STEVIA - What is Stevia?

Stevia is a green, leafy plant that is native to South America. 

It has been used for medicinal purposes for many centuries. The plant has also been bred for its strong, sweet flavor and used as a sweetener. 

However, the refined stevia sweeteners used today often don’t resemble the whole stevia plant at all. 

You can buy whole or crushed stevia leaves, but most often you are getting an extract (either liquid or powder), or a refined version of the plant’s isolated sweet compounds. 

The two major sweet compounds that are isolated from the stevia leaves are called Stevioside and Rebaudioside A. These two compounds are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar.

Here is an important point… most of the studies use stevioside, the isolated sweet compound. It would be hard to reach pharmacologically active doses of stevioside just by using stevia as a sweetener. Stevia is about 10% stevioside, by weight.

People often confuse stevia with another sweetener called Truvia, but they are not the same. Truvia is a blend of compounds, one of which is extracted from stevia leaves.

Bottom line: 
Stevia is a naturally occurring, zero-calorie sweetener. The two major sweet compounds in stevia are called Stevioside and Rebaudioside A.


Source: http://authoritynutrition.com/stevia