How many of you use Stevia instead of sugar?
By nanajanet
@nanajanet (4436)
United States
December 17, 2008 10:18pm CST
I like to use Stevia but sometimes I find a bit of an aftertaste in some of it. After reading this article, http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/16/stevia-the-holy-grail-of-sweeteners.aspx, I have to test around and see which one is the best.
Sometimes I use Steviva, which is a blend of Stevia and sugar alcohols, which is fine for me, but my sister has a hard time with the sugar alcohols.
I would like to find out if any of you found one that has no aftertaste and what form you like best. Also, when you are substituting in recipes, what works best for you?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@snowy22315 (208913)
• United States
18 Dec 08
I'm not sure. I like splenda and splenda sugar blend. i don't know that I have ever had Stevia. I like sugar and sugar subsitutes. I guess Stevia is probably the healthiest choice as much as possible.
2 people like this
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
18 Dec 08
I am cutting back on Splenda. It causes me to have severe headaches and from what I am learning about it, I think that not enough is known. It is still processed and Sucralose (Splenda) is derived from sugar through a patented, multi-step process that selectively substitutes three chlorine atoms for three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule. The tightly bound chlorine atoms create a molecular structure that is exceptionally stable. So it removes hydrogen and adds chlorine to sugar molecules and that scares me. Chlorine?
I still have it in some things I eat but I am cutting back a lot. When I eat little or none, no headaches.
Here is one of many links I found with issues about Splenda.
http://www.splendaexposed.com/articles/splenda_toxicity/
Just thought that I would share this.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
18 Dec 08
I very rarely eat salt. The only salt I use is if it is a ready-made dish, but my husband has cut back on it's use. I do not salt foods and since most of our food is fresh, it is not an issue. I rarely eat cold cuts, too, due to the amount of salt.
There are times when a dish has high salt, but it is so rare for me to have it that, just like Splenda, if done in moderation, it is fine.
Even with sugar, I noticed that when we were in Italy this summer that they use raw sugar and had none of the affects that processed sugar causes for me.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
18 Dec 08
What form did you use? There is liquid, powered, and granulated. When I use the blend, it seems the best but wanted to find out what others had as far as experiences.
1 person likes this
@Barbietre (1438)
• United States
19 Dec 08
The liquid form is sweeter. But here is another alternative, "tastes just like sugar" is it's name, cooks, sautes, carmelizes and measures just like sugar. No bitterness, no bad side effects. It is made from Chickory root and orange peel.
1 person likes this
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
22 Dec 08
There is another sweetener I just received a sample of called "Just Like Sugar". It was very good but I do not know if I can cook with it. I have to look more into it. It is also all natural.
@Barbietre (1438)
• United States
18 Dec 08
I know every form a sweetener has it's downsides but sugar is still more of a killer than any other form of sweetner. To make splenda the bad guy because some people have a reaction to it is very unsound. There are so called studies that "prove" stevia causes cancer.Does that mean it is true? No. Some studies do stupid overkill types of studies and then try to generalize the outcome. If a mouse is feed ground up plastic bottles at an alarmingly high rate and gets cancer they conclude the pastic caused it. Well maybe, but how many mice do you know that ingest that much plastic? And just because we have similar DNA as a mouse you can not always jump to conclude it also applies to humans. The mice they use in studies are not true typical mice. They are an inbred variety because they are easier to work with. And inbreeding causes some cancers anyhow.
And some of the cases quoted in that article, have you read each individual "study"? We can not extrapolate to the general public when one person has a reaction to something. Take as an example penicillin which you and I are allergic to. Should they ban it because of this? Of course not because we are all different and react to things differently. But also when looking at a single person and blaming one single thing for the reaction, it has to be carefully looked at. ALL other items in their diet has ro be eliminated completely so they can be sure if it is that item and not something else. And then there also might be other factors outside in the environment that could also be contaminating the outcome.
Besides if you eat moderate amounts of things ( and sometimes that includes sugar) it will have no ill effect on you. But the thing is with sugar is that starches and other things convert to sugar in our bodies, so eating one cookie a day may not hurt you, but when added to potatoes, pasta and breads, that adds up to a huge amount.
1 person likes this
