Are There Really Stevia Dangers?
Be aware of stevia dangers and how they can affect you, at least that is what some people are saying. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t actually approved its use but gave “letters of no objection” saying it would seek to govern its use in drinks and food. NPR announced a while back that also claimed that stevia had been approved for use. Pharmaceutical companies of course have to be involved since were talking big money here, even Coca Cola has decided to introduce a drink sweetened by stevia. So, I think the answer to our “stevia dangers” is, there aren’t any.
The funny thing here is that sugar has had numerous studies done that has shown how bad it is for you, same with aspartame, splenda, saccharine, etc… studies have shown time and time again the harm these can do to you but yet have been approved by the FDA. I’m not a chemist nor claim to be one but I do feel that sometimes products get a bad rap for no reason and that stevia is one of these times. This article isn’t to cover the scientific angles of sweeteners a quick Google search will come up with thousands or articles written be people way more qualified than me on the subject. My goal for this article is to give you a broad understanding of stevia.
What exactly is stevia? It’s a perennial shrub native to Paraguay, used for hundreds of years by the Guarani Indians to sweeten their tea. Initially when brought public there was quite a bit of lash back by the sugar industry since they felt threatened. Even later the FDA tried to stop the consumption of stevia which was being used by quite a few companies in their teas. It was even classified an “unsafe food additive.” Stevia all but disappeared until around 1994 when other countries like Brazil, China, Japan, Malaysia, and Germany began consuming it.
Now we know there are some direct health benefits from the use of stevia. Studies have shown that it can aid in digestion and the biggest factor is that it can be safely consumed by diabetics without affecting their blood sugar levels we’ll talk more about this later as I feel that this is one of the main benefits of the consumption of stevia over other sweeteners including sugar, sucralose, fructose, etc…
Why do we want to control our blood sugar levels? Blood sugar or glucose level is the amount of sugar in the blood. This comes from what we drink and eat or what’s stored in our bodies. Getting high blood sugar is a result of our bodies not able to produce insulin or can’t respond to the insulin we do make. We need this to allow us to store glucose in our cells where it can be used for energy. So having something like stevia that doesn’t affect our sugar levels is golden to a diabetic. Even if you don’t have diabetes though there are many benefits of not having your blood sugar spiking. These benefits can be higher energy levels, ability to concentrate better, less apt to fatigue, and an overall feeling of wellness.
So are there real stevia dangers? Maybe, here are some research studies done and their findings I’ll let you be the judge on if they are applicable to you or not:
- Reproductive Difficulties – In 2006 there was a study done in Europe that said that stevia “May” affect the male reproductive organs. This showed that when rats were fed high doses of stevioside for long periods of time sperm production was greatly reduced. Another study showed that hamsters that were fed a large amount of steviol (a derivative of stevia) found that female hamsters had fewer offspring.
- Cancer – Some preliminary studies were linked to cancer. Labs were able to convert steviol into a carcinogen that may promote cancer. Overall scientists are split on this issue and feel that much more testing is needed to come to a conclusive decisison.
- Metabolism – Again a large amount of steviosides proved to interfere with the conversion of carbohydrates within some animals.
In conclusion, with all the tests conducted the bottom line is that there is no valid information on way or another whether stevia dangers really exist or not. I think personally that as it has been used for hundreds of years and does have proven effects on not affecting blood sugar, that it sets itself as a great alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners.
