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| Courtesy of wikipedia |
Stevia stands for Stevia Rebaudiana and it is an herb in the Chrysanthemum family. They can be found in the wild as a small shrub in parts of Paraguay and Brazil. The glycosides in its leaves, including up to 10% Stevioside, account for its incredible sweetness, making it unique among the nearly 300 species of Stevia plants. Refined sugar has zero nutritional value and it has been implicated in numerous degenerative diseases while Stevia has none of these drawbacks. It has virtually No calories and completely natural. It is a safe substitute for sugar unlike any other artificial sweeteners. It is sweeter than sugar, so it is important to find your own idea amount to use, you do not want to raise your sweet buds too high and have them crave for sweets all the time. While it is extremely heat stable, it does not caramelized like sugar. So recipes like Flan and meringues would be a challenge. It is available in liquid or powder. For most of us, powder form might be easier to get used to. More and more branded beverages are beginning to completely replaced their sweeteners with Stevia. Perhaps I can finally have my sweet piece of cake and eat it!