More on Stevia

Erin has used Stevia for 9 years.......!
Apparently it is okay to be considered a sweetener now. I saved an article out of a local newspaper about Stevia and Agave Nectar. Seems I'm pretty behind on knowing about these sweeteners. Apparently the two sweeteners are showing up in cocktails, bottled drinks and a host of other products. The article stated that "In December 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of rebaudioside A or reb-A, a derivative of the stevia plant, for use in foods and beverages in the United States, provided it is at least 95 percent PURE. Rev-A is 300 times sweeter than sugar". Pepsi uses the brand PureVia to sweeten their SoBe Lifewater products. "Agave nectar also is showing up as a substitute for the much maligned high-fructose corn syrup in products such as ketchup and barbecue sauce". The article also states that when using agave as an alternative to sugar, you should lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees because agave tends to brown more quickly. I didn't really know that. Also, when I've experimented with agave, I used the Light syrup.. next time I think I'll try using the Amber Agave Nectar, which is considered to have more of a caramel flavor which may be better in cookie recipes. Although Agave has a low glycemic index and takes a longer time to convert to glucose .. helping keep glucose steady... it's still a sugar. I'd really like to try using stevia soon. I wonder how to alter the rest of recipes. Since stevia is very strong, you wouldn't have all the dry ingredients. Less wet ingredients? stevia in a liquid form? hmmm. I'll have to figure out what to do.


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