Stevioside: The Sweet Messenger of Health

In the pursuit of a healthy life today, people are paying more and more attention to the sugar intake in food. Stevioside, as a natural low-calorie sweetener, is gradually becoming a new favorite for healthy diet. Stevioside is a natural sweet ingredient extracted from stevia. Its sweetness is very high, hundreds of times that of sucrose, but its calories are extremely low and almost negligible. Therefore, stevioside has become the preferred sweetener for many low-sugar and sugar-free foods and beverages.

Source of stevioside

Stevia is a perennial herb native to Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil in South America. Its leaves are rich in stevioside. After extraction and purification processes, high-purity stevioside products can be obtained.

Health benefits of stevioside

1. Low calorie and low blood sugar reaction: Stevioside cannot be decomposed and digested by enzymes in the human digestive tract. The ingested stevioside enters the colon through the stomach and small intestine, and is fermented and utilized by intestinal microorganisms to produce short-chain fatty acids. The calorific value of stevioside is indirectly generated by short-chain fatty acids, which is about 6.3kJ/g. The indigestibility of stevioside makes it unable to cause an increase in blood sugar concentration after ingestion, and it can not increase the increase in insulin concentration in the blood, so it is suitable for diabetic patients.

2. High safety: Compared with some artificial sweeteners, stevioside is safer and does not participate in physiological and biochemical reactions in the human body. A large number of drug experiments have proved that stevioside has no toxic side effects, no carcinogenicity, and is safe to eat. Regular consumption can prevent hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, dental caries, etc. It has been approved as a food additive by many countries and is an ideal sweetener that can replace sucrose.

3. Pure taste: The sweetness of stevioside is pure and natural, and it will not produce bad aftertaste, so it is widely used in various foods and beverages.

Recommendations for the use of stevioside

Stevioside has a high sweetness and is used to replace 15%-35% of sucrose in refreshing drinks and cold drinks. It not only meets the requirements of national standards, but also does not reduce product quality. At the same time, it can improve the taste of beverages, making them refreshing and sweet, and can change the strong sweetness of sucrose; it can achieve low sugar content in beverages; the production of the same variety of fruit soda with stevia can reduce the cost by 20%-30% compared with that with sucrose. This low-sugar beverage is suitable for obese and diabetic patients, which is in line with the development direction of beverages.

As a healthy sweet messenger, stevioside not only meets people's demand for sweetness, but also reduces the health risks brought by sugar intake. When choosing and using stevioside, we should pay attention to the principle of moderation and enjoy a healthy and sweet life.

Interesting knowledge: The name of stevia comes from the Latin word "Stevia", which means "sweet leaves". In South America, local residents have had the habit of making tea with stevia leaves since ancient times to enjoy a sweet and healthy lifestyle.