The Bitter Truth About Stevia: It Ain’t ‘Natural’
Stevia is the hot new, “natural” sweetener. But the truth is, no one has researched it enough for it to be considered truly safe.
Photo Illustration by Alex Williams/The Daily Beast
If people aren’t putting butter in their coffee these days to try to stay slim, chances are they are still sweetening it—with stevia.
This South American, zero calorie, 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, “all natural” sweetener—which played a pivotal role in the Breaking Bad series finale (Walter poisons the chamomile tea of Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, the supplier of methylamine for Gus, at a café by switching stevia with ricin)—is on pace to become the most consumed sweetener by 2017.
Rest assured, stevia has stolen the spotlight from its artificial and natural sweetener competitors at the coffee shop: Equal (aspartame), Splenda (sucralose), Sweet ‘n Low (saccharin), and its hipster, health rival, Sugar in the Raw (sucrose or table sugar with a coating of molasses—it’s not any healthier).