stivia

new to this forum, I have type two diabetes and I learn a lot from this forum already, things that the doctor don't tell you, I am not on medication yet I am trying diet first, so cut out any form of sugar and reduced my carb intake by 50% I'll see the result at the next test, I have some questions if some one can answers for me; is any one have used Stivia as a sugar substitute? and also what is the effect of wine on the sugar level?

Thank you

I use Stevia as my primary sweetner. I grow it in my herb garden. You use the leaves just like you would use fresh mint. I dry out the leaves and crush them, throw fresh leaves in hot teas, and steep them to make concentrated liquid sweetners.  You can buy Stevia in both powdered and liquid forms. I prefer liquid because some brands of powders have maltodextrin (a sugar) added for bulk. The brand carried by Whole Foods comes in plain, and flavored forms ( vanilla creme, mandarin orange, chocolate raspberry). I use the flavored ones in the plain greek style yogurt that I eat for breakfast.

If you use too much of the concentrated liquid- it can leave a licorice like after taste- that doesn't happen if you use the fresh leaves.

I understand that you can use it in baking and cooking because it can withstand the heat- I'm not sure, because I don't use it for cooking. It does not raise my blood sugar, even in fairly large amounts- I recently made southern style sweet tea with it ( and it was very very sweet) and my sugar didn't budge. It's a great sweetner for me.

sandy

I'm very jealous! Stevia doesn't have official Food Standards Agency approval for sale and distribution over here in the UK, so I can't get my hands on any. It seems mad to me that a perfectly natural herb should effectively be prohibited while all sorts of suspicious chemicals are actively promoted. I don't get it at all.

I'd love to try and grow my own, which would circumvent the daft legal prohibition. Can anyone help me!?

All the best,

fergusc

Thank you all for the reply I was asking about stivia because after my doctor find my sugar level at 6.1 I cut out all the sugar in my diet and at the following check up my levell went down to 3.5, only to discover at the next check up that my sugar level was back at 6.3, so the only main difference, was that I substitute stivia to normal sweeteners, stivia is readly available here in South Africa, both as a plant and as a powder and it was reccomended by my health store.

so now I have cut a lot of carb from my diet and see if that help, before I decide to go on medication.

Thank you, great forum