Stevia is a type of South American herb, native to Brazil and Paraguay. The botanical name is Stevia rebaudiana, of the sunflower family.
Stevia has been used by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay as a sweetener for hundreds of years. The leaves of this small green plant have a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar. The body does not metabolize the sweet glycosides from the stevia leaf or from any of its processed forms, as found in artificial sweeteners (safe). In such preparations the natural active sweet ingredient isolated from Stevia, Stevioside, is 300 times as sweet as sugar (sucrose).
Stevia has many excellent properties, aided by its content of carotenoids, minerals and some vitamins. As the human body is not capable of metabolizing the sweet glycosides in stevia, it obtains no calories from stevia.
Stevia does not adversely affect blood glucose levels, and may thus be used by diabetics.
