I would use it over artificial sweetners any day! Taste is about the same (as other artificial sweetners) if you ask me - but without the headache saccharin gives me or the upset tummy aspartame gives me. In short, I use this or sugar.

i have tried stevia and did not like it. subsequently found splenda which was great until i heard negative stuff about it. since then i have discovered xylitol. google this and learn about this delicious sweetener.

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I love Stevia in liquids or for fruit pies, however it has no body for making cookies or baked goods. I think that's the idea; we really shouldn't be eating that stuff anyway!
My Naturopathic doctor says cancer feeds on sugar, and this is the only sweetener which doesn't "feed" the cancer cells! I have cronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and am trying to curb by sweet tooth.
I also understand some people treat Diabetes with Stevia as an herbal supplement. It is certainly worth a try and if you like your Tim Horton's coffee "Double Double" try replacing the sugar with stevia.
One caveat: it can be bitter if you put too much. Buy the paper packets and use about a 1/2 packet.

Stevia is not freely available in india.
Splenda and Sugar Free Natura is the most popular.
Please advise the correct usage of Stevia.

Someone gave me stevia in a bottle. How much equals 1 tsp. Does anyone know?

I use stevia every day, made by SweetLeaf. It comes in little packets and contains added 1g of fiber (which Splenda also started adding recently). I get it in the organic/natural foods section of my market. One little packet of stevia does provide very adequate sweetening power for even a strong cup of coffee. When I drink tea, I will either use half the packet or none at all. I really have learned to either eliminate sugar from things or save it for special, occasional treats. I haven't tried using it for baking. I prefer it to Splenda since it is a natural product, not chemical.

I have tried many varieties of Stevia (most have a bitter/strange taste)
I discovered a powdered Stevia In NOW supplements . It comes in packets/or powder which I desolve in water and put it in a small squirt bottle.I squirt a few drops in my drinks (the powder has a hard time disolving in cold drinks.) It is sweet and no aftertaste.

Try it. It's healthy etc.

M.L.

In the diabetic internet community Stevia has been around for a long time and generally been avoided. I do not remember all the details about problems that it causes, nor do I have the room to list them all. Some that I remember are that it is said to cause mutations, and liver damage.

The nastiest problem is that it contains a naturally occuring sulfonylurea. This is a class of pharmaceuticals used to increase insulin production in people. Taking this kind of drug without a prescription or usage instruction can cause adverse drug reactions. In this case, the most likely is hypoglycemia, low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia, can cause a person to lose consciousness and if severe enough can cause immediate death. ( You die. Period. Not you get cancer in twenty years and die. You die ... right here and now. )

I have used stevia, but some of the stevia products have a strange taste, however NunNaturals makes one that is VERY good, and tastes a lot like sugar.

Sorry, but I mis-spelled the company in the above comment. It is NuNatural.

Suzanne Somers puts it in all her deserts, you can bake with it, and it doesn't cause a spike in insulin levels.

I have been using Stevia in everything that I liked sweetened. I like the liquid form which can be bought at Henrys, or any whole food store. It only takes a few drops, and is satisfying. I use to use until I ended up with unexplainable dizziness, and my equalibrium was off pretty bad. I had all kinds of test, and nothing showed up. So I went to a Splenda blog and discovered that Spenda is very dangerous, within 6 months I was cured of the dizzyness and all the other symtoms. Since then on occassion I have drank some juice with Splenda and within one a few days the dizziness and equalibrium problems returned. Splenda is toxic. Since I have been using Stevia, I have not had any health issues.

It was Splenda not Stevia that caused the problems I wrote about above. For some reason, where I wrote I use, Splenda was left out. Just Clarifiying.

FYI-Liquid stevia is very concentrated, I used to use 3 teaspoons of sugar, or 3 packs of artifical sweetners, but Stevia I use 6 to 8 drops, and this is even to sweet for my husband.

I have tried many varieties of Stevia (most have a bitter/strange taste)
I discovered a powdered Stevia In NOW supplements . It comes in packets/or powder which I desolve in water and put it in a small squirt bottle.I squirt a few drops in my drinks (the powder has a hard time disolving in cold drinks.) It is sweet and no aftertaste.

Has anyone seen the packets of something called "Truvia" that is sold by the Splenda, Equal and Sweet & Lo but is supposedly different than all of them. I believe it's stevia. So has something changed about its FDA acceptance? It certainly costs more.

My personal trainer recommended Stevia. It tastes great & It's Natural!

I don't really trust the FDA simply because they do allow products like Splenda and other obviously-bad-for-us ingredients on the market. Many times the FDA tends to act more in the interest of big business than the general public. Just because they haven't approved Stevia doesn't change the fact that it's a plant that grows out of the ground, and the alternatives are unnatural chemical compounds. There's no competition as to what I'd rather put in my body.

I used Splenda for a long time until I read up on it-so I started using Stevia and I used it for about 6 months or so. I began getting tingling and redness around my mouth and I could not find anything on the internet saying much about any affects from using it but I stopped using it because that was the only "newer" addition to my diet-after a few days I do not have that tingling feeling around my mouth or any redness. Not sure if it is coincidence or a side affect but I no longer use Stevia as a sweetener.

Stevia grows naryurally in my country, Paraguay. Here it is known by its native name, Ka'a He'e. Indigenous people as well as the population here use Stevia leaves as sweeteners, treatment for diabetes and metabolic regulator.