{"id":185,"date":"2022-04-05T17:23:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T17:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/?p=185"},"modified":"2022-04-05T17:23:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T17:23:23","slug":"sweeter-than-sugar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/sweeter-than-sugar\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweeter than Sugar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people today have\nconsumed the sweetener stevia, both knowingly and unknowingly, but what is\nstevia?  Stevia is a plant derived sweetener\nthat is gaining popularity in the US. \nStevia is many times sweater than regular sugar, has a glycemic index of\n0, with 0 calories, and for most people does not have any after taste.  Stevia can be purchased as a liquid, powder\n(often used for cooking and baking), or in its raw form.  Stevia products are sometimes highly purified\nsteviol glycosides, which is extracted from the sweetest part of the\nplant.  In Japan, stevia represents about 40%\nof the low calorie sweetener market.  The\nuse of stevia can be traced back centuries in some cultures.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stevia is a herb in the Asteraceae\nfamily, sunflower family, which is grown in tropical climates such as Brazil and Paraguay.  However, stevia can be grown in other places\nthroughout North and South America, including parts of Arizona,\nNew Mexico, and Texas.   \nThere are more than 100 different species of stevia but only one variety\nis known for its sweetness; Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni sometimes called\ncandyleaf.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being widely used throughout\nthe world, stevia had a controversial history entering into the US food market.  Some claim the sugar, and artificial\nsweetener, industry was pressuring the US government to ban stevia using\nresearch, or lack of research, as the reason. In 1991 stevia was banned in the US after early\nstudies suggested the sweetener was correlated to cancer.  Follow up studies, in 1995, refuted these\ninitial studies and stevia was allowed to be imported and sold as a food\nsupplement, but not as a sweetener.  In\n2008, the US\ngovernment approved stevia to not only be a supplement, but as a food\nadditive.  Now stevia can be found in\nmany processed foods such as yogurt, sports drinks, sodas, chewing gum, and\ncandy.  Stevia is also available in\nconvenient packets for tea and coffee drinkers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some studies suggest stevia\nmay: lower blood pressure, improve insulin resistance, possibly promote\nadditional insulin production, and doesn’t promote tooth decay or cavities like\nother sweeteners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reported side effects have\nbeen: bloating, nausea, dizziness, muscle pain, numbness, allergic reaction, and\nmedication interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, it is my opinion that stevia is a preferred added sweetener at this time. However I am curious to see how stevia plays out over the coming years as I am reminded of the old saying that “if it sounds to good to be true it probably is”.\u00a0 Be careful when purchasing stevia.\u00a0 Look for cleaner products that do not contain added chemicals, preservatives, or food coloring.\u00a0 Truth be told we should not be sweetening things unless we have to.\u00a0 Americans have a sugar addiction, which is expressing itself with our diabetes problem.\u00a0 Remember that stevia is sweeter than sugar, so a little bit goes a long way.\u00a0 Also with anything sweeter than sugar, consumption on a regular basis seems to lessen our taste for natures sweetness; like apples, pears, and other fruit.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people today have consumed the sweetener stevia, both knowingly and unknowingly, but what is stevia?  Stevia is a plant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,17,47,14,86,18,119,69,70],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chiropractic","tag-chiropractic-tips","tag-health","tag-healthy","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-hesperia-chiropractor","tag-stevia","tag-sugar","tag-sweeteners"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}