Food Fundamentals - Natural Sweeteners - Stevia

Stevia is an intensive sweetener made form the leaves of a South American plant commonly known as, well, stevia, or Stevia rebaudiana. It's been used for centuries in South America to sweeten mate tea. The active ingredient in stevia is stevioside.

Stevia has no calories and is considered safe for use by diabetics. It's a great substitute for artificial sweeteners and has similar properties. Intensive sweeteners like stevia (the other commonly known intensive sweetener is licorice root) are often imperfect replacements for table sugar.

Stevia can be used in both cooking and baking as well as for uncooked foods such as cold cereal or to sweetened hot or cold beverages. Stevia does not carmelize like sugar does, so you'll need to adjust your recipes that use sugar if you want to substitute stevia when baking.

Here's a link to the Sweet Leaf Stevia website with recipes using stevia.

Here's a link to Stevia Liquid and Stevia powder at shopOrganic.com.

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