The Stevia Debate

This recent article in Natural News is nothing new.  It is the same discussion on a topic that has not been put to bed.  “Is Stevia Safe?” 

I often think the better question would be, is stevia a good solution relative to the state of my health?  In the 60 Day Turnaround Diet (straight 60), we talk constantly about the goals from primary to secondary goals.  Primary being sugar control, secondary being clean and anti-inflammatory.  The reason we have these goals is to fix hormones.

I establish for you because there are two possible concerns with stevia.  One is whether or not it is clean, and in this case, for arguments sake we will assume that it is not as clean as a raw organic sugar, but more clean than sucralose, aspartame or saccharin.  Clean being a measure of the chemical toxicity.

…And once Leptin is healed, cortisol will significantly reduce in production….

So if the stevia is dirty, then the only value it offers is no glycemic impact on the blood sugar, and no calories.  The question then becomes whether or not it is of value for that reason, over sugar.  Our answer is an absolute yes, but “when” becomes another question.  The answer which is found in understanding your insulin response and blood sugar balance.  And is simply a “YES consume stevia, whenever you are becoming insulin resistant or are moving towards leptin insensitivity”.

The problem, is that most of our culture is moving that way all the time, and they have no idea.

This Natural News article points out that even though there are two good studies showing that stevia serves up a pretty nice anti-diabetes punch.  It is questioned as to whether or not it is a good idea in those with normal blood sugar.  The question arises out of some opinions that the taste of sweet without the response of sweet is too stressful –

“Stevia is “sweet” on the palate, so the body assumes it is receiving sugar and primes itself to do so. Glucose is cleared from the bloodstream and blood sugars drop, but no real sugar/glucose is provided to the body to compensate. When this happens, adrenaline and cortisol surge to mobilize sugar from other sources (liver and muscle glycogen, or protein, or body tissue) to bring blood glucose back up. The whole process is stressful to the body. We don’t want to be relying on raising blood sugar at the expense of skin health, muscle mass and immune function.”

I understand this philosophy, and though I haven’t found any science to support it.  I will admit that any of my core beliefs of body function are still lacking scientific evidence.  So I give it SOME creed.  The some comes from my question, once again of the population using it.  So back to what I was saying before.  If you have been eating much like culture for the last five years, this excerpt does not matter to you.  You are too far down the path to care…. your urgency is your blood sugar first.  Why?  Why put that before cortisol?  Because even though cortisol could be mobilized, the process will be slower than the change in blood sugar from staying off of sugars.  And that process will allow an alteration in insulin and ultimately in the sensitivity to leptin.

And once Leptin is healed, cortisol will significantly reduce in production.  The reason being that cortisol is truly released in a stress situation.  But once leptin is healed, the stressor of “needing blood sugar” goes away because the body becomes efficient at burning fat for energy, and the lowered blood sugar is preserved for brain and neural function that depends on it.

This is a complex story, this leptin story.  I recommend you read other Daily Sprouts about Leptin to greater understand its role – Leptin Search

The bottom line then… if stevia is unclean, it is a great option for most people in our culture.  If stevia is clean, then it is an even better option.  If you are a healthy individual who no longer needs correction of your blood sugar, then it should really be used sparingly, but because you are able to burn fat for energy, you are decently resilient to the concern brought up by the Natural News article on cortisol production.  Hope it all makes sense!!

PS – one thing to be sure of… that your stevia is pure stevia.

Be well and be blessed – Dr E