Stevia Extract 100% PURE Product 1x 150g tub
Stevia Extract "Nature's Other Sweetener"
2-300 x sweeter than sugar & healthy for you too !
Did you know that the average Australian eats over 70 kilos of white sugar every year ?
This represents 20 to 25 per cent of our daily caloric intake.
Sucrose (common table sugar) does not contain vitamins, minerals or fibre, and in 20 per cent of the population, sucrose will increase the risk of heart disease due to elevated serum triglycerides (fat).
In addition to its contribution to obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity and other disorders, sugar can also predispose the body to yeast infections, aggravate some types of arthritis and asthma, and cause tooth decay.
And did you know eating excess sugar can also contribute to depression and other mood disorders ?
Much of our nation's obesity epidemic is due to the over consumption of foods that contain sugar.
Using Stevia to sweeten snacks and beverages can result in making weight loss and management easier. Stevia is 2-300 times sweeter than sugar and is considered to have no calories, carbohydrates, sugar, fat or cholesterol.
Stevia is perfect for replacing sugar in the diet as well as those very dangerous artificial sweeteners.
Cooking with Stevia does require a learning curve, but since the advantages of reducing sugar in your diet (as well as eliminating your consumption of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners) are so important, it's well worth the effort.
The most important thing to remember is not to use too much, which can result in excessive sweetness and an aftertaste. Always start with the exact amount called for in a recipe, or even a little less, then taste before you add any more. Stevia is delicious in almost any recipe using fruit or dairy products, but does present a bit of a challenge when used for baking, since it lacks sugar's abilities to add texture, help soften batter, caramelize, enhance the browning process, and feed the fermentation of yeast. On the other hand, one of the excellent facets of stevia is that high temperatures do not affect its sweetening properties.
So what is Stevia ?
(Stevia rebaudiana bertoni), a small plant that grows throughout Latin America as well as parts of the southwestern United States is becoming much sought after for its sweet leaves and flower buds. It has been used for hundreds of years as a sweetener in South America and now has wide commercial value in Japan , where it is put in everything from soft drinks to soy sauce. With thirty times the sweetness of sugar yet with negligible calories, this herb is expected by Japanese researchers to be the main natural sweetener of the future.
Because Stevia is a whole herbal food, it contains other properties that nicely complement its sweetness. A report from the Hiroshima University School of Dentistry indicates that Stevia actually supresses dental bacteria growth rather than feeding it as sugars do. Other studies have shown a a beneficial relationship between Stevia and the regulation of blood sugar levels which means that it is certainly safe and may even be beneficical for people with hypoglycemia or diabetes.
The extract of the Stevia plant is a white, crystalline powder taken from the leaves and is approximately 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. This sweetness is not affected by heat so it can be used in teas and other hot beverages, in the canning of fruits and the baking of cakes and deserts.
In Japan , Stevia has been used extensively in food and beverages for the last twenty five years with approval from the Japanese equivalent of our ANZFA. Not a single report of side effects or adverse effects of any kind have been reported in Japan . Paraguayans have continuously used Stevia for over 1500 years with no reported ill effects.
If you are a diabetic or care for someone who is, you can feel safe knowing that Stevia is perfect for the diabetic or hypoglycemic. Stevia provides ideal sweetening properties without the use of sugar for those who cannot or choose not to consume any form of sugar. This is true regardless of the levels of consumption.
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Stevia
Species: rebaudiana
Common Name: Stevia, sweet leaf of Paraguay ,
Part Used: Leaves
Stevia is a perennial shrub that grows up to 1 m tall and has leaves 2-3 cm long. It belongs to the Aster family, which is indigenous to the northern regions of South America . Stevia is still found growing wild in the highlands of the Amambay and Iguacu districts (a border area between Brazil and Paraguay ). It is estimated that as many as 200 species of Stevia are native to South America ; however, no other Stevia plants have exhibited the same intensity of sweetness as S. rebaudiana. It is grown commercially in many parts of Brazil , Paraguay , Uruguay , Central America , Israel , Thailand , and China .
TRIBAL AND HERBAL MEDICINE USES:
For hundreds of years, indigenous peoples in Brazil and Paraguay have used the leaves of stevia as a sweetener. The Guarani Indians of Paraguay call it kaa jheé and have used it to sweeten their yerba mate tea for centuries. They have also used stevia to sweeten other teas and foods and have used it medicinally as a cardiotonic, for obesity, hypertension, and heartburn, and to help lower uric acid levels.
In addition to being a sweetener, stevia is considered (in Brazilian herbal medicine) to be hypoglycemic, hypotensive, diuretic, cardiotonic, and tonic. The leaf is used for diabetes, obesity, cavities, hypertension, fatigue, depression, sweet cravings, and infections. The leaf is employed in traditional medical systems in Paraguay for the same purposes as in Brazil .
Europeans first learned about stevia in the sixteenth century, when conquistadores sent word to Spain that the natives of South America were using the plant to sweeten herbal tea. Since then Stevia has been used widely throughout Europe and Asia . In the United States , herbalists use the leaf for diabetes, high blood pressure, infections, and as a sweetening agent.
PLANT CHEMICALS
Western interest in stevia began around the turn of the nineteenth century, when researchers in Brazil started hearing about a plant with leaves so sweet that just one leaf would sweeten a whole gourd full of bitter yerba mate tea. It was first studied in 1899 by Paraguayan botanist Moises S. Bertoni, who wrote some of the earliest articles on Stevia (in the early 1900s).
Over 100 phytochemicals have been discovered in Stevia since.
It is rich in terpenes and flavonoids.
The constituents responsible for Stevia's sweetness were documented in 1931, when eight novel plant chemicals called glycosides were discovered and named.
Of these eight glycosides, one called stevioside is considered the sweetest - and has been tested to be approximately 300 times sweeter than sugar.
Stevioside, comprising 6-18% of the stevia leaf, is also the most prevalent glycoside in the leaf. Other sweet constituents include steviolbioside, rebausiosides A-E, and dulcoside A.
The main plant chemicals in stevia include: apigenin, austroinulin, avicularin, beta-sitosterol, caffeic acid, campesterol, caryophyllene, centaureidin, chlorogenic acid, chlorophyll, cosmosiin, cynaroside, daucosterol, diterpene glycosides, dulcosides A-B, foeniculin, formic acid, gibberellic acid, gibberellin, indole-3-acetonitrile, isoquercitrin, isosteviol, jhanol, kaempferol, kaurene, lupeol, luteolin, polystachoside, quercetin, quercitrin, rebaudioside A-F, scopoletin, sterebin A-H, steviol, steviolbioside, steviolmonoside, stevioside, stevioside a-3, stigmasterol, umbelliferone, and xanthophylls.
CURRENT PRACTICAL USES:
For nearly 20 years, millions of consumers in Japan and Brazil , where stevia is approved as a food additive, have been using stevia extracts as safe, natural, non-caloric sweeteners.
Japan is the largest consumer of stevia leaves and extracts in the world, and there it is used to sweeten everything from soy sauce to pickles, confections, and soft drinks.
Even multinational giants use stevia extracts to sweeten foods (as a replacement for NutraSweet and saccharin) for sale in Japan , Brazil , and other countries where it is approved as a food additive.
Beware of highly dangerous aspartame type sweeteners.
By the way, were you aware that there is quite damming evidence that Aspartame actually makes you fatter & is a "poison" to your body
Aspartame Toxicity Center : http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
