Stevia Is Best Substitute for Refined Sugar & HFCS

16. February 2009 by Shirley.

Parents tell me one of the hardest part of changing their child’s diet is pulling the bad sugar from their diet since it is virtually in everything. This is completely understandable since sugar is highly additive. Just a day off of sugar will prompt mood swings, headaches, and foggy thinking. And artificial sweeteners like Aspartame and Sucralose are worse! Neither are a good substitute for bad sugars. This is really bad stuff especially since ADD/ADHD do not detox well. Sugar was the bane of Charlie’s health and mood swings. The first thing we did was immediately start Charlie on Grapefruit seed extract and a probiotic. At first 5 drops GSE once a day with probiotic before bed. Then we worked up to GSE 15 drops 2-3 times a day for 2 weeks and 2 probiotics a day. We never took probiotic with GSE.Next we ordered Stevia extract both liquid and powder form. This stuff is like magic! Charlie loved it and it made this transition effortless. He didn’t turn into a sugar junkie looking for his next snicker bar fix. For instance, instead of purchasing pre-packaged commercial flavored oatmeal that you get at the grocery store, here’s a healthy organic alternative found in the health selection or at Whole food Grocery Stores:

Cinnamon Oatmeal

Organic oatmeal flakes that either comes in a bag or from a dispenser that you empty into your plastic bad

Organic ground cinnamon (or the flavor you desire)

Organic nuts of your choice (almonds, soy, pecans, walnuts)

Unsweetened soy or rice milk (always heat milk on stove versus microwave- it kills everything including the nutrients)

*Sprinkle stevia powder as desired to make it sweet. (remember you don’t need much!)

*1tbsp Smart Butter

*Sometimes on special occasions we even sprinkle Unsweetened, or semi sweetened Carob Vegan Chocolate chips.

Stevia is the world’s only all herbal natural sweetener with zero calories, zero carbohydrates, zero gylcemic index, and sucralose/aspartame free. It comes from a shrub that is native to Paraguay called stevia rebaundiana. It tastes a little like licorice and is sweeter than sucrose. There are no side effects or dangers associated with Stevia. In the United States, our government for some unknown reason says Stevia is not considered a sweetener, so it’s not included on any product label as a sweetener. But in the rest of the world, Stevia is known as the best natural sweetener on the market today.

When selecting Stevia always go with raw rather than bleached and select Stevia extract versus Stevia. It doesn’t take much to sweeten your drinks, smoothie, desserts, etc… Remember when it comes to this sweetener, LESS IS ALWAYS BETTER. Too much will leave your drinks tasting bitter and gross. Stevia can be put in everything. The possibilities are endless!!! You can even cook with it. Couple of things to keep in mind; NEVER cook over 400 F and for every 1 cup substitute 1 tsp stevia extract. Anytime you replace a recipe with stevia there should be 1/3 cup of liquid or bulk added back to the recipe (egg whites, water, yogurt, fruit puree, etc).

Raw Powdered stevia extract: www.steviaextractintheraw.com

Organic Liquid stevia extract: www.nowfoods.com  

Enthusiastically yours,

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