Pablo, I agree, stevia is wonderful. I'm drinking chai with stevia right now, and I carry packets of stevia powder to sweeten my tea ordered at restaurants. I love adding a few drops, along with lemon juice, to my bottled water. Tastes like lemonade!
Stevia has been used all over the world (in some areas for centuries) and is the #1 alternative sweetner in Japan. It's made from the leaves of the stevia rebaudiana plant, which is about 30 times sweeter than sugar. (The extracted form is up to 300 times sweeter.)
The FDA has a curious relationship with stevia, having granted it approval as a "nutritional supplement," but deeming it unsafe as an additive. (How could this make sense?) As such, in the US, if you can find stevia in your grocery store, it won't be featured next to all the other types of sweetners. It is available at many health food stores, though labeling divulges no clue as to what it's for. Looking at my bottle of liquid stevia, I notice that the BRAND NAME is "SweetLeaf," but the description of the product itself is quite vague: SteviaClear liquid stevia...all natural...zero calories...dietary supplement. On the back, it does say that two drops are as sweet as one tsp. sugar, but that's as close as it gets to calling the product a sweetener. Stevia is expensive, probably because the awkward FDA restrictions make mass-marketing prohibitive. Despite the cost, I use it and highly recommend it.
http://www.metroacti...tame2-0039.htmlhttp://www.stevia.net/fda.htm
LongeCity
