The Crazy Side Effect Of Stevia That No One Knows About

Over the years we have tried to replace sugar with things like high fructose corn syrup, agave, monk fruit, and stevia. Recently, stevia has become the sugar darling as a low calorie replacement that doesn’t cause spikes in insulin. It's become hard to find packaged natural health products that don't contain stevia, from drinks to cookies to energy bars.

The stevia plant is found to grow naturally in tropical areas of Latin America and has been used for centuries. It’s sweet taste comes from two primary glycosides—stevioside and rebaudioside. If you look at the label on certain brands you will see they only use rebaudioside because it has less of the bitter aftertaste with 450 times the sweetness of table sugar.

We have already seen that sugar is the root cause of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Using a sugar replacement like stevia may—emphasis on may—reduce the incidence of these conditions. That said, there are studies1 that show stevia can reduce fertility and act as a form of birth control.

While I wouldn’t recommend avoiding stevia if you are trying to get pregnant nor using it as a form of contraception, this is clearly an area where more research needs to be done—and it might be a sign that we don't want to give stevia a 100% free pass and consume it in myriad products throughout the day. It’s also important to note that it is still a processed food in the form available to most Americans.

I recommend, when possible, minimizing your consumption. Even if it is safe to consume stevia, it may still alter your taste buds making a carrot taste like cardboard instead of naturally sweet. In an ideal world, you would make your own from the leaves of the stevia plant. If that sounds too labor intensive for you, make sure to follow these label guidelines as not all brands are created equal.

There are a few things I recommend.