Beat The Sugar Highs and Immune Drain With The Ultimate Sweet Plant!
 
The next month brings with it sugar highs that occur from all the treats that appear on desks, in classrooms and homes, which creates an atmosphere for the flu and colds season to take hold by killing the immune system and natural intestinal flora?
 
If you are baking or cooking there is an alternative substitute that can help eliminate the dead immune system and sugar highs? By substituting Stevia a plant based and healthy sugar substitute. Stevia is a plant that can make a difference in your life. I mention it from time to time but usually don't tell you the reason it's healthier for you? Not available in your regular grocery store but available online or at your health food store.
 
While Splenda and Aspartame sugar substitutes now dominate the non-caloric sweetener market with the help of the medical world buying into the hype? Stevia is a remarkable herb that remains relatively unknown just as the large companies who make aspartame, and splenda would have it.
 
Anyone who suffers from diabetic blood sugar disorder or needs to limit their caloric intake or is addicted to sugar must be told about the remarkable health and healing properties of a great substitute that I can't say to you that it is a "sugar substitute," or the government will come down on me. Stevia can be marketed as a food supplement only. 
 
History of Stevia
 
The Guarani Indians had known for centuries about the unique advantages of kaa he-he  -a native term which translates as "sweet herb" - long before the invaders from the Old World were lured by the treasures of the New.  These native people knew the leaves of the wild stevia shrub  - a perennial indigenous to the Amambay Mountain region - to have a sweetening power unlike anything else; they commonly used the leaves to enhance the taste of bittermate (a tea-like beverage) and medicinal potions, or simply chewed them for their sweet taste.  The widespread native use of stevia was chronicled by the Spaniards in historical documents preserved in the Paraguayan National Archives in Asuncion.  Historians noted that indigenous peoples had been sweetening herbal teas with stevia leaves "since ancient times."  By the 1800s, daily stevia consumption had become well entrenched throughout the region - not just in Paraguay - but also in neighboring Brazil and Argentina.
 
Like the discovery of America itself, however, credit for stevia's "discovery" to the rest of the world goes to an Italian.  In this case, the explorer was a botanist whose initial unfamiliarity with the region - because of his difficulty in locating the herb - caused him to believe that he had stumbled onto a "little-known" plant.
 
In 1903, however Bertoni discovered the live plant, a gift from the parish priest of Villa San Pedro.  The following year, as he recounted, "the appearance of the first flowers enabled me to make a complete study" that was published in December, 1905, after an interruption caused by a civil war.  His findings was enough to convince him that "the sweetening power of kaa he-e is so superior to sugar and there is no need to wait for the results of analyses and cultures to affirm its economic advantage...the simplest test proves it."
 
An ideal alternative to other sugar or sugar substitutes, but in the U.S. we cannot say it's a sweetener.  Yet this herb has proven to be safe and effective for hundreds of years without a single reported adverse reaction by anyone! No MS, or other neurological disorders as with our modern day chemical sugar substitutes or sugar derivative Splenda.
 
The sweetening power of Stevia is amazing as it is between 70 to 400 times sweeter than white sugar. Most amazing and remarkable about Stevia is that it is completely calorie-free, never initiates a rise in blood sugar, and does not provide an intestinal source of food for bacteria and yeasts.
 
The leaves of the Stevia shrub contain specific glycosides, which produce a sweet taste but have no caloric value. Stevia also contains protein, fiber, carbohydrates, phosphorus, iron, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, rutin (flavonoid), zinc, vitamins C and A.
 
Stevia vs sugar? No comparison in the health department! Sugar is processed from cane or beets and should be healthy but after processing is more chemical than real while Stevia maintains natural and healthy with processing!
 
Stevia is a small perennial shrub with green leaves that belongs to the aster or chrysanthemum family of plants. Over 200 species of Stevia have been found around the world. While the herb's native locale may make it appear somewhat exotic, it has proved to be quite adaptable and capable of being cultivated in climate zones as diverse as Florida and southern Canada.
 
Organic gardeners in particular should find stevia an ideal addition to their garden.  Though nontoxic, stevia plants have been found to have insect-repelling tendencies.  Their very sweetness, in fact, may be a kind of natural defense mechanism against aphids and other bugs that find it not to their taste.  Perhaps the sickening sweet plant is why crop-devouring grasshoppers have been reported to bypass stevia under cultivation.
 
Then, too, raising stevia yourself, whether in your back yard or on your balcony, is another positive way you can personally - and legally - protest the wrongheaded government policies that have for so long deprived the American people of its benefits -- a kind of contemporary Victory Garden.
 
Stevia enjoyed some popularity in the U.S. during the 1980s as a natural sweetener and was found in a variety of consumer products. However, in 1986, the FDA stopped the sale as a sweetener and in 1991 said it was not suitable as a food additive. Advocates for Stevia say that this happened because the herb is a natural, inexpensive and non-patentable sweetener, and poses a threat to pharmaceutical sweeteners. As of now, Stevia has received approval by the FDA to be sold only as a dietary supplement, not as a sweetening agent.  So use it as an additive. Isn't that what sugar or sugar substitutes are anyway? Cook, bake or sweeten your tea? It works for all?
 
Conversion rates for Stevia are :
 
1 tsp. granulated sugar = 1/8 tsp. whole stevia leaf powder or slight dusting white stevia extract (powder)
 
1 tbsp. granulated sugar = 3/8 tsp. whole stevia leaf powder or 1/2 pinch white stevia extract (powder)
 
1/4 c. granulated sugar = 1 1/2 tsp. whole stevia leaf powder or 1 pinch white stevia extract (powder)
 
1/2 c. granulated sugar = 1 tbsp. whole stevia leaf powder or 1/8 tsp. white stevia extract (powder)
 
1 c. granulated sugar = 2 tbsp. whole stevia leaf powder or 1/4 tsp. white stevia extract (powder)
 
Enjoy your sweet healthy plant food!
Lena