Have you heard of the natural sweetener called stevia yet? If not,
you will soon. The United States Food and Drug Administration
has recently approved stevia extracts for the beverage industry
and there are already plans to release new Coke and Sprite
products containing stevia in countries around the world.
Europe is leading the world in the stevia market, producing
more than 40% of the new stevia-containing products worldwide. Stevia use is on the rise, and the trend promises to continue as consumers search for natural substitutes for processed
sugar, corn syrup and harmful artificial sweeteners.
The stevia plant is a gift from nature. The leaves are 30 times
sweeter than sugar, contain no calories and are actually good for
your teeth! Stevia contains natural anti-plaque and anti-bacterial
agents and one of the first commercial products to contain
stevia was toothpaste. The leaves are used to sweeten bitter
foods and medicines, and stevia extracts are a great alternative
to artificial sweeteners. Unlike many artificial sweeteners, stevia
extracts are not easily broken down by acids, so they can be
added to fruit juice vinegars to make them into ice cream toppings. Stevia is also stable at high temperatures, so it can be used
in baking temperatures of up to 450°F without breaking down.
Artificial sweeteners, on the other hand, will produce toxic
byproducts at such temperatures. Stevia also has many health
benefits, such as helping to stabilize blood sugar levels, and it
has been used in some South American countries as a diabetes
treatment for many, many years.
Unfortunately, the more processing the plant leaves go
through to isolate the pure, “sweet” molecules, the fewer the
“The stevia plant is a gift
from nature. The leaves are
30 times sweeter than sugar,
contain no calories and are
actually good for your teeth!”
health benefits. So a whole-leaf product is by far the best for
those seeking the full range of benefits. Why not do what I did,
grow your own at home? I’ve been growing stevia in my basement in Michigan for many years, and it thrives. Amazingly,
NASA tried to grow stevia as a sugar substitute for their Mission
to Mars project, but it failed. So apparently you don’t have to be
a rocket scientist to grow stevia; you just have to know a couple
of things about the stevia plant.
The first thing I learned when growing stevia in hydroponics
is that it doesn’t like a lot of nitrate-nitrogen. Stevia is native
to the Amambay mountain range on the eastern border of
Paraguay. It has a shallow root system and s [