Stevia as the devil?

(Doug) #21

@Berengal Sjur, I agree with Erin, above. Great reply! :sunglasses::slightly_smiling_face:

(Todd Allen) #22

I’ve had very similar thoughts but without sufficient research/evidence to express my view with confidence. A related topic that concerns me more is the insulin provoking response of protein and when is it good or bad?

I’ve been judging everything based on whether it has an obvious impact on raising my blood glucose or lowering my ketones along with fuzzier things like hunger, energy, mood and body weight. These may not be sufficient to fully recognize the potential harms of stevia or BCAAs (which I combine because BCAAs taste awful) but I don’t yet know of better ways to track and evaluate what to eat.

(Justin Durgin) #23

Hi! Just wanted to point out, perhaps not the Stevia alone caused the insulin response? I read somewhere and have since noticed a lot of Stevia based sweeteners are also “cut” with maltodextrin, which is known to trigger insulin response. In case you hadn’t noticed that yourself…

(Wendy Peterson) #24

But Diet Coke is aspartame. Stevia is totally different.

#25

I decided when I started keto that I would eliminate most artificial sweeteners but would not take an all or nothing approach. Most days I have none even when eating. But if I feel like having a diet coke on occasion I have it without too much concern. I am most likely not going to drink even 6 ounces. And I may use a little Stevie in a recipe, but that is probably only once a month at most. Otherwise I just enjoy my foods and drinks without any sweeteners.

(Teresa Driver) #26

Yes. I was just too cheap to go buy stevia to test with when I had reacted to aspartame, saccharin, Splenda and Swerve. If someone already has stevia and wants to run the same test I highly recommend it.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #27

Swerve is part stevia, so if your reaction is bad it, stevia would most likely be the same bad result. Quitting diet drinks is hard, well done on finding the reason to motivate yourself to stop drinking them.

And coffee and teas ROCK.

(Erin Macfarland ) #28

I agree they do rock, I love La Croix too. I’d forgotten Swerve has stevia!

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #29

I use the lemon and lime flavored ones to make wine spritzers. I get to have just a little wine but a full glass and it is so refreshing when the temps are in the 90s.

#30

Swerve claims to only contain erythritol and oligosaccharides:

(Jenn Monaghan) #31

I thought so. My bag of confectioners swerve only listed erythritol. So i started nutribulletting my erythritol if I need powdered sweetener.

#32

That’s what I do since straight up erythritol is way cheaper!

#33

How exactly would one check Stevia sensitivity…, by blood glucose levels before and at time intervals after? Mine stay within a few points the whole way through, and ketones are not affected either, does that mean stevia is neutral to my system? Or does it mean there is some reaction, say my glucose does rise, but then so does my insulin, thereby masking the change when I test my bg? Also, some mention Ketones fall as result of Stevia (or any NNS) use. Does this mean that blood ketone level is some indication of insulin release? Very curious, as I use Stevia very seldomly (i.e. in my morning coffee/tea a few times a week, and enjoy the occasional fat bomb) and would be a bit sad to give this up too.

(Carpe salata!) #34

The other way to test is to go off all nns for a week and see how that affects how you feel, weight, and anything else you monitor.

When I went off sugar I decided that nns were ‘not a good thing’ and I was not going to use those. I had always thought they were a bit bitter and icky. What happened was, I had to go off coffee because without the sugar, the coffee was bitter and icky :confused:

That’s when I went through my tea phase. That was a fun exploration. A year later I was back on coffee no sugar and loving it.

Just saying, things may not turn out exactly how you expect.