Well, I was intending to wait to try it in my coffee, but...I was over
at my mother-in-law's house and it so happened she had some in a
bowl.  So I stuck my finger in and licked it...e. eer . kkkk...thud
(falls over dead).  Nah, not terrible...but it don't taste natural.
It tastes exactly like saccharin.  Right down to the sickly sweet
forever aftertaste.. I'll still try it in my coffee tomorrow and test
my BG's afterward.  With the amount of heavy cream I use, it should
kill the aftertaste if I don't use too much.  My wife believes I
should go sweetener free in my coffee but I'm holding onto this one
simple pleasure like a drowning rat.  She's lucky, she's Norwegian and
has an updated pancreas.  She can eat carbs all day with sugar on top
and have a BG of 80 the whole time.  (Grrrr).  I'm interested in
peoples opinions on the health aspect of this (Stevia) and any
articles relating to it's safety.  I've read lots of New Age stuff
promoting it and a few vague articles saying "may" or "possibly linked
to" against it, but nothing definitive.  Oh, well....it only has to
sweeten one cup of coffee per day, not raise the dead.  Love Y'all,
Andrew

Diet drinks, at least to me, have come a long way. I remember when they
first came out...yuuuck. Now, again just to me, they taste just as good as
the sticky sweet ones. I think, if aspertame were dangerous, we'd be
dropping like flies by now....lol.

John

I wrote what follows back in May 2004. I haven't seen a lot
to change my mind since. I should add that I've never used
the stuff, I'm just interested in rational evaluation of any
product that may assist us as diabetics.

Sadly, neither the anti-Stevia people here nor the
anti-aspartame twits like Murray read it in full and both
used it to support their irrational platforms.

So here it is again. I haven't checked if there is further
research since that time. Those interested could try
searching on Highwire, Scholar or Medline - or any other
good medical search resource.

Babies and Bathwater
http://tinyurl.com/37dsxj

Try something difficult.
Forget Martini for a moment.
Forget the spammers, twits, MLMers, and weirdos.

Now, pretend it's not Stevia, it's not a sweetener, it's not
promoted as an alternative to aspartame. And I'll repeat
that I have no personal interest for or against.

Let's call it "kickapoo joy juice", but in Europe the
scientists named it after their chief scientist's
girlfriend, Stephanie. And discovered that it had some
interesting outcomes when researching glycemic control
for diabetics.

I'll repeat that: not as a sweetener - as a possible future
medication, after proper research, refinement, approval and
controlled production, for glycemic control in diabetes.

Now read what I originally said again.

In case it's disappeared off your newsreader, I've repeated
it below:

from "Stevia and Glycemic Hypertension Control" May 15th
2004

Hullo All.

It appears that many people did not see this the first time
round, and it got "lost" in the expected argument on
supplements etc.

But in the various arguments on Stevia, it's safety, or
danger of side-effects, and use as a sweetener, it seems to
have been missed that there are other implications apart
from sweetness as a sugar substitute.

I should preface what follows by saying that I started
investigating this knowing nothing about Stevia other than
the statements, some quite strongly negative, made by
posters on this group and m.h.d. So I was expecting to find
negative reports on the safety of stevia.

I had no real interest in the product, have never used it,
and would not know where to buy it. But, with a little time
on my hands I decided to do a little research.

I still found no info on medscape, and little on druginfo.
But get ready for a surprise, below is what I found on
medline. The studies may be devalued by some because some
are on small groups, some are on rats, none are in the US.

But they were all recent, well after the FDA and EU
decisions, and they were all positive.

And the most surprising thing for me was not just that they
imply or say stevia is safe, but that they imply that it may
be a future drug for type 2 diabetes management. I have only
selected some of the reports, and I have only searched
medscape and medline with the term:

"stevia rebaudiana bertoni". I won't be doing any more
research at this stage, but it is certainly food for
thought. You may wish to extend this start if you have an
interest.

I will at least have an open mind on this product for the
future.

I have used selective snipping for brevity. Use the links
for further details.

[note, I've updated old links - Alan S 2007]
http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/14681845

Small study in Denmark on "Twelve type 2 diabetic patients
were included in an acute, paired cross-over study."

Stevioside acts directly on pancreatic beta cells to
secrete insulin: actions independent of cyclic adenosine
monophosphate and adenosine triphosphate-sensitive
K+-channel activity.

"In conclusion, stevioside and steviol stimulate insulin
secretion via a direct action on beta cells. The results
indicate that the compounds may have a potential role as
antihyperglycemic agents in the treatment of type 2 diabetes
mellitus."

http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/14561506

Geuns JM
Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Catholic University of
Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B 3001 Leuven, Belgium

"The conclusion is that Stevia and stevioside are safe when
used as a sweetener. It is suited for both diabetics, and
PKU patients, as well as for obese persons intending to lose
weight by avoiding sugar supplements in the diet. No
allergic reactions to it seem to exist."

http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/11924770

Phytomedicine 2002 Jan;9(1):9-14    (ISSN: 0944-7113)
Study in Denmark on rats.

"In conclusion, stevioside exerts antihyperglycaemic,
insulinotropic, and glucagonostatic actions in the type 2
diabetic GK rat, and may have the potential of becoming a
new antidiabetic drug for use in type 2 diabetes."

http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/14693305

Clin Ther 2003 Nov;25(11):2797-808    (ISSN: 0149-2918)
This study was undertaken to investigate the long-term
(2-year) efficacy and tolerability of stevioside in patients
with mild essential hypertension.

This was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind,
placebo-controlled trial in Chinese men and women aged
between 20 and 75 years with mild essential hypertension
(systolic blood pressure [SBP] 140-159 mm Hg and
diastolic blood pressure [DBP] 90-99 mm Hg). Patients took
capsules containing 500 mg stevioside powder or placebo 3
times daily for 2 years "after 2 years, 6 of 52 patients
(11.5%) in the stevioside group had left ventricular
hypertrophy (LVH), compared with 17 of 50 patients
(34.0%) in the placebo group (P < 0.001). Of those who did
not have LVH at baseline, 3 of 46 patients (6.5%) in the
stevioside group had developed LVH after 2 years, compared
with 9 of 37 patients (24.3%) in the placebo group (P <
0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In this 2-year study in Chinese
patients with mild hypertension, oral stevioside
significantly decreased SBP and DBP compared with placebo.
QOL was improved, and no significant adverse effects were
noted."

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
d&e, metformin 1500mg, ezetrol 10mg
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.
--
http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/
latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/
latest: Self-Testing and Type 2 Management

I was lucky, I guess.  I first strted drinking cofee in High School when I
wnted a  drink that wa not fattening as I was a chubby(far from obese)
teen.  I wanted something tht wasn't "babyish" to drink when I was out
with my friends adn there was no diet soda at that time.  I learned to
drink the coffee black and unsweetened adn do so to this day.  

Wendy

I buy liquid Splenda from Canada, no fillers. I use a single drop in
my morning tea, just the right amount of sweet : )  You could probably
buy liquid Stevia, too, or try the uncut leaf - personally, as it's
illegal to own over here, I'll just stick with the chlorinated
sugar...

Nicky.
T2 dx 05/04 + underactive thyroid
D&E, 100ug thyroxine
Last A1c 5.6%  BMI 25

Nothing to do with stevia, but have you thought of trying
cinnamon with your coffee. I had never been a black coffee
drinker, always took milk. However, I found that even the
small quantity of carbs in the milk in my morning coffee
would spike me. So I tried it black and didn't like it much
regardless of the sweetener I used.

Then someone asked the regular standard "what about cinnamon
for BG's" question (we should post a standard monthly answer
to that one:-) and I decided to check it out. It did nothing
for my BG's - but made the black coffee palatable - and now
I like it as a start to the day (excuse me ...sip
...*aaaahh*).

I found that powdered cinnamon was no good - it caused a
gluggy mess at the bottom of the mug. Instead I crumble some
of a piece of cinnamon bark into the ground beans in my
coffee-maker so only the flavour is infused and not the
powder.

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
d&e, metformin 1500mg, ezetrol 10mg
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.
--
http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/
latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/
latest: Self-Testing and Type 2 Management

WHO NEEDS ALL THAT WEIRD STUFF ANYWAY?