How sweet it is

While wrapping up our eight week horticulture education program with the youth at the Salvation Army this past week, I thought I’d have the kids make their own lemonade with stevia as a sweetener. Since I grow stevia at my house, I brought in some leaves for them to taste. The results ranged from “ohhh, that’s really good – it’s so sweet!” to “ewww, yuck, that’s awful – do I have to swallow it?”

We are bombarded lately with news that sugar is bad. Sugar is not bad. It shouldn’t be banished to a corner to think about how it dared to be so sweet. And addictive. The problem is that sugar has invaded nearly every aspect of our food supply. Well, just about anything that’s processed. It’s in ketchup, tomato sauce, granola bars, salad dressing, soup, frozen dinners, peanut butter and the list goes on.

So when deciding whether to have these kids make their own lemonade with ¼ cup of sugar or 30 drops of stevia extract, I opted for the stevia. There has been some recent debate about stevia, so it was time for research.

Sweet leaf (Stevia rebaudiana) is a small herbaceous perennial native to South America, which makes it an annual plant in our region. The compounds that gives the leaves their sweet taste are called steviol glycosides.

According to the University of Wisconsin -- Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), Stevia rebaudiana has historically been used by “various indigenous peoples in South America to treat diabetes, obesity and hypertension” and sweeten food and drink for over 1,500 years. The first country to commercially use stevia was Japan back in the early 1970s.

The same article from CALS states since stevia does not cause a spike in blood glucose like sugar, this natural sweetener is becoming an attractive option for individuals with diabetes. The two primary glycosides are rebaudioside and stevioside.

The Mayo Clinic tells us that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recognized rebaudioside A (rebiana) as generally safe to use as a sweetener in foods and beverages. They also note, however, the FDA has not approved stevia in its whole leaf form or its crude extracts as a sweetener.

So where does that leave those of us who are growing stevia at home and want to use the whole leaf form in our food and drink? Dr. Andrew Weil states he has “seen no compelling evidence that stevia poses a threat to human health” and confesses to growing it himself. He doesn’t say what he does with it though.

I found one resource from Washington State University that seemed willing to provide details on how to harvest and store your homegrown stevia. However, they don’t tell you how to use it in your food or drink either. http://extension.wsu.edu/clark/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2014/02/Stevia.pdf

It’s so difficult these days to discern for ourselves if a particular food is healthy or not. Some sources will say yes, while others say no. My personal philosophy is that with most things in life, moderation is key. Have a little sugar, preferably naturally-occurring as in whole fruit. But not fruit juice which can have as much sugar as a soda. And, try a little stevia in your coffee or tea. Is it sweet or does it make you want to say “ewww, yuck”?

Kelley Rawlsky has an M.S. in horticulture and is the director of Bringing People and Plants Together, an organization dedicated to bringing horticulture education and therapy to the community. For more information: PeopleAndPlantsTogether@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook.

Article originally published in Broomfield Enterprise - Aug 6, 2017