Stevia vs Truvia
How can a green leaf be turned into a white cube?
Stevia is a green plant native to Paraguay & has been used as a sweetener in South America & Asia for hundreds of years. The leaves when steeped in boiling water give a green extremely sweet liquid which has absolutely no calories. The leaves can be bought fresh, dried or in powdered form.
Something natural like a plant can’t be patented so the “Pharma Cartel” came up with a way of extracting part of the plant & fooling us all by marketing that we are buying the same thing. There is big money to be made from the Diet Industry & something calorie free was bound to be attractive.
Years ago I could buy dried Stevia leaves regularly but suddenly they were unavailable in the UK. I was told the EU had decided Stevia needed a novel food licence… shortly afterwards staying at my Daughter’s home in France I saw a huge garden centre full of Stevia plants. Obviously the French take less notice of EU legislation than the UK methinks! It was also banned in the USA for many years.
Truvia is marketed as a natural sweetener an alternative to sugar by Coca Cola. [It also contains erythritol which according to Cargill.com is taste masking agent, a sweetening agent & a filler, diluent, & binder in tablets & capsules]
Stevia tea gets transformed into a crystallised form called Rebiana [an isolated extract from the plant sometimes referred to as Reb-A] by a closely guarded patented process. We do know the process involves ethanol, [which apparently is a neurotoxic psychoactive drug] which is probably heated to unnaturally high temperatures & used as a solvent to extract Rebiana.
There are a couple of other products to be aware of one is Purevia manufactured by PepsiCo [containing erythritol plus isomaltulose & cellulose powder] & the other is the new drink Coca Cola Life which has as its listed ingredients: carbonated water, sugar, colour: caramel e150, flavourings including caffeine & phosphoric acid, sweetener: steviol glycosides [chemical compounds responsible for the sweet taste] Phosphoric acid, incidentally, is added to confuse the brain – its acidity masks the huge amount of sugar that is ingested. The huge amount of sugar would induce vomiting if it wasn’t masked.
Why did Monsanto spend approximately 20 years blocking the FDA’s approval of Stevia? Is it something to do with the coveted GRAS status? [Generally Recognised as Safe]
Politics is again messing with our ability to choose plain plant ingredients & confusing the public with ‘smoke & mirrors’ advertising.
What do you think?
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