Stevia

It's really close, but in some things, especially juice, it has...an aftertaste almost like...sand.

I have two questions:

1) Is "snitching" a sample of various items in a grocery store something you do regularly?

2) Are you a bag lady?

I don't have a Whole Foods in this city, but generally, sampling items in a grocery store is frowned upon, hence the many signs that say PLEASE DO NOT SAMPLE THE FOOD!

It's amazing how sweet fresh Stevia leaf is. I snagged a couple of leaves from the Sydney botanic gardens and made the mistake of eating one whole.

Stevia seems to be very interesting in more esoteric circles. A few of my more out there friends protested the EU taking some time to permit it. Naturally this makes me not trust the stuff. There are a million alternatives, why something scientists obviously don't understand?

My take is this: when you need/want something sweet, be honest about it. There really is no problem in sweetening coffee or whatever with real sugar. Just don't overdo it. Artifical sweeteners and stuff like Stevia have not only unknown long time properties, they also lead your body to believe that it needs to distribute insulin to break it down. Meaning, it goes into full sugar mode but there is none. In short: that's not good for you.

Learn to control yourself, use sugar or honey and you'll be fine. Or better - eat one honest piece of cake and not four faux-'healthy' ones.

see, that's my understanding of what's wrong with the artificial sweeteners rather than with stevia. along with some of them, like aspartame, supposedly really mess with your bowels over the years. It goes all round up on your fecal flora like a good monsanto byproduct.

I don't remember Calgary being quite that hostile when I was there, but that was a while ago. Stores are friendlier in my town, and I'll bet if you asked the produce manager if you could sample one leaf from a bunch of stevia, he'd let you. It's not as if you're some old fart standing there scarfing down a pound of cherries you're too cheap to buy, although I can foresee that as a future career move for you.

Or, speaking of cheap, you could just, yanno, buy some stevia.

Ever eat sunflower seeds? Then you're familiar with the family. Stevia's as natural as sugar derived from cane plants or sugar beets. Unless you plan to harvest the stuff yourself, you're quibbling over a non-difference.

Way too rational and common-sense. That will never fly in America, especially in this day and age.

Seriously, the actual stevia plant looks like mint. You can buy the actual plant from Home Depot here and grow it in your herb garden..

This.

DAMN! My luck I'll mix up Stevia with Salvia and hilarity will ensue.

I don't eat much sugar because I've become accustomed to living, and would like to continue doing so.

When I see your avatar I keep thinking, "Mmmmm - good cracker!"

That is Bianca Freire.

So seven pounds of bacon per day is just fine.

So the tribe that used stevia took a beat down from the tribe that used sugar? Sounds like a solid reason to stick with sugar.