FDA approves Stevia

You have probably heard that Stevia has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and were wondering if it was safe.

Let me clear up the first part: the FDA approved extracts of Stevia and not Stevia itself:

The FDA approved:

Cargill Inc’s: Truvia zero-calories sweetener

Whole Earth Sweetener Co: PrueVia

Truvia contains:

• Erythritol: is a very low calorie natural sweetener (similar to xylitol)
• Rebiana: is a trade name for rebaudioside A (Reb-A) a steviol glycoside that is thought to be responsible for the sweet taste of Stevia

PrueVia contains:

• Stevia extract (97% Pure Reb A)

How Safe is it?

While there were a few studies that showed that rebaudioside and other glycosides in Stevia had the potential to cause cancers, these studies have mostly be debunked. Most toxicology tests show that it causes no harm in laboratory testing.

Stevia itself has been shown to actually help improve insulin sensitivity, thereby having the potential to prevent conditions such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that an extract of an herb is not the herb itself. While it might be safe to take an herb, it may not be safe to take a concentrated form of only one part of the herb (such as using rebaudioside A). The truth is that we won’t know until a lot of people start taking it, and thanks to Coke and Pepsi who will be putting Truvia and PrueVia into products soon, we will get a chance to see just how safe taking large amounts of these extracts is.

My thought is that since these sweeteners are naturally based and Stevia has been used for hundreds of years, it is probably safe to use these new sweeteners as long as you are not overdoing it.

Let’s take a look at both natural and artificial sweeteners and see what they do for our health for a complete guide to sugars.

What is a sugar?

The first thing you need to know is what makes a food a sugar. While my book, Sugarettes, has a much more complete description, I will briefly describe what sugars are here.

Sugars are carbohydrates and are the simplest form of carbohydrates; you can think of the sugars as building blocks on which all other carbohydrates are built. Sugars are generally either monosaccharides (mono meaning “one” and saccharide meaning “sugar”) or disaccharides (di meaning “two”) and consist of either one or two molecules stuck together. You have probably heard of many of these sugars: fructose, glucose, maltose, sucrose… From the point of view of your body, these sugars all do the same thing: raise your blood sugar. Your body has a preference for glucose and will convert all the other sugars into glucose so that the cells of the body can use the energy stored in the glucose molecule.

Guide to Sugars

I’m going to break the sugars into two different categories: processed and natural. In truth, all sugars are processed because they don’t appear in nature in such a concentrated form (except for honey – which is processed by bees). You will, however, see many manufactures use the so-called natural sugars as a selling point for their products, so I thought it would be helpful to separate them for you.

PROCESSED SUGARS

• Glucose: when we talk about blood sugar, this is what we are measuring. While it would be nice to be able to measure all sugars in the blood stream, this is all we can currently measure. Glucose is easily taken up by the cells of the body and used as a fuel source for all energy production.
• Fructose: Fructose is the twin brother to glucose and is the so-called “fruit sugar” because it is found in many fruits. The chemical structure of fructose is identical to glucose, it just has a different shape. That small difference is actually a big deal. Fructose tastes much sweeter that glucose and is used by the body differently.
• Sucrose: Sucrose is white table sugar and is a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule stuck together to form a disaccharide.
• Maltose: is two glucose molecules stuck together. It usually forms in the gut when starches are digested and is an important step in the creation of alcohol. Manufactures do use maltose in foods, but it is about 1/3 as sweet as sucrose.
• Lactose: Lactose is the sugar found in milk and milk products.
• High fructose corn syrup: High fructose corn syrup is the sweetener of choice for many food manufactures. It is cheap and tastes sweeter than sucrose. There are many scientists who are starting to question the health hazards of high fructose corn syrup.
• Maltodextrin: Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide (larger than a disaccharide) that is easily broken down into glucose on digestion. It is generally used as a sort of “glue” when food manufactures are looking to hold a product together.
• Dextrose: This is the same as glucose.
• Dextrin: Dextrins are larger chains of glucose molecules stuck together, an example is maltodextrin.
• Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is either slightly unrefined white sugar or white sugar that has molasses added back into it.

NATURAL SUGARS

• Turbinado sugar:  Turbinado sugar is made by pressing sugar cane and then evaporating the water from the juice.
• Raw Sugar: There are many forms of raw sugar (including Turbinado) and they are all mostly the same: made from sugar cane and then evaporated.
• Honey:  Honey is the original processed sugar it is about 1/2 fructose and 1/2 glucose.
• Agave: Agave come from same plant that gives us tequila. It is said to not raise blood sugar, but what they mean is it does not raise blood glucose because agave is mostly fructose.
• Maple Syrup: Made from tree sap and is not a significant source of nutrients besides iron and zinc.
• Molasses: Molasses is byproduct of sugar manufacturing. It does contain iron in significant amounts, but much better to get iron from other sources.
• Evaporated Cane Sugar: The same as raw sugar or Turbinado sugar.
• Fruit juice concentrate: This sugar is mostly fructose made by concentrating different juices (usually grape).
• Xylitol: Xylitol is almost a fiber as it is derived from the fibrous portion of corn husks and peanuts. It is less sweet than sugar and can actually inhibit cavities. It shows up in a lot of natural chewing gums.

Which Should you be Eating?

Looking over all of the sugars above, which do you want to put into your diet? The answer is that, no matter the name, no matter the source, no matter if they are “natural” or not, they all behave the same in your body. So while food manufactures get a lot of mileage off of stating that they are using natural sugars, there is no health benefits to honey, Turbinado or other sugars.

If you are looking to avoid sugars, none of the above will work for you. If you are looking for a substitute, I suggest Stevia.  Stevia, an herb, and has actually been shown to improve insulin sensitivity.

There you go: a complete guide to sugars. I’m guessing that I have missed a few, feel free to add them to the comment section below.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I’m not a big fan of sugar, artificial sweeteners, or sugar substitutes. But both Stevia and Xylitol actually do have some benefits. So, let me sit on the fence a bit and give you the pros and cons and see if you think you should include them in your diet.

Good Sweets?

First a little background:

• What is Stevia? Stevia is an herb native to Paraguay that has an incredible sweet taste. In fact, it is 300 times sweeter than sugar. It has been used for thousands of years as a sweetener and it appears to mproves insulin sensitivity, may reduce hypertension, and even help fight obesity.

• What is Xylitol? Xylitol is a sugar that is found in fruits and some vegetables and is used as a common sugar substitute. It is about as sweet as sugar, but only 1/3 of the calories. It is used mainly as a sugar in chewing gums, because it supposedly produces fewer cavities than sugar gum and reduces plaques. Xylitol may help control yeast, such as thrush and has less of an impact on blood sugar.

Good for You?

Okay, here is the reason why I’ve been avoiding this subject:

Are these sugars good really for you?

Yes, the sugars are better for you than eating artificial sweeteners and sugars like high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar. They have less of an impact on your blood sugar and, actually can help with blood sugar problems. Stevia turns to better for you than Xylitol because Xylitol is still a sugar. But the question remains: does that mean you should be eating these sugars?

I would say it is okay to eat these sugars as long as you understand where they are in your diet and I would say it also depends on what kind of dietary plan you are on. If you are following the diet plans outlined in Sugarettes, then these sugars are okay if you are working to still eat sugars and trying to balance your blood sugar (Plan #3), but probably not okay if you are on Plan #2 where you are trying to avoid all grains and sugars.

The problem with these sweet substances is that they are still training your tastes buds to highly sweet tastes and this will eventually lead to craving real sugars again. And once you fall off the wagon, you are back on the sugar roller coaster.

I would also suggest that if you are going to use Stevia, watch out that you take the whole plant and not just the extracts and isolated compounds like steviosides (these are concentrated, purified substances similar to white sugar).

There you go, xylitol and Stevia are a mixed bag: much better than most sugars, but maybe not the choice you want to make if you want to break free of the sugar madness that has a grip on you.