In honor of winter, which brings along everyone’s favorite white powder (unless you’re lucky enough to live in Miami…), today’s post is about a different sort of white powder: Stevia
What are your thoughts on sugar?
I’ll go first: I’m a bit wary of including a lot of sugar in my diet, not because of the calories (if anything, I try to eat as many calories as I can, not as few), but because of how sugar made me feel in the past. However, this doesn’t mean I don’t think sugar can be part of a healthy diet.
Sweeteners
Why is sugar perceived to be so bad?
The media gives a bad name to sugar, but the truth is that if one isn’t trying to lose weight (and even if one is), there is absolutely no harm in including some sugar in one’s everyday diet. Sure, it’s devoid of nutrition, but that doesn’t mean it has negative nutrition (as long as you brush your teeth thoroughly). Also, some sugars, like maple syrup and blackstrap molasses do have nutritional value. Blackstrap molasses is an exceptionally-high source of iron, and it also contains calcium, potassium, copper, and magnesium. In other words, it’s a super sugar!
The main reason people are told to cut back on sugar is that they eat sugary foods instead of nutrient-dense ones. But unless you have diabetes or another such illness, I’d argue that as long as you’re getting enough nutrients in your diet, there’s nothing wrong with eating non-nutritious, sugary foods too. Sugar may not help you get in more nutrients, but it certainly won’t hurt you or take away the nutrients you are getting. (I’m not a doctor, so take my opinion with a grain of salt sugar ;).)
What about artificial sweeteners?
I admit that I don’t have much experience with these. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever tried Splenda or any products containing it. My only encounters with artificial sweeteners: When I was younger, I hated soda (still do); therefore, at restaurants, my habit was to order iced tea. My mom told me that Sweet-n-Low dissolved better than regular sugar in iced tea, so I’d use that. But I kept getting stomach aches, so my doctor recommended I try nixing the Sweet-n-Low. Surprise: the stomach aches went away! Maybe it was a coincidence, but maybe–on the other hand–my stomach was trying to tell me that people aren’t supposed to ingest dangerous chemicals in place of real food!
What about stevia? Is it safe?
As I said before, I’m not a doctor, so I can only tell you my opinion. I’ve heard the lab-rat studies that claim to show stevia is unsafe. But honestly, I think those studies are flawed because the rats were fed HUGE amounts of stevia, and anything in such a high quantity will produce negative results. (Did you know that too much broccoli can cause acid poisoning? Or that too much cinnamon damages the liver?) Stevia, an herb, has been used for centuries in South America and Japan to sweeten teas and other foods, without evidence of harm. So looking at historical evidence, it seems as if stevia—when used sparingly—is harmless.
Next up:
Ways I use sugar, followed by ways I use stevia. Without much of a sweet tooth, I don’t really use much of either. But I feel that there’s a place for both in a healthy diet. Variety is the spice of life, right? Well, that and some good-quality onion powder ;).
Cupcakes look great! I’d love to try some of the Artisana products! All over the net and I can’t get them :/ Haha when you said that today was about a different kind of white powder, cocaine was all I could think of haha but I know thats not what you meant (or was it?) 😛 Thanks for the post x
I think your supply of NuNaturals will last you for years! lol!
There is a problem with sugar consumption in America and other places as well. It’s like everything we eat, well processed foods anyways, have some form of sugar in it. We just need to learn to eat less of the sweet stuff for our over all health. I guess that goes back to the whole foods way of eating is the best.
When it comes to sugars and artificial sweeteners I choose organic sugar, maple syrup or agave. I’ve tried stevia years ago and wasn’t a fan but I was never a fan of artificial sweeteners anyways, funny taste. I think when you change something chemically, it’s just not a good thing for you, because these sweeteners are chemicals that you are ingesting. I think stevia might be the better choice than splenda and all of the others if you want a sugar alternative.
Here’s a story of too much consumption of Splenda. My mother-in-law drinks hot tea, like all day long, and she’ll put like 2-3 packs of splenda in it. I accidentally picked up her tea mug one day and took a sip, I almost gagged it was so flippen sweet! Anyways she is a good example of using way to much sweetener because she is consuming large amounts everyday! Can you say toxic!!! I just gotta think that it’s not helping all of her health issues that she’s got going on.
I have mixed feelings on the subject. I like stevia, and probably use about 4 single-serving packets a week. I’m a little concerned because I heard it was linked to infertility. I do think it is fine in small amounts…
I used to be totally addicted to diet soda. I was hooked at a young age and drank 3-4 cans a day for years, but then I gave it up cold-turkey about 3 years ago. I also used to bake with Splenda and ate just about anything sweetened with it, mostly because I was trying to lose weight. Now, I just eat smaller portions of things with real sugar. I generally eat one “dessert” per week. Note: I don’t consider fudge babies as dessert, hahaha! 🙂
I used to LOVE splenda. As in, I put everything that could use a little oomph. Only recently have I kicked that habit in favor of real sugar, agave, stevia or simply no sweetener at all. I’m not entirely opposed to artificial sweeteners–and I won’t NOT eat something because it is made with splenda–because I simply don;t think scientists know enough to make any sort of conclusive statement. I wanted to cut back because I was using, uhhh, 10 packets a day? No bueno. And while I don’t think scientists know enough to say Splenda’s going to kill us, I also don’t think they know enough to ensure that it’s safe.
My opinions on sugar have never really changed in that i consider natural sugars found in fruits (fructose) safe and harmless and i consume large quantities of fruit every week! But i try to limit any evaporated cane juices, brown rice syrup or any other kind of “sugar” in the foods that i eat along side. Artificial sweeteners of any kind are a huge sin in my house and i think this should be the same way world-wide. They are chemicals, period. Stevia: i wouldn’t consider artificial, but rather group it with all of the other natural plant-derived “sugars” that can be found throughout. Question: Where did you find your info on Broccoli and Cinnamon. I eat a lot and your info concerns me, lol… source? 😉
I think fake sugars (Splenda, Nutra Sweet, etc.) are dangerous. As you said, they are chemicals, and we should avoid chemicals as much as possible. I’d rather eat real sugar than fake!
I do like Stevia. I don’t use it often – I stick to honey and brown rice syrup, usually. But it is nice to have.
In drinks, I ingest fake sugar before real sugar. Most of the day I drink water, but in my one cup of tea or occasional soda, it’s splenda (or diet whatever for soda). Always decaf though! Total tangent: don’t quit caffeine unless you REALLY want to, as now I have ONE ice tea or ONE soda and I am bouncing off the walls for hours. It’s hard to find anything out and about to drink that has no caffeine and no sugar. Two cups of decaf coffee will do it to me too, but I’m actually coffee free since October – I don’t really miss it but geez, the smell gets me sometimes.
I don’t have a huge sweet tooth either, but when I do have desert, it’s usually just a small portion of something like a hershey kiss or a half cup of ice cream. So I’m split – I don’t like drinking my calories so I stay away from it in liquid form, but I definitely think that it’s also not necessary to eliminate sugar from your diet if it doesn’t cause you issues and you can moderate your intake well (also not a doctor so take that as you will).
I have grown to love stevia and use it daily – lots of times, daily.
Sadly I found this: http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/webpage/stevia that states that the EC has banned the sale of it in the uk (sorry if I just repeated something someone else said- no time today to read 32 comments 🙂 ) That’s my only concern. Wah. 🙁
Great topic! I recently heard bad things about agave, which i haven’t looked into… but man, studies can be skewed either way. i was once hooked on crystal light, but realized it was making me hungrier and thirstier, so i’ve stopped that for the most part. never tried stevia, although i’m interested!
I used to be a splenda freak…but kind of cut out artificial sweeteners when I realized that I was eating a very unbalanced diet. However, I’ve really been wanting to try stevia for a while!