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JerseyKrissi72 -> Stevia (2/12/2007 5:22:44 AM)
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I went to GNC yesterday and bought a box of Stevia packets 100ct for $9.99 and I must say, they are delicious in my coffee as a replacement for Splenda. I have been doing more reading about Stevia....
Simply put, stevia is a remarkable plant, many times sweeter than sugar with virtually no calories. In parts of South America, it has been used for hundreds of years to safely sweeten and flavor beverages. In Japan, stevia has been used by millions of people for those purposes for over 25 years.
But in the United States the stevia issue has not been that simple. If it's unknown to you, perhaps that's because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has maneuvered to keep stevia products off the U.S. market despite efforts by the Lipton Tea Company and the American Herbal Products Association to have the FDA acknowledge stevia to be GRAS (generally recognized as safe).
The stevia tale in the U.S. is one of FDA raids and mysterious trade complaints, searches, seizures, and border blockades. Until 1995, when the passage of the Dietary Supplement, Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was passed, there was an "import alert" that in effect blocked all stevia from entering the country.
Although not approved in the U.S. as a sweetening agent, stevia can now be sold as a dietary supplement, and even though it's still the same sweet herb, the revised import alert prohibits any mention of sweetness on the label
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