Stevia plant. Grow your own.

 The FDA has handled the subject of searches and seizures, trade complaints and embargoes on importation, at times as if stevia were an illegal drug. 

 Since the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), stevia can be sold legally in the United States, but only as a "dietary supplement." Canada also has a strange law where Stevia can be sold as a “food additive but not as a sweetener. Even so, it can be found in many forms in most health-food stores, and is also incorporated into drinks, teas and other items. (All labeled as "dietary supplements").  It cannot, however, be called a "sweetener" or even referred to as "sweet."  To do so would render the product "adulterated," according to the FDA, and make it again subject to seizure.

Fifteen times sweeter than sugar with no calories and a glycemic index of 0, the powdered leaf of Sterva rebaudiana has recently become highly sought after as a super sweet, low-calorie supplement throughout Asia and South America. Stevioside, a natural extract of the stevia leaf that is 300 times sweeter than sugar, has become even more popular, especially in Japan and Korea.

Stevia and stevioside, however, are more than just safe, non-caloric, intensely sweet herbal supplements. Several modern clinical studies suggest that stevia may have the ability to lower and balance blood sugar levels, support the pancreas and digestive system, protect the liver, and combat infectious microorganisms (Oviedo et al., 1971; Suzuki et al., 1977; Ishit et al., 1986; Boeckh, 1986; Alvarez, 1986).

But stevia is more than just a natural low-calorie, low glycemic, super sweet supplement. Unlike nutrient-empty synthetic sugar substitutes, stevia is loaded with vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, niacin, riboflavin, zinc, chromium, and selenium.

Stevia is also one of the oldest, safest, and most highly esteemed South American herbs known, with a centuries-long history of safe use.

Called yerba dulce (honey leaf) by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay, stevia has been used in native medicines and foods for hundreds of years. However, stevia was unknown outside of South America until 1899, when it was introduced to the West by Italian botanist Moises S. Bertoni, who found that "a fragment of the leaf suffices to keep the mouth sweet for hours."

By 1921, stevia was being hailed by American trade commissioner George Brady as a "new sugar plant with great commercial possibilities." He was so convinced that it made "an ideal and safe sugar for diabetics," that he presented it to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Stevia's role as a commercial sweetener first began to be seriously considered during the Second World War. Suffering severe sugar shortages, Great Britain began cultivating stevia as a sugar alternative under the auspices of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, the project was abandoned with reintroduction of cheap cane and corn sugar at the conclusion of the war.

However, other countries were intrigued with the possibility of using stevia as a non-caloric sweetener and as a replacement for potentially toxic, synthetic substitute sugars like saccharin. When Japan banned the importing of synthetic sweeteners in the 1960's, the Japanese National Institute of Health began researching both stevia and stevioside as possible natural replacements. This prompted a series of high-quality studies to examine both the safety and stability of stevia leaf extract and stevioside (the super sweet glycoside derived from stevia) in order to determine their suitability for sweetening commercial foods. All of the studies found that stevioside had no negative impact on any physical function after an extensive series of tests were conducted. The only side effect noted was a decrease in body weight (Okumura et al., 1978; Lee et al., 1979).

More recent studies have found stevioside to be not only safe, but also to reduce the incidence of breast tumor and kidney damage when consumed on a long-term basis. A high-quality study conducted by Dr. Toyoda of the National Institute of Health in Japan found that even when used in doses as high as 5 percent of the diet for two years, stevioside had no side effects on laboratory rats except for a slight loss of weight, reduced risk of cancer, and an improvement in kidney function (Toyoda et al., 1997).

Other researchers found that stevioside was highly stable to both heat and acid. When heated to 100°C for one hour in pHs ranging from 3 to 9, over 98 percent of the stevioside remained unchanged (Ochi, 1979; Fujita and Edahiro, 1979a). It even remained stable when heated to 100°C at a pH of 3 for 5 hours (Abe and Sonobe, 1977).

In the late 1970s a consortium of large Japanese food producers began to incorporate stevioside as a non-caloric sweetener in numerous food products ranging from soy sauce to seafood. By 1979, Japan was using over 700 tons of stevia a year.

During the 1980s stevioside expanded into Japanese soft drink market, eventually being used as a sweetener in Diet Coke sold in Japan. Although it was later replaced with aspartame when Coca Cola decided to standardize its sweeteners worldwide, stevioside continued to gain acceptance as a safe, non-caloric sweetener in numerous other foods in Japan. Today, 52 percent of all commercially sweetened products in Japan contain stevioside.

Following Japan's lead, other countries began adopting stevia as a sweetening agent. China, Korea, Taiwan, and Israel began actively importing and producing stevia extracts for inclusion in foods.

In 1994, the FDA permitted the importation and use of stevia as a dietary supplement in the United States. However, its acceptance by American consumers has been slow because the FDA does not currently permit stevia to be marketed as a food additive, only as a dietary supplement. Stevia also faces opposition by the artificial sweetener and sugar industry in the U.S. even though stevia's safety and stability have been shown in numerous studies, including a University of Chicago clinical trial (Pezutto 1985).

Unlike traditional sucrose based sweeteners, stevioside does not promote tooth decay, actually inhibiting the growth of Streptococcus mutans, bacteria associated with promoting tooth decay (Berry et al., 1981; Yabu et al., 1977).

Several types of stevia are available, including ground stevia leaf, stevia extract, and stevioside. Of these, stevioside is the sweetest and most popular

Just a few of many comments about Stevia.

"According to the Herb Research Foundation, numerous scientists, and tens of millions of consumers throughout the world, especially in Japan, the herb is safe and intensely sweet, which could make it a popular non-caloric sweetener."
Rob McCaleb, president, Herb Research Foundation, Boulder, Colo., USA

"...as a scientist with over 15 years researching the safety of stevia and of many other plants used as food or food ingredients, I can assure that our conclusions in these various studies indicate that stevia is safe for human consumption as per intended usage, that is, as a sweetener."
Mauro Alvarez, Ph.D., Brazil

"The petition cites over 120 articles about stevia written before 1958, and over 900 articles published to date. In this well-chronicled history of stevia, no author has ever reported any adverse human health consequences associated with consumption of stevia leaf."
Supplement to GRAS affirmation petition no. 4G0406, submitted by the Thomas J. Lipton Company February 3, 1995

"Stevia leaf is a natural product that has been used for at least 400 years as a food product, principally as a sweetener or other flavoring agent.  None of this common usage in foods has indicated any evidence of a safety problem.  There are no reports of any government agency in any of the above countries indicating any public health concern whatsoever in connection with the use of stevia in foods."
Gras affirmation petition submitted on behalf of the American Herbal Products Association, April 23, 1992

"...various extract forms of stevia have been extensively studied and tested.  These tests include acute, sub-acute, carcinogenic evaluation and mutagenicity studies.  These scientific data, while not directly relevant or required for exemption under the common use in food proviso, nevertheless demonstrate cumulatively that there is no safety problem associated with the use of an extract of stevia. It appears to be extraordinarily safe."
Introduction to GRAS affirmation petition submitted by the American Herbal Products Association, April 23, 1992

"My government is trying to cause the farms of my country to cease growing marijuana and replace these crops with stevia.  This idea is strongly supported by the Drug Enforcement Agency because stevia is an excellent cash crop, grows well in Paraguay...finally and most important, stevia is a completely safe health-promoting herb.  This has been well-demonstrated by its extensive use in Paraguay and Japan, where its refined product known as stevioside, enjoys 41% of the sweetener market."
Juan Esteban Aguirre, Paraguayan Ambassador to the United States, in a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, September 23, 1993

"There are more than 2,000 folders in my office, each with a collection of facts and fables about various medicinal plants. In one of these folders there's an old wrinkled envelope dated 5/19/45. In it are old leaves of Paraguay's..."sweet herb," Stevia rebaudiana. More than 40 years old, one leaf of the Stevia will still sweeten a cup of coffee or tea enough to satisfy my sweet tooth....I predict rough sailing with our FDA for this non-nutritive sweetener.  I hope it will make it."
James A. Duke, former chief of Medicinal Plant Research of the USDA; The Business of Herbs, November/December, 1986
 

"(The FDA action on stevia is) a restraint of trade to benefit the artificial sweetener industry."
Jon Kyl (R), AZ in a 1993 letter to former FDA Commissioner David Kessler about the 1991 stevia "import alert."

"Stevia has a political problem."
Rob McCaleb, president Herb Research Foundation

"I had one guy from the FDA tell me 'if we wanted to make carrots (be) against the law, we could do it.'"
Kerry Nielson, former director of operations at Sunrider International, discussing the 1985 FDA seizure of his company's stevia.