What is stevia?
Stevia is a tropical plant native to South America. Its extract has up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar. Although some people complain of its staying power in the mouth or its sometimes licorice-like aftertaste, it is a popular natural alternative sweetener. As a sweetener, it is low glycemic and has added benefits in potentially helping to control obesity, enhance glucose tolerance, and reduce blood pressure. You would think that with this kind of pedigree, it would qualify as the perfect sugar substitute and be approved for use as an alternative sweetener everywhere. You would be half right. It is widely used throughout Asia (particularly Japan) and South America — not so in the US, most of Europe, and Canada, where it is banned as a food additive. In the United States, and Canada it’s allowed as a supplement, but not in food. In Europe, it’s only allowed as an additive to animal feed.
The bottom line on aspartame is that its safety record and evaluation record do not even come close to matching the safety of stevia. In fact, FDA’s own evaluation committees rejected aspartame. But in 1983, the Commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, overrode his own committees and approved NutraSweet (aspartame) for soft drinks two months before leaving office. A couple of months later, after he had retired from the FDA, he accepted a position as Senior Medical Advisor to Burson Marsteller, the public relations firm that promoted NutraSweet for G.D. Searle, NutraSweet’s manufacturer — at the rate of $1,000 per day. An unfortunate coincidence, one might say.
Jon Barron