How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

The extraordinary powerful taste of stevia is difficult to ignore. The intensity makes your mouth water for a few minutes. Then, tingling sensations arise around the mouth. Your lip quivers.

It's simply unusual and unnatural to find a zero calorie sweetener. But leaves from the stevia plant are both. They are natural and zero calorie.

Stevia is very sweet, up to 150 times the sweetness of sugar. So a little goes a long way. When the sweet taste passes, it leaves a mild, licorice-like aftertaste that's slightly bitter and astringent.

It is light, cold, and sharp because of its intensity. Normally, sweet taste calms and sedates. But stevia is so intense that it has the opposite effect - adding to the quirky character of this unusual herb.

Some people love it. To others, it tastes terrible, almost like a chemical. That's because most stevia powders in the grocery store aren't whole stevia. They are a highly purified extract of stevia known as Reb-A. One student notes, "It lingers, a little like plastic or a foreign substance."

Footnote: The information for this article was in part gathered from a 2019 study and survey of 16 students of Ayurveda who experimented with stevia. During the study, students ate stevia for 3 days and journaled the pharmacological effects. This study was sponsored by the Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda, and specifically the Mastering Ayurvedic Digestion & Nutrition certification course.

What is It?

Stevia is a sweetener and sugar substitute derived from a remarkably sweet plant species called Stevia rebaudiana. It is an aster family plant native to Brazil and Paraguay. There, it has been used for more than 1,500 years by the Guaran? people of South America.

The secret to this zero calorie sweetener is the glucose residues bound to other non-sugar molecules. The glucose residues stimulate taste buds. However the sugary glucosides aren't digestible because they are firmly attached to the non-sugar molecules.

The stevia you buy in the grocery store does not contain the whole leaf, but a purified extract called rebaudioside A (Reb-A). This is because whole stevia hasn't been tested by the FDA. The FDA has tested the extract only. The FDA has approved whole stevia for use as an herbal supplement only. In Japan and Europe the raw stevia leaf has GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status.

Lowers Blood Sugar & Pressure

If you have diabetes, stevia may help keep your blood sugar levels in check. A 2010 study of 19 healthy, lean individuals, and 12 obese ones found that stevia significantly lowered insulin and glucose levels.

Most importantly, these study participants felt satisfied and full after eating, despite the lower calorie intake. So they didn't reach for cakes and cookies after the study.

The secret to stevia's magic is a protein that stimulates the ion channels of cells which influence your sensory input. This protein puts sweet taste receptors in hyperdrive and also stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. Studies also show that stevia reduces your daily, normal, liver based, blood sugar level spike in the morning. One study even suggests Stevia leaves for treatment of central diabetic neuropathy. To boot, it helps regulate blood pressure levels as well.

Nevertheless, we're always suspicious when it comes to zero calorie sweetener. Will it trick the body, like fake news? Will the sweet taste reinforce a sugar addiction? When the body figures out it had a bunch of sugar but no calories, will it crave more sugar as a result? It's comforting to know that studies suggest otherwise. So far, stevia can be trusted, and seems to have some amazing qualities. While we're still cautious of refined products, stevia appears far superior to other sweeteners.

Vata individuals beware: The drop in blood sugar levels was so pronounced for our Vata students that several experienced hypoglycemia symptoms after drinking stevia. "My mind was loopy. I couldn't think while trying to do some accounting. I was shaking so I checked my blood sugar and it was 40. Normally it is much higher for me. It made me want to eat so my blood sugar would go up again."