom has been using stevia as a natural sweetener for about a year. She swears it's safe & all that, but everything I find online about it conflicts with itself. Does anyone know for sure???​

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I ask because I need to lose weight... 90 pounds, ideally so that my knees will last a few more years. And the calorie-free sweetener has it's appeal for things like baked goods. I know it comes from a plant, but so does opium... so that alone just isn't enough for me to think that it would be okay. ​

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I couldn't care less about the FDA's rulings about this; they don't regulate most herbs out there & I use plenty of them anyway. What I really want to know is... does anyone know of any long-term side-effects of using this on a regular basis? Or any other reason that this would NOT be as good to use as turbinado & raw sugar, or honey???​

love,​

mom​

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I have used stevia but don't know much about it. Have u considered xylitol? Wish u luck with your weight loss

 

I love stevia!!!!!!!! It works great. I only use it for tea but it's because I like the taste better then sugar. Trish????? She knows a lot more about it then I do

 

wasn't there was another stevia thread somewhere around here????
i have never heard anything bad about stevia (i don't listen to the FDA either), but i do study herbs & am unaware of any side negative effects of stevia

 

Trish is here

Read the first couple of pages in the Splenda thread.....

the japanese have used it for a very long time with no known negative effects but they also dont put it in coca cola and things like that that would use large amounts... the fda didnt approve stevia b/c they dont know what the effects would be if coca cola or something started using it as a sweetener...

small amounts for baking, tea, etc. have shown through many years in japan though to be perfectly safe.

 

Ahhhh...... that's what your latest thing is...

 

i've only been using stevia for a couple of weeks now, but haven't had any problems. i researched it beforehand and didn't really find anything bad about it- wanted to be careful because splenda made me pretty sick. i think i've finally gotten the splenda out of my system, though, because i'm feeling better than i have in months.
stevia tastes amazing in tea, btw, and is entirely decent in hot cereal/coffee/etc. it's actually been fine in everything i've tried it in so far....

 

yay for herbs!!!!

 

I like the stevia plus packets that you can take with you they have a quarter of all your daily fiber in one packet so you have to mix it really well.

 

I use it all the time. There are no problems. It's a helluva lot safer than sugar, or Splenda. Most sugar-free sweeteners like Splenda and Nutrasweet are made form Aspartame, which is horrible for you.

Not horrible for your like you might think, like too much trans-fat is horrible for your, but really horrible. 10% or so of the consumed amount breaks down into methanol in your stomach. Methanol is the ingredient in strong moonshine that causes blindness. There are so very many terrible effects caused by it. Don't use it.

That was a tangent. But yes, use Stevia, it's a great sweetener that won't kill you.