Stevia is a plant with naturally sweet tasting leaves. Unfortunately, when you plant the stevia seeds, only a few will sprout so our wonderful world of technology (sarcasm) decided to start modifying and cloning this plant to meet the needs of the world against real sugar. Some countries have restricted the use of Stevia as a sweetener. Stevia sweeteners also contain erythritol and rebiana.
Although I didn't do a ton of research on Erythritol,what I did find that it is very difficult for the intestinal bacteria to digest.
Rebiana is also the main ingredient in Truvia. Coca Cola's patent describes a 42-step procedure to derive Rebiana from the stevia leaves, using such country chemicals as acetone, methanol, acetonitrile, isopropanol, tert-butanol and "mixtures thereof". Truvia calling their product "natural" seems to be false advertisement.
The extraction process of the stevia plant includes using ethanol or methanol. Studies in 1985 show the components of stevia sweetener causing DNA mutations in the liver (mutagens). Mutations cause cancer which makes mutagens likely to be carcinogens. Although the majority (but not all) of more recent studies show minimal negative effects as well as implying possible benefits of reversing diabetes.
In 1991, the FDA labels stevia as an unsafe food additive. In 2008 (after years of stress from organizations and companies), the FDA finally gave a "no objection" approval for Truvia (made by CocaCola) and PureVia (developed by PepsiCo). Both companies use rebaudioside A, derived from the stevia plant.
I'm here to give my opinion on the information I find. I say, if it was found to be dangerous to your health once, how could it be beneficial now? I think it's only a matter of time before this gets put on par with aspartame. Don't risk it.
Resources: Wikipedia.com
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