A Sampling of Stevia Products
Some are sold as supplements, some as sweeteners
There are a slew of new stevia products on the market, and you can expect even more now that Coca-Cola and Cargill have gotten behind the herb. It's good to try more than one brand: As with coffee blends, the taste of different products can vary considerably. Many companies mix other natural sweeteners, such as the sugar alcohol erythritol or the carbohydrate maltodextrin, into stevia products to mask a slightly bitter aftertaste or add bulk.
Stevia-based sweeteners don't break down in high temperatures as some artificial sweeteners do, so they can be used in baking, says James Kirkland, the author of Sugar-Free Cooking With Stevia. But they don't caramelize the way sugar does, which means you may have to experiment a bit to get good results with some of your favorite recipes.
Here's an overview of some of the products already on the market:
| Product Name | Company | Marketed As | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| SweetLeaf | Wisdom Natural Brands | A sweetener | $6.99/box of 50 packets |
| Truvia | Coca-Cola/Cargill | A sweetener | $3.99/box of 40 packets |
| Simply Stevia | Stevita Stevia Co. | A dietary supplement | $9.95/box of 100 packets |
| Only Sweet | Sunwin Stevia International | A dietary supplement | $8.59/box of 100 packets |
Reader Comments
98 percent stevia sweet glycosides
SweetLeaf® Sweetener™ OFFERS ONLY 100% NATURAL STEVIA SWEETENER
Wisdom Natural Brands’ formulation is purest product available in market
GILBERT, Ariz. (July 10, 2008) – Many players in the beverage industry are working frantically to bring the latest craze in sweeteners to the marketplace – but only one provider can boast claims to have the purest, most natural formulation of stevia available – Wisdom Natural Brands’ SweetLeaf® Sweetener™.
“I don’t want consumers to be mistaken or misled by claims that other products out there are all-natural when they’re not,” said May. “Some of our competitors are mixing stevia with agents that are not natural. In some cases, these may even mitigate the health benefits of stevia.”
In production more than a month now and making its way into retailers, SweetLeaf® Sweetener™ stands alone as the ONLY stevia-based sweetener that uses only pure water in its proprietary extraction process. Unlike Truvia™, the Cargill/Coca Cola stevia product, SweetLeaf® does not have to pass its product thought absorption resins nor “elute” its stevia in a final stage utilizing either methanol (wood alcohol) or ethanol, according to their just released study, or add “natural flavors” to improve its taste.
“Stevia is the gold of the sweetener market,” said Wisdom Natural Brands CEO Jim May. “Many companies will jump on the bandwagon to bring products with stevia to market, and consumers need to be aware of what they’re buying.”
Just this week, the use of steviol glycosides (the sweet substance of the stevia leaves) was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a safe food additive, bringing additional credibility and demand for the product in European countries. The requirements call for products to contain a minimum of 95 percent steviol (steviosides). SweetLeaf® is the only brand on the market containing 98 percent stevia sweet glycosides, the highest of all competitors.
Wisdom Natural Brands has been working doggedly over the past several months to bring a consistently pure stevia product to market before any competitors and received approval for its product in March 2008. Unlike artificial sweeteners which may contain chemicals, formaldehyde, acetic acids and chlorine, SweetLeaf® Sweetener™ is the first and only stevia extract to have received GRAS status (generally recognized as safe), enabling the company to expand the product beyond the dietary supplements market and sit alongside sugar and other sweetening alternatives in grocery store aisles. The new sweetener is available at www.sweetleaf.com and is arriving in retail outlets now. SweetLeaf® Sweetener™ is completely calorie-free, all-natural, and has a zero glycemic index. No other stevia product can make this claim.
Long used in the United States as a dietary supplement and nutritional additive, stevia is a naturally sweet plant, native to Paraguay, that is 30 times sweeter than sugar. The pure glycosides that are extracted from the stevia leaves are 250 to 400 times sweeter than sugar.
SweetLeaf® Stevia has gained an underground following in recent years among celebrities, health gurus, professional cooks, nutritionists, doctors and anyone looking for low-carb diet alternatives. The product can be used in beverages, cooking, baking and anywhere sugar might be used.
Gilbert, Ariz.-based Wisdom Natural Brands® is the parent company of the highly respected consumer brands known as: SweetLeaf® Sweetener™, and Wisdom of the Ancients® herbal teas. The company will soon be fillng orders of its new stevia extract in bulk to major food and beverage manufacturers. The company also offers SteviaClear™ Liquid, SteviaTabs™ and a wide variety of Liquid Stevia Flavors. Recipes, equivalency charts and more information are available at www.sweetleaf.com.
SweetLeaf B-roll Footage Link: From harvesting in Paraguay to packaging in Chicago
MEDIA CONTACT: Melanie Blair or Sara Fleury
(602) 277-9530 ext. 229 or 226
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