I love tea. And I love a little something sweet in it. Yet I have learned that it’s better to avoid too much sugar. Not so much for the fear of gaining weight (not exactly my problem) but because sugar tends to feed the wrong kind of processes in our body. So I was happy that, quite a few years ago, I found stevia. Stevia is a plant from the Amazone with very sweet leaves. Stevia is much sweeter than sugar, yet it has no calories or any of the other bad effects that sugar has. Stevia is available in drops and as a powder. You can get it in natural food stores as a… supplement. Yes, stevia is not supposed to be an alternative for sugar. It can only be sold as a supplement. At least that was the case until the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved stevia for use as an alternative sweetener in food just a few days ago.

This is a very important breakthrough. Lots of people use “light” versions of all kinds of food products. These products are sweetened with artificial sweeteners like aspartame. These artificial sweeteners have been suspect. Some studies seem to indicate that they are carcinogenic. Others suggest that they support rather than fight obesity. Although science may not have given the final verdict on these artificial sweeteners yet, there are good reasons to avoid these as much as possible.   Read more...