Fasten your seat belts, readers, ‘cause here are some stop and go jerky tales about the FDA and a plant, Stevia rebaudiana, or sweet herb of Paraguay.
As far as I could determine, it was discovered growing in a wooded area in the late 1800s. It is presumed that the South American natives have used the sweet leaf for hundreds of years.
In my childhood, my sweet tooth was never satisfied, as sugar was rationed and when we could buy it, my mother also rationed it. I’ve heard that in England, a land with many green thumbs, gardeners grew stevia to combat the embargoed ships and lack of sugar.
When I became a volunteer in the herb garden at the Florida Botanical Gardens, I was introduced to the stevia plant. It prefers shade and moisture. This past winter was “challenging,” and it died to the ground. Surprisingly it came back from the roots.
Lemonade made from the Meyer lemon tree needs a bit of sugar, so I tried stevia. I make a simple syrup by boiling water and pouring it into a teapot with stevia leaves; let it steep for 15 minutes or so, strain through a coffee filter into a jar and refrigerate. It’s always available to sweeten teas or lemonade.
Health food stores sold granulated and liquid stevia since the 1980s as a sugar substitute. Then sales were forbidden until 1994, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement & Health Education Act that allowed sales as a dietary supplement. Books that had been published that mentioned stevia as a sugar replacement or sweetener were ordered destroyed by the FDA.
Happily, in December 2008, after years of testing and proof of the safety of stevia by Coca-Cola and Cargill, the FDA could find there was nothing harmful in stevia, it issued GRAS status (Generally Recognized As Safe). There are zero side effects reported.
This is the agency that allows MSG to be used in food as well as aspartame in soda.
Now the good part about stevia – there are zero calories and reportedly has medicinal value. Some say their blood sugar is not changed by using stevia. If this is true, we may get a handle on diabetes in young people who “live” on soda.
Ruth Davies is a Pinellas County master gardener and can be reached at sunflower1368@juno.com.
