Stevia – The Healthiest Plant Of The Future

By Dr. Eugen Marculescu

We are living in a time when medical research shows, for hundred reasons, that sugar is bad!
Sugar produces high blood sugar, high levels of insulin and raises blood pressure. These effects are bad for the circulatory system (arteries) and in response we should give up the consumption of sugar and starch and return to Nature’s Pharmacy.

Stevia sugar – a natural high sweetener extracted from the leaves of the Stevia plant, which belongs to the Composite family, can successfuly replace refined carbohydrates in food. Various scientific studies show that Stevia regulates blood sugar to its normal values.
The herb Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is a small plant native to Paraguay. Its delicious and refreshing leaves containing intensely sweet glycosides – Stevioside, Rebaudioside–A, Rebaudioside–C, Dulcoside A and Steviolbioside – are 30 times sweeter than sugar. Pure Stevia sugar can be 70-400 times sweeter than cane sugar. Scientific research has found the leaf to contain proteins, fiber, carbohydrates, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, zinc, rutin, vitamin A, vitamin C and an oil reach in 53 other constituents.

Stevia known as “the third source of sugar in the world” after cane sugar and beet sugar is the future of sugar substitutes. In North America, Stevia users can relay on a record of thousands of years of safety from its users in South America. In Japan, where Stevia sugar has been in use for more than 20 years, now is rivaling Equal and Sweet’N Low. Stevia products are safe. There has never been a reported case of any adverse reaction to Stevia in the 1500 years of use in Paraguay and about 20 years in Japan. Aspartame sweeteners, such as NutraSweet and Equal have been linked to complaints of adverse reactions such as blindness, brain tumors and even death.

Stevia leaves and whole leaf concentrate are one of the most health restoring natural dietary supplements. They offer amazing health benefits such as preventing hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity and heart diseases.

In many countries around the world Stevia is sold as the most desirable sweetener for people with high blood sugar, high blood pressure and those with weight problems. Because of side effects identified in experiments on animals (such as damage to metabolism, side effects on the male and female reproductive organs and cancer) in the United States, Stevia is approved just as a dietary supplement and a skin care product.  In 2008,  the United States approved rebaudioside-A extract as a food additive.