Since going keto 4+ months ago I haven’t bothered with artificial sweeteners. Never had a compelling sweet tooth (and didn’t want to tempt fate anyhow).
But trying to get my wife to more fully embrace keto by cutting out more of her beloved carbs has remained an on/off/on challenge. Yeah, she’s giving it “a go” - but (unlike me) she struggles with a wicked hankering for sweets.
So I thought I’d help her along with the transition by cooking up some Stevia-based treats for her to try. Thus far, I’ve made cacao/coconut oil/pecan treats, avocado nut ice cream, and even a keto pecan pie all using Pyure Stevia extract (which contains no other sweetener ingredients but stevia extract). Actually, they’re not too bad, and I’ve been joining her in eating these faux desserts.
But THEN I began to wonder… hey, hasn’t it been reported that Stevia can raise insulin levels? Uh oh. I haven’t really noticed any physical effects of eating this stuff … but maybe I’m doing damage.
[FWIW, my morning BHB ketone levels have remained unchanged from before any of this Stevia stuff, but still… I wondered…]
So this morning I did an isolated time-series Stevia-only test on myself to see if any significant change in blood glucose could be an indication of a hidden insulin response.
Starting from a fasted state, I put 1/4 teaspoon of Pyure liquid Stevia extract in a small glass of water and drank it just moments after taking my time zero (T=0) blood glucose test. [Food critic report: it was sickeningly sweet … I’d never want anywhere near this level of sweetness in any actual menu item. Yuck.]
OBSERVATIONAL RESULTS: I detected no meaningful effect on my glucose levels over the course of 2 hours. Look for yourself as here’s the data and a visual:
As seen, my blood glucose ranged from 88 to 92 mg/dL. Frankly, I would’ve expected more variability just from measurement error (KetoMojo).
Now, I do appreciate that everyone’s metabolism differs and I’m just an n=1 subject. I’m not making any broad claims here for anyone else. Most important to me: my wife’s body chemistry could be entirely different.
Nonetheless, please do tell me if I might still be missing something important here and drawing the wrong conclusion - at least about how my own body reacts to Stevia?
TENTATIVE CONCLUSION: Unless perhaps there’s some adverse behavioral effect brewing (e.g., I begin to grow addicted to the Stevia sweetness in an otherwise keto-friendly diet), it appears that my ingesting a heavy dose of Stevia extract in isolation (during an otherwise fasted state) had no measurable effect on my blood glucose during a relevant measurement window of 2 hours. Therefore: I can infer that the Stevia did not affect my insulin level either (since a rise in insulin would have served to force down my glucose level - which apparently did not happen. Fasting glucose remained virtually unchanged.).
Thought I’d share my n=1 experience while inviting you to consider whether I’m missing something here.
) In response: measurements were taken with the KetoMojo blood test unit; luckily, by the 5th blood draw I ran out of fingers.
