Part 1
Any observation around health and nutrition will generally identify “fads” that most sheep will take advantage of and that companies will exploit to gain greater market share in the name of “better health.” This has been the case for a long time and will likely continue in the future.
The last great “Thang” seems to be Stevia. Why? Really simple, since it is a natural plant that is traditionally grown in South America and avoids all the adverse problems that can occur when consuming sugar. The active compounds are steviol glycosides that contain up to 150 times the sweetness of sugar and the stevioside compound contains most of the beneficial properties despite the bitter aftertaste.
The type of Stevia that is used to produce products for the human market contains rebaudioside A, which is the most highly extracted compound and is used in stevia powders and sweeteners.
Fantastic you could say! Bingo, we get the best of both worlds – a healthy alternative to sugar and something that tastes great too!
Wait a minute, not so fast …
Did you know that most of the Stevia sweeteners on the market contain corn erythritol, dextrose, and other artificial sweeteners? Second, powdered Stevia sweeteners go through a large number of steps during processing, which can include bleaching and chemical alteration.
One of the problems with raw Stevia is the bitter aftertaste caused by the compound Stevioside. So the reality is that there has to be a processing of this plant to remove the unpleasant bitter taste that occurs naturally in the plant.
So, despite not having been extensively studied, powdered and bleached Stevia undergoes an extensive chemical process to reach its final white powder form.
In Canada, you are not allowed to call Stevia a natural sweetener, such is the complicated production process. Your food agency says:
“Sterol glycosides are not considered a natural ingredient due to their significant processing and the types of solvents used for their extraction and purification. Claims that create the impression that sterol glycoside itself is natural are not permitted. Therefore Therefore, the sterol glycosides described as a natural sweetener are not allowed. “
Various solvents can be used in processing and can include chemicals such as chloroform, hexane, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, aluminum sulfate, etc.
How attractive does that sound?
On the other hand, the heating and cooling that occurs in the processing is enough to make you think about how “natural” the Stevia product is on the supermarket shelves or dare I say “Health” in the store.
Having said all that, processed Stevia is bad for you, well no, but maybe it is too. (More on this in Part 2)