Stevia——A New Option to Reduce Sugar Without Reducing Sweetness

Everyone likes to eat ice cream and iced drinks in summer. Sweet and refreshing, it's so happy to take a bite of ice and cool down. Of course, we all know that eating too much sugar is unhealthy, easy to gain weight, acne, and tooth decay. Is there any way to satisfy our desire to eat sweets happily, but also with low calories? Hey, there really are!

Sugar substitutes can satisfy your desire to eat sweet without getting fat. It is human nature to like to eat sweets. Sugar can stimulate our brain to produce dopamine, which makes people feel satisfied and happy. However, eating too much sugar is unhealthy, but completely sugar-free will inevitably feel dull. The emergence of sugar substitutes can just solve the dilemma. They are very low in calories and hardly produce calories, which is very friendly to people who love sugar.

This time, let's take a closer look at Stevia. Stevia is a natural sweetener, which is a glycoside extracted from the leaves of stevia rebaudiana, a plant of Compositae. Stevia is native to Paraguay and Brazil, and it has the characteristics of high sweetness and low calorie. The sweetness is 200-300 times that of sucrose, and the calorific value is only 1/300 of that of sucrose. It is often used as a food sweetener.

Stevia with a purity of more than 80% are white to light yellow crystals or powders, easily soluble in water and ethanol. Stevia are heat-resistant and light-resistant, very stable in the pH range of 3-10, and easy to store. The solution has good stability, and it is still very stable after heat treatment within the pH range of general beverages and foods.

When mixed with sucrose, fructose, glucose, etc., the sweetness of Stevia is more pure. Stevia do not change much when stored in an organic acid solution containing sucrose for half a year; it does not decompose in an acid-base medium and it can prevent fermentation, discoloration and precipitation. The sweetness of stevioside is pure and cool lingeringly. Its dissolution temperature has a great relationship with its sweetness. Generally, it has high sweetness when dissolved at low temperature, and has a good taste but low sweetness after dissolved at high temperature.

Advantages of Stevia.

1. High security. Residents of the origin of Stevia (Paraguay, Brazil, etc. in South America) have been eating them for hundreds of years, and no toxicity has been found so far.

2. Low calorific value. It is used to make low-calorie foods and drinks, and is very suitable for dieters who want to eat sugar but do not want to take in too many calories.

3. Stevia are easily soluble in water and alcohol, and taste better when mixed with sucrose and fructose.

4. Stevia are non-fermentable substances, stable in nature, not prone to mildew, will not generate changes in the production of food and beverages, and are easy to store and transport.

5. Stability. Under normal food and beverage processing conditions, the properties of Stevia are quite stable, which is beneficial to reduce viscosity, inhibit bacterial growth, and prolong product shelf life.

Application of Stevia.

Stevia have high sweetness and long duration without browning, which is very beneficial to maintain the true color of beverages and foods. The use of Stevia to replace part of sucrose in processed foods and beverages can not only reduce costs, but also meet the requirements of food and beverages gradually becoming low-sugar. It can be used in candied preserved fruit, candy, pastry, jelly, puffed food, seasoning, beverage, flavored fermented milk, etc.

As a new type of natural sweetener, Stevia has been favored by people and widely promoted. Pay attention when using:

1. When using Stevia, it is necessary to determine different dissolving methods, stirring methods and other processing methods according to different products, which cannot be stereotyped.

2. The taste of most Stevia is close to that of sucrose, but some products have more or less licorice flavor. When using it, it is necessary to eliminate the taste of licorice and maintain its sweetness.