stevia herbal

White stevia is not the same chemically, nor does it have any calories, but it is a chemically processed powder that has been removed from the stevia leaf – just like white sugar is just the very sweet sucrose removed from sugar cane or sugar beets.

The sweet chemical is a glycoside which is called stevioside and has about a 10% concentration in the stevia plant leaf. Most white powders contain an extract that is up to 80-90% steviocide.

While there has been little negative study about white powdered stevia, these products have the potential to do more harm than good because any extract has potential to be more potent than the original food or herb. (This doesn’t mean all extracts are bad.)

Also many of the white stevia powders use large amounts of maltodextrin to cut the strong sweet flavor of stevia extract.

Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide (or carbohydrate) that is used as an additive to soften the flavor of the steviocide (it’s also preferred because it doesn’t clump.) Maltodextrin is usually derived from GMO feed corn using chemicals, bleaching agents and other very-unnatural processes.

On top of all of this – and the biggest reason we don’t use it – is that the manufacturers of most white stevia are big industrial giants which as you probably can understand are not farmers or anyone that I’d want to trust with my food or support with my money. Cargill produces Truvia – their flagship stevia product.

So regardless of the assumed safety of a product like this, to me it makes no sense to use it if I can get a bag of perfectly natural green leaf powder – the entire plant intact with minerals, minus the water.

(Plus, you can support small, conscious businesses like ours or others when you get this pure form of the product! You can buy stevia in our store here.)