Used for hundreds of years
by other cultures to
sweeten food and
drinks, stevia has
still yet to catch
on in the modern
North American
diet despite obvious
health benefits. Recently,
a tiny house project in Missouri
showed stevia can help address both
health and economic challenges.
by Peggy Bradley
A
tiny, prototype house used to display how
urban dwellers can grow much of their own
food has proven a single plant can play a big role
in the reduction of refined sugar consumption.
In Fair Play, Missouri, a team at the Institute of
Simplified Hydroponics has grown stevia, a natural
sweetener, at the 220-square-foot home. They found
numerous health issues were avoided by substituting
it for refined sugars. A number of other benefits,
including economic, were also realized.
In the North American diet, sweeteners, usually
supplied by refined white sugar derived from sugar
cane and sugar beet, are recognized as being the
leading factors for chronic diseases such as diabetes
and tooth decay. According to the United States
Department of Agriculture, the average person
consumes 129 pounds of refined sugar annually.
Another source of sweetener, often found in processed
foods and beverages, is high-fructose corn syrup,
which has also been linked to several chronic diseases.
An inspiration for the project came from an
unexpected source. Looking for alternatives, an idea
emerged while the team was in Peru. During a filming
session on Inca agricultural terraces of the Andes, a
local farmer picked some stevia leaf growing wild
and handed leaves to the film crew. He pointed out it
was used as a sweetener and medicine by the local
people. When asked what the medicine was used for,
he enthusiastically replied, “Everything!”
Stevia is a staple of the Guarani people of South
America, who have used it for 1,500 years as their diet
sweetener. Stevia rebaudiana was first identified for
the developed world by Santiago Bertoni, a Swiss
botanist, in 1899.
Maximum Yield
37