Stevia snippets

Why Stevia shows promise in fighting hypertension, obesity, and diabetes epidemics.

• For centuries, the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil used stevia, which they called ka’a he’ê (“sweet herb”), as a sweetener in yerba mate and medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments
• Stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, even enhancing glucose tolerance; therefore, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets
• Possible treatment of osteoporosis has been suggested by the patent application claim that eggshell breakage can be reduced by 75% by adding a small percentage of stevia leaf powder to chicken feed
• Medical research has found that Stevia shows promise in treating obesity and hypertension, even having an enhancing glucose tolerance.
• 1970s, Japan began cultivating Stevia as an alternative to artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, which were suspected carcinogens.
• It has also been suggested that pigs fed stevia extract had twice as much calcium content in their meat, but these claims have been unverified.

Source:   Wikipedia   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

PS  Have you also heard that Stevia is dangerous and toxic?  Here’s a report from the WHO.

In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) performed a thorough evaluation of recent experimental studies of stevioside and steviols conducted on animals and humans, and concluded “stevioside and rebaudioside A are not genotoxic in vitro or in vivo and that the genotoxicity of steviol and some of its oxidative derivatives in vitro is not expressed in vivo.”

The report also found no evidence ofcarcinogenic activity. Furthermore, the report noted “stevioside has shown some evidence of pharmacological effects in patients with hypertension or with type-2 diabetes”, but concluded further study was required to determine proper dosage.

The WHO’s Joint Experts Committee on Food Additives has approved, based on long-term studies, an acceptable daily intake of steviol glycoside of up to 4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.