WHAT'S SWEETER THAN SUGAR AND MUCH, MUCH HEALTHIER?: THE NEW STEVIA MOVEMENT

I am a SERIOUS LOVER of GINGER ALE. If I could have only one soft drink for the rest of my beautiful life, it would be ginger ale. However, the well-known manufacturers and distributors of ginger ale (no names, but you know who I'm talking about) have one drawback - they use HIGHLY PROCESSED SUGAR ... that EVIL WHITE STUFF. Recently, while shopping at my favorite supermarket health food store, WHOLE FOODS, as I was looking for my favorite ginger ale made with cane sugar, I noticed that they were "out of stock." Since I was "feining" for ginger ale, just as with the almonds, I had to find a substitute. I found this canned ginger ale advertised as being natural with no sugar or artificial sweeteners. As I searched the label of ingredients (which I always do), I noticed two that I was not familiar with. They were STEVIA and ERYTHRITOL. I noticed also that it listed GINGER ROOT as an ingredient, which indicated to me that there was more real ginger in this soda than the previous one. So I bought it and tried it. Within the first couple of sips, I noticed that I felt invigorated and that my sinuses and entire breathing apparatus seemed to clear up. In other words, I could breathe deeply.

After doing research on stevia, I discovered that it is an herb known as the "sweet herb" by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay, South America (its origin). These natives had been using stevia leaves to sweeten herbal teas such as the bitter mate since ancient times. The natives also used the leaves for medicinal purposes. The news and the use of stevia spread from Paraguay to Brazil and Argentina by the 1800s. Europeans discovered the "sweet herb" courtesy of Italian botanist Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, who heard about it while he was exploring Paraguay in 1887. Bertoni actually got his hands on it in 1903. Within about five years or so, the first stevia crop appeared. Thousands of stevia plants were removed for transplantation due to the destruction of the plant's natural growth area because of the clearing of the forests by the timber industry.[1]

In 1918 stevia came to the attention of the United States by way of a botanist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1921 American Trade Commissioner George S. Brady claimed stevia to be safe for diabetics. He also expressed interest in seeing the herb exploited for profit by U.S. companies. Stevia stood the tests of extensive scientific testing. However, the Germans had already noted in 1913 that stevia proved to be a threat to sugar producers. This threat more than likely stalled the full-scale exploitation of the stevia plant at that time.

Despite the early setbacks, the wonders of stevia spread to Japan in the early 1970s as the Japanese began cultivating it as an alternative to banned cancer-causing artificial sweeteners cyclamate and saccharin. In 1971 the Japanese company, Morita Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd., became the first in the world to commercialize the stevia sweetener.[2] Since then, the Japanese have been using it in food products, and even soft drinks. This version of stevia is in the form of an extraction known as stevioside that resulted from two French chemists who in 1931 isolated this gycoside along with the other compound, rebaudioside, that give stevia its sweet taste.[3] The compounds are claimed to be 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose (regular table sugar).[4] Though I don't normally care for extractions as opposed to the whole properties of an herb, there have been no substantiated evidence that stevioside or rebaudioside (rebiana) are harmful.

The stevia leaf is now commercially grown in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Central America, Israel, Thailand, and China. It has been employed for medicinal purposes in these countries and in the United States for such ills as HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, DIABETES, OBESITY, CAVITIES, FATIGUE, DEPRESSION, INFECTIONS, URINARY INSUFFICIENCY, WOUNDS, and CANDIDA.[5] NO WONDER I FELT SO INVIGORATED!

By the way, the only drawback that I find with this new ginger ale that I've discovered is that it is in that ol' ALUMINUM CAN ... can't afford alzheimer's. Maybe I'll find one in a bottle ... HMMMM!

References

1.) ^ Bonvie, Bill; Bonvie, Linda; Gates, Donna (2000).The Stevia Story: A
tale of incredible sweetness & intrigue
(http://www.stevia.net/history.htm). Retrieved 2010-1-13.
2.) ^ "Stevia" (http://www.morita-kagaku-kogyo.co.jp/e/index.htm).
Morita Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.. 2007.
http://www.morita-kagaku-kogyo.co.jp/e/index.htm. Retrieved 2010-1-13.
3.) ^ Bertoni, Moises Santiago (1899). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia.
Retrieved 2010-1-13.
4.) ^ Bridel, M.; Lavielle, R. (1931). "Sur le principe sucre des feuilles de kaa-
he-e (stevia rebaundiana B)". Academie des Sciences Paris Comptes Rendus (Parts) 192): 1123-5.
5.) ^ Taylor, Leslie (2005). The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs
(http://rain-tree.com/stevia.htm). Garden City Park, NY: Square One
Publishers, Inc.. pp. (excerpted at weblink). ISBN 0-7570-0144-0.
http:://rain-tree.com/stevia.htm.