Is Stevia Really “Natural?”
The April 26 New York Times Magazine carried a seductive ad on page 15 for PepsiCo’s “Trop50 orange juice goodness with 50% less calories and sugar…And no artificial sweeteners” PepsiCo performs this miracle by diluting the juice by half with water (really, you could do this at home). But in case the result isn’t sweet enough for you, Trop50 adds the sweetener, Stevia.
PepsiCo can get away with claiming that its juice drink has no artificial sweeteners. Because Stevia is isolated from leaves of the Stevia plant, the FDA lets companies claim it is “natural.”
We can debate whether a chemical sweetener isolated from Stevia leaves is really “natural” but here’s another problem: Stevia doesn’t taste like sugar. Companies have to fuss with it to cover up its off taste. And, they must do so “without detracting from the perceived benefits of its natural status.” Flavor companies are working like mad to find substances that block Stevia’s bitter taste, mask its off flavors, and extend its sweetness, while staying within the scope of what the FDA allows as “natural.”
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a Stevia PR representative eager for me to see the company’s website. “Naturally delicious” anyone?
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
She is the author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism and What to Eat.
You can read her Food Politics blog here:
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Comments
Anonymous
Dr Marion Nestle, I would like to hear more about the debate over the "chemical sweetener" derived form the stevia plant. Wouldn't sugar also technically be a chemical sweetener that is derived from sugar beets or cane? So is there really a difference, even semantically? (other than taste). I would bet that most people would choose this natural chemical sweetener over artificial sweeteners that were created (sometimes accidentally from poison) in a lab versus grown, cultivated and produced from the fields. What do you think?
Ben
http://swansonvitamins.blogs.com/
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