[Sca-cooks] sugar substitutes (Mostly Aspartame, but not totally)

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> There's some sort of plant extract called "Stevia" that seems to be really
> popular among the aforementioned "The Man(tm) wants to poison you" crowd.
> Might be good stuff, but I've yet to find something that explains what's in it
> that makes it sweet.  (I would be not at all surprised but highly amused
> should it turn out to be a naturally-occurring peptide a-la Aspar/Alitame...)
> So far every site I've found that talks about it seems to feel that "all
> natural" and "it's not Evil Nutrasweet" are all anyone needs to know about
> it...

Well, that's funny, because a quick Google search on Stevia shows up a
bunch of things that supposedly explain what glucosides are in Stevia.

Stevia is the name of the plant, also called Sweet Leaf of Paraguay.
Stevoside is the extract.

The FDA has banned Stevia to be sold as a food additive (see:
http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia4506.html) because they feel
there are not enough toxicological studies.

I suspect the PDR (Physician's Desk Reference) for Herbal Medicine could
give you the information about what makes stevia sweet if you wanted to
take the time to go look at your library's copy.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"It's no use trying to be clever- we are all clever here; just try
to be kind- a little kind." F. J. Foakes Jackson.