FDA Nears Bittersweet Approval for Use of Stevia

I was in a quandry when I wrote the 101 Foods book of whether to include the natural sweetener Stevia or not. Based on the scientific literature, I was convinced that it was safe for human consumption but I, admittedly, was not one of those humans who was willing to consume it. Quite frankly, I HATED the taste of Stevia.

That's right, I used the past tense of "HATE". Today's Stevia is much improved in taste. So much so that major soda manufactures are lined up to use the sweetener once the FDA gives their 'thumbs-up'.

I came across two products that are pretty good tasting and thankfully, taste NOTHING like stevia. The first one is PureVia, my personal favorite.It's put out by PepsiCo and Whole Earth Sweetener Company. It had no aftertaste that I could detect. Believe me, I can taste that funny 'artificial-type' sweetener taste a mile away and when I added this to my coffee, I could swear there was 'real' sugar in it.



The second one is called TruVia which is put out by CocaCola and Cargill. It's very good, too.



TruVia is available at many grocery stores now and PureVia should be arriving sometime soon. So, to all my fellow stevia-haters, rejoice! They finally figured out how to make the stuff taste great!!