Healthy Food Additive? Stevia Poised to Sweep Europe

In the world of food, there are sweeteners, and for years the debate has raged about the relative health effects of the delectable goodies we create with them. There is sugar, there is high-fructose corn syrup, there is aspartame, and there is Splenda.

All sweeteners come with their pros and cons. Sugar - well, it's the dentist's bane, but it comes fair trade certified if you wish, and you know with certainty that it comes from a plant somewhere way back in its prehistory. High fructose corn syrup comes from an inexpensive food crop, yet its ubiquitous nature and its connections to high cholesterol and triglycerides make it a sweetener under scrutiny for health-conscious consumers. Aspartame and Splenda have gained fame for their use in diet sodas and even diet sugar packages, but Splenda is made by chemically altering sugar and aspartame is made out of phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol. Are any of these sweeteners suitable for your food? There are as many answers as there are individuals.

Stevia. It's a plant, and it can grow in just about any temperate or tropical garden. Pick off one of the leaves and chew it and you will be surprised. It's sweet. Very sweet. For this reason, this little food plant is the underdog of the sweetener world.

Interestingly, this plant has only gradually worked its way into the world of food. For a number of years it has been branded only as a dietary supplement, not as an official artificial sweetener. But the interest in creating food products with stevia has been growing. Recently, a company in California created a line of diet sodas that are branded as all-natural, sweetened with stevia. It's called Zevia.
Is stevia a health food, a sweetener that has no nasty side effects and one that relies less on chemicals and more on green and growing things as its foundation? In Japan, the stevia plant has captured 40% of the market for artificial sweeteners. Perhaps this little plant is the food additive we've all been waiting for.

Or perhaps not. In the USA, stevia was banned in 1990 and allowed in 1995. The results of studies on stevia generally say that it is safe, and it has passed Europe's toxicological testing for carcinogens.

In the EU, novel foods need to be proven safe to human health before they are introduced as food additives. Since stevia does not grow naturally in Europe, it is considered a novel food and the steviol glycosides stevioside and rebaudioside A need to be proven to be safe. The food additive has been banned since 2001 and is currently under intensive review. In the meantime, countries like France have taken advantage of some leniency in the EU's food safety legislation, approving stevia as a food additive for 2 years.

What's next for this little plant? Have we finally found a healthy food sweetener, or like any sweetener, are there potential health problems lurking in the wings?