Want To Know What Stevia Is And What Are Its Benefits? Below Are All Of Its Aspects Mentioned?
Many people probably don`t know, but stevia is a sugar-like substance that can also be a sugar substitute. That can be extracted from the leaves of a stevia plant easily. However, it is about 100 to 200 times sweeter than a normal sugar that people have used for over a century. Despite its extreme sweetness, unlike sugar, it does not contain any type of carbohydrates calories, along with not having any artificial material being put into it for its manufacturing.
Stevia Extract is a completely natural substance and does not require any addictive substance to preserve or consume. Thus, it is many times healthier than sugar for our bodies. Even though it is quite good for our health, some people find its taste bitter, whereas others think it tastes like menthol and does not like it. Many people have also tried to add it into their food and beverages, such as coffee or sprinkling it over their oatmeal for a good taste, making their decision polar.
Advantages To A Person`S Body
The fact that stevia is a naturally occurring sugar-like substance is quite good for a person`s health as it does not have any kind of calories or carbohydrates that can cause some harm to one`s health. Carbohydrates are responsible for raising the levels of blood cholesterol. At the same time, the high calories are responsible for the excessive amount of fat in a person`s belly. It is clear that this substance comes from extracting a leaf and is thus pretty much harmless and full of healthy benefits for one.
Stevia Extract can easily be found in the market in two forms: the dense liquid state and powder form. Many parts of the world, such as South America and Asia, have been using these leaves for centuries to sweeten the taste of their drinks and food. People can now find several soft drink manufacturers that sell their drinks without the addition of caffeine or sugar that is commonly used in our daily lives.
Instead, they are now using stevia leaves and their extracted form to produce diet cokes that have zero calories or carbohydrates in them. These sodas thus do not need making them sweet with the addition of artificial sweeteners and do not have much of a health downgrade as other sodas.
Risks Related To The Consumption Of Stevia
Even though stevia is a substance found in a plant but can still have some dangerous effects if consumed recklessly without taking any precautions. The government also has allowed just the purified version of stevia to be used instead of sugar for consumption purposes and for making food and beverage. However, this has been done as taking it in without knowing much about it or with some of the dangerous things in it can be unhealthy for a person, even so, more than normal sugar at times.
The consumption of stevia per day should also be limited to the amount described by the government and scientists to prevent any health issues from occurring from it. Thus one should always be careful about the amount they are taking in for their good. The food department administration also claims that there is still less information about the substance. There is still needs to be some research done on the topic to get to the conclusion.
Some Cooking Ideas For Stevia
Using stevia as a normal table sugar that has been purified is not harmful; instead is very healthy for a person. There are many possible things where sugar is being used and can be replaced by stevia for making the number of carbohydrates and calories low, which will make all of the bad, unhealthy things in sugar be replaced by only healthy benefits. Several foods and beverages are now including stevia instead of sugar in them.
For instance- for soft drinks that are also called zero diet drinks, sprinkling it over the cereal meal. People can also use it for making other sweet items in their house such as jelly, ice-cream, cake, and in many more types of foods, one can think of. Stevia leaf Extract Total Steviol Glycosides Rebaudioside A, however, can make a bitter after-effect taste due to its property derived from plats, and thus some people do not like it to include this extract in their food.