Natural Sweeteners

One of the best natural sweeteners that has been around for literally centuries is stevia. Many of you may be familiar with stevia. The USA took a long time before they would allow stevia to be sold here. The FDA has approved stevia (not that I necessarily agree that if the FDA has approved anything it is good for you). But what will happen now is that we are likely to begin seeing foods made with stevia.

My recommendation regarding stevia is to be sure you get pure stevia. There are products out there like Truvia and PureVia which actually not only have stevia in them, but the manufacturers mix the stevia with erythritol. See yesterday's post regarding erythritol. I do not recommend the blended stevia products.

There are some other natural sweeteners out there and those include raw honey, organic maple syrup, and sorghum syrup. Unlike stevia, these three natural sweeteners have about the same number of calories as refined sugar. But they are far better for your body then refined sugar.