Today we have multiple natural alternatives for sugar that add extra sweetness to your foods and drinks, while some of them also come with a range of health benefits. The most popular natural sugar substitute on the market is stevia.

What is Stevia?

Stevia is a sugar substitute that derives from the stevia plant. This is around 100 to 300 times sweeter than regular sugar and contains no carbohydrates, calories or artificial ingredients. It exploded in popularity in the mid-1980s as a natural sweetener for beverages and weight loss blends. Today there are various products that include stevia in different forms – from the low-calorie liquid stevia drops to powders.

What are the Different Types of Stevia?

Depending on the level of processing, you can find stevia in three forms:

• Green leaf stevia: This type of stevia is the least processed one. It’s 30 to 40 times sweeter than regular sugar and is slightly bitter, which is why many people avoid it.
• Stevia extracts: The extracts are less bitter than green leaf stevia and are 200 times sweeter compared to sugar.
• Altered stevia: The altered stevia is around 200 to 400 times sweeter than regular sugar. This is not a favourable form of stevia, as it’s highly processed and often contains GMO ingredients.

Liquid Stevia

On the other hand, depending on the form, you can find powdered and versatile liquid stevia drops. Both of these forms are widely used around the world; however, most wellness enthusiasts prefer it in liquid form.

This type of stevia is more practical and has plenty of flavour options. Instead of using hundreds of grams of sugar for your desserts, only a few drops of your choice of liquid product to add both sweetness and flavour to your creation.

On top of that, you don’t need to worry about the added calories that come with sugar. Apart from deserts, you can also use it to sweeten your beverages or even add flavour to water. With tasty vanilla stevia drops even people who aren’t fans of water would drink up!

Benefits of Using Stevia as a Sugar Substitute

• Helps control diabetes: One of the most common uses of stevia is to regulate blood sugar levels in the body. Diabetics often use natural stevia drops as a replacement for normal sugar to avoid diabetic complications. It’s also a common substitute for people that aim to control the carbohydrate intake in their diet. This allows them to eat sweet foods without worrying about diabetic complications. While sugar contains sucrose, stevia contains stevioside – a non-carbohydrate glycoside compound. When this breaks down, the bacteria in the colon absorb the glucose-containing particles, without letting them go in the bloodstream.

• Aids Weight Loss: The non-caloric property of stevia makes it a popular choice among those who aim to lose weight and fitness enthusiasts in general. It allows you to eat your favourite home-made cookies and cakes without worrying about your figure, as you would when using regular sugar. The liquid stevia drops are also commonly used by parents who want to control the excess sugar content in their children’s diets.

• Helps to regulate blood pressure: The glycosides present in stevia offer many benefits. They help relax the blood vessels, increase urination and help to eliminate sodium from the body. This puts less stress on the cardiovascular system and drops high blood pressure. A well-regulated blood pressure is important for heart health, as it prevents conditions like atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes.

• Possible anticancer potential: Stevia contains many antioxidant compounds. Some researchers link these to a lowered risk of cancers – especially of pancreatic cancer. Compounds such as quercetin, kaempferol and others help to eliminate the free radicals in your body, which prevents them from mutating healthy cells into malignant ones. These antioxidants prevent premature aging and help to keep your skin healthy, by preventing conditions like eczema and dermatitis.

• May help prevent osteoporosis: Unlike sugar, a study shows that stevia can help in increasing bone mineral density. According to the study, stevia has an important role in increasing the metabolism of calcium.

Is Stevia Safe for Children and Pregnant Women?

When people find out about the various benefits of powder and liquid stevia products, they often question if it causes any harmful side effects. Health organizations imply that this supplement is safe to consume for people of all ages. They also suggest that women can safely consume it during pregnancy.

However, if they’re sensitive to sugar alcohols, they should opt for a supplement that doesn’t contain erythritol. Don’t consume whole-leaf stevia and crude stevia extracts! Scientists warn that when you take this supplement in an unprocessed form, you risk doing harm to your kidneys, reproductive system and cardiovascular system.

It can also drop your blood pressure to a dangerously low level and interact with medications for lowering blood pressure. Spice up your diet with a healthy sugar substitute that also adds more flavour to your desserts and beverages!

Great news is sugar substitutes, like the sugar alcohols, can be of help and the reason they are better than other sweeteners, such as aspartame, is because they are natural so if you want to reap the benefits you have to be careful what you’re buying, and look for natural products only.

Let’s take xylitol birch sugar as an example; it’s derived from birch, so it’s 100% natural, it looks and tastes as sweet as sugar, but it’s actually good for your health, considering it has less calories (about 40%) so what’s not to love?!

Other than having the xylitol birch sugar that you can use in recipes you’d be able to find more products containing xylitol, from chewing gums to candy (jams, spreads), drinks, and even dental care products such as toothpaste and mouthwash because unlike sugar this sweetener has positive effects on dental health.

More to the great news is the fact xylitol has a low glycemic index, only 7, which means it’s safe even for people with diabetes because unlike sugar it doesn’t increase the blood sugar and insulin levels. Furthermore, thanks to the low calories, it’s ideal for people with obesity as it helps prevent weight gain.

The benefits don’t end here. As it’s slowly absorbed and is a prebiotic, it’s beneficial for the gut flora, and digestive health in general, as opposed to sugar. Thanks to this, specifically its anti-bacterial properties, it’s a great solution for fighting off yeast infections. Additionally, it helps with ear infections too.

Though more studies are needed, those based on rats have concluded xylitol can be a great ingredient in treating and preventing osteoporosis. Likewise, its antioxidant properties could be of help when neutralising the free radicals and the oxidative stress they cause which is known to have its role in cardiovascular issues and cancer.

Despite all of these benefits, xylitol doesn’t affect everyone the same way so for some people it acts as a laxative and they end up experiencing certain side-effects like bloating and diarrhea. To be on the safe side, don’t consume too much of it all at once and make the transition from sugar slowly to allow your body to react well to the change.

With so much importance given to a healthy lifestyle of a perfect balance between foods and the right amount of exercise, celebrities serve as the role models. If you want to follow up their lead and make the changes you long wished for to not only get a slim figure but also a well-functioning body, you can start by finding the perfect sugar replacement since it will not be easy to give up on it entirely.

It was not until the late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that sweeteners began to be used. While the most popular sweeteners used throughout the years were saccharin and aspartame, stevia is the one whose benefits were long felt by ancient peoples but it is not until recently that all of them were brought to light and if you look up products of this sweetener, you will come across artificial and organic stevia Australia wide.

Breaking Bad fans are probably greatly familiar with stevia thanks to Lydia Rodarte – Quayle who was mad about this specific sweetener. Though it is advisable to include it in your diet, a word of caution is to be able to differentiate between artificial stevia and an organic one. Considering it is extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana plant, natural is the one that can work wonders for your health. When you research a little bit, you will be able to find organic stevia Australia has to offer and start adding it to your meals.

What will easily convince you to supply your kitchen with stacks of this sweetener is it is considerably sweeter than sugar (at least 300 times sweeter) and just a tiny amount of it to your meals will suffice. Along with this it is also calorie free so you can say goodbye to your fear of it being the source for gaining weight and even diabetics can use it. You can rest assured your teeth will also be spared as the sweetener can stop bacteria fermentation which is responsible for dental plaque. Stevia can be found in powder form, liquid, tablets and granular, and whichever you choose is up to you.

One of the strongest medical reasons to switch from sugar to some of its substitutes is its harmful ability to mess up the balance of blood sugar and raise insulin levels;

Sugar is also bad news for the immune system since it suppresses it and literally puts it on hold every time you swallow something loaded with this sweet, white substance;

High insulin levels caused by daily sugar intake may trigger the process of aging way ahead of its natural occurrence;

Xylitol is known to be beneficial for the overall dental health.

Since they do not mess up the insulin levels and are not bad for the teeth, today more and more people opt for these natural sugar substitutes. Stevia is surely one of the most widely used sugar alternatives. Let’s take a look at some of its characteristics.

Stevia Sugar Substitute

If your wish is to take the best possible care for your health without adding much calories to your daily routine, stevia sugar substitute is the most appropriate choice for that purpose. Made 100% from a plant source, this sugar substitute has proven to be safe for use. The only thing you will need to adjust to, is using quite smaller amounts of this sweetener, since it is a lot sweeter than sugar. I am sure you will get used to it very soon as it tastes splendidly.

Stevia is a green leafy plant that is native to South America. It has been proven that this natural sweetener can lower blood pressure, thus help fight diabetes. Stevia sugar substitute can be found in liquid form or as a powder. Its taste may vary due to different types of manufacturing and different brands.

The good news is, we do not have to give up sweets in order to avoid their harmful effects. That is to say, we no longer have to pay sugar’s high prices with our health. We humans are able to put our minds and efforts together and find a way to avoid harm, while retaining the pleasure we were after in the first place. While buying, look for sugar supplements from a reliable company and make sure that they do not contain any chemicals or additives whatsoever.