Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons, self raising flower
• 1 teaspoon of Stevia Extract in the Raw
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of non-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon of oil

Directions

1. Mix flour, stevia and cocoa: Spoon in 1 egg.
2. Pour in milk and oil, and mix well.
3. Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power. (1000watt)
4. Wait until it stops rising and let it set in the mug.
5. Tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy while warm and delicious!

1. It is indeed, made from corn
2. Corn is milled into corn starch
3. Corn starch is processed into glucose
4. The glucose is then enzymed to become fructose

So far, so good. Arguably all-natural, in a Splenda kind of way, I guess. But then why would people say those horrible things about high fructose corn syrup? You know, those mean things that the ad wants you to define but you can’t. Well, let’s explore. First off, let’s address the name itself – “High Fructose Corn Syrup.” Just the name itself makes you think that we’re consuming something in a large quantity already. But that name is misleading. The “high” part of “high fructose” is only in relation to the level of normal fructose itself, not to sweeteners in general.

For example, the NYT reports that the high fructose corn syrup you can find in pop (or soda to you easterners) is 55% fructose, 45%glucose, where as regular white sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose.  No big difference whatsoever. So there’s nothing particularly damning about high fructose corn syrup at this point. It is, indeed, in line with regular sugar, so why the hate people?

Well, I think it goes back to something that stuck out funny about that video I linked to. I had to rewind it several times to understand what the woman pouring the juice was saying. She said, “…and that like sugar, it’s fine in moderation.”  I could understand their entire exchange, except for this little segment. And I wonder if it’s on purpose. (You know, like when you’re answering a question but you’re not sure of the answer, you muffle it…)

“Fine in moderation.” Now come on people, do we, as Americans, do anything in moderation? If we did, we wouldn’t buy houses we couldn’t afford, we wouldn’t have a national personal savings rate of -.5%, and we would not be growing fatter and fatter at alarming rates since the 1950′s. BTW, this is also something that people point to when they say high fructose corn syrup is the fat making culprit. Because it was introduced in the mid 50′s, and that’s when people started getting fat. I don’t think that’s particularly fair, but let me continue with my “in moderation” thought.

So, the ad says that high fructose corn syrup, like table sugar, when consumed in moderation, is fine. So let me ask you, dear reader, what do you think is a moderate yearly amount of high fructose corn syrup for an individual to consume? Ah, there’s the rub. There’s no handbook is there that says, Jimmy, you can consume ten cups of high fructose corn syrup each year. So what do you think moderate means? My example of ten cups seems about right doesn’t it? Well, no. Because high fructose corn syrup is in almost everything you eat, from wonderbread to yoghurt, you’re actually consuming a whole lot more than you think. Estimates put the average American’s consumption of high fructose corn syrup at 40 to 70 pounds per year!!! Let me put that into perspective. Every year, you are consuming a 5 year old to a 10 year old child’s weight in high fructose corn syrup. Go ahead, munch on that! Imagine you’re in Willy Wonka’s factory and there’s a 10 year old child sized piece of candy. Would you eat it all? I think not? That’s not being moderate!

I’m sure if you ate a 10 year old child’s bodyweight worth of anything, you’d gain some pounds. But when it comes to sweeteners, you really don’t have to do that. With something like stevia, which is 200-300 times sweeter than sugar, you don’t have to consume all that sugar. If you ate the same as you do now, and everything is using a stevia sweetener like Stevia Extract in the Raw instead of high fructose corn syrup, you’d consume only .23 pounds worth of stevia in the entire year. Something to think about people!

1. Why do you have so much time?
2. What’s the real difference between all the sweeteners?

Question one should be relatively self explanatory, so I’ll answer question two. The three main sugar substitutes that we humans have mainstreamed are:

Sweet n Low (saccharine)
Equal (aspartame)
Splenda (sucralose)

Saccharine is an artificial sweetener created back in the 1950′s by a father and son duo. They licensed the artificial sugar substitute to a company and called it “Sweet n Low.” That’s the pink packet you see in all the restaurants.

Then there’s Aspartame, another artificial sugar substitute discovered in the late ’60′s but introduced to consumers in the 1980′s. The most popular brand of Aspartame is Equal in the blue packet.

The final standard three artificial sugar substitute is sucralose, or what people commonly know as Splenda. Sucralose was created in 1976 but wasn’t mainstreamed in the US until the 1990′s.  What’s interesting about Splenda is that when they first launched their product, the tag line was, “Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar.” Now, because sucralose is artificial, that tag line could be a little misleading right? Well the people at Equal thought so too and sued Splenda. Result? Splenda’s tag line now says, “Starts with sugar, tastes like sugar, but is not sugar.”

So those are the old artificial sugar substitutes that we all grew up with. Now we have new kids on the block. We’ve got a selection of relatively new, natural products. We’ve got Erythritol, a natural sugar alcohol based sweeteners. We also have Stevia, like the ones made by Stevia Extract in the Raw: This all natural sweetener comes from the stevia plant.

These two newer sugar substitutes are all natural and were not developed from a chemist’s kit.  Even the sugar alcohol, Erythritol, is a naturally occuring thing. (Just because you’ve never heard of sugar alcohol before doesn’t mean it didn’t exist!!!)

It was late last night, I just got off of work when I stopped off at my supermarket to pick up some supplies. It just so happens that I was out of  Stevia so I was in that aisle when I noticed a new product named “Ideal.”

“Hmm,” I thought, “something that’s ideal’s gotta be good right?” So I read the label as all curious minds should with foods these days. It turns out that this product is a natural and synthetic blend. 99% natural with 1% synthetic. The box looks like it should be all natural, but it’s not. So to that end, I ask, “Why make natural unnatural?”  Simply put, if I order Filet Mignon at some fancy French restaurant, I expect that 100% of that be Filet Mignon. Don’t hand me a plate that’s 99% Filet Mignon and 1% Hamburger Helper. That’s BS.  See what I’m saying? If it’s sugar, leave it at sugar. If it’s Stevia, leave it at Stevia.

Then, I read that this food flavoring and fragrance company named Givaudan (sp?) has somehow identified the tastebuds on your tongue that detect the licorice-y taste of Stevia and that they’re going to develop flavors that counteract or turn off these taste buds so that Stevia just tastes sweet.  So again, that’s like taking broccoli and engineering them to taste to Sloppy Joes just so it’s palatable. What Givaudan or what ever their name is should do is just buy stock in companies like Stevia Extract in the Raw or Truevia or Purevia or something like that where they already figured out that whole remove-the-licorice taste thing.

Aspartame (NutraSweet Equal)
Approx. 18 milligrams per pound of weight
or
15 cans of diet soda per day for a 150 pound person

Saccharine (Sweet n Low)
Approx. 2.25 milligrams per pound of weight
or
3 packets a day (go easy on that coffee!)

Stevia (Stevia Extract in the Raw)
Approx. 5.4 milligrams per pound of weight
or
30 packets a day for a 150 pound person!!!
Just to put this into perspective, a quarter teaspoon of Stevia is enough to make your coffee sweet.  So if you assume that a packet is about a teaspoon, that’s 120 cups of coffee you’d have to consume in one day!  If you do that, I believe Stevia would be the least of your problems!

Sucralose (Splenda)
6.8 milligrams per pound of weight
or
15 cans of diet soda per day (I know, this is the same amount of soda as Aspartame you say. Aspartame you can take 18 milligrams per pound of body weight while Splenda is 6.8 milligrams you say. Well, you’re right, but it takes less Splenda to do the same amount of sweetening as Aspartame, so you consume less overall. And right now, we’re all about consuming less aren’t we?)

For the sugar substitute article, click here.

So you wonder why the title of this entry suggests that Stevia may be the great equalizer for this world. Well, besides it being all natural, zero calorie and zero carbs, 200 times more sweet than sugar (meaning you use less of it, thus a smaller resource footprint for your existence) Stevia is apparently half of the equation for… get this… fission. Yes sir, sheriff, sir, I said FISSION!  Well, actually, I didn’t say it. Dan Quinn said it. You remember Dan Quinn don’t you?  Frankly, I don’t either. But anyway, he was an MMA fighter with the other promotion company that doesn’t do UFC. Anyway, so there are a series of videos out there of Dan Quinn using Stevia and another element to create “fission” in his kitchen.

Just a little physics refresher for you, fission is the process where an atom is split releasing energy in the forms of heat, gamma rays, and free neutrons.

So, this MMA guy says he can create fission in his kitchen using Stevia (Probably Stevia Extract in the Raw because it’s the purest and you always want to start with the purest form of any element that you’ll be splitting particles of), water and a blender. Yes that’s right, Stevia, water and a blender will recreate fission just like the $6.4 billion Large Hadron Collider that took over 10,000 scientists from over 100 countries 30 years to build.  Go ahead, you’ll win a Nobel Peace Prize for something I’m sure.

The best part about this whole Stevia fission thing is that, according to the MMA feller, you can then drink the remaing water, which, as a byproduct of fission, is apparently a very good health supplement. The gentleman claims to have lost a ton of weight from drinking fission water.

You be the judge. I’m just presenting all sides and angles on what Stevia is… or isn’t.

Here’s a link to the video. Let me just say this, he’s not really using Stevia Extract in the Raw, he’s using Stevia from like from a supplement store. Also, he snorts the Stevia too. Don’t do that.  Don’t do it. It’s just not right. This guy apparently took one too many Kimbo Slice hits to his head so just watch the video for entertainment sake, don’t replicate, okay?

Because Stevia had this long history of off-radar consumption, the process of making your own Stevia extract is well documented. So if you so desire to create your own Stevia extract, here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Get a Stevia plant. But you can’t just buy seeds for one. You have to make sure that you get a Stevia plant that comes from a line that is high is steviosides, or the sweet tasting element in Stevia. You can’t tell that from a seed so it’s best to try to get a clipping from a Stevia plant that you know for sure is sweet.

2. Early morning harvesting of Stevia leaves.  Just like coconuts, it is best to harvest the Stevia leaves in the early morning when all the essential oils and minerals are up in the parts of the plant that you want to consume. 

3. Preparation.  Clean the plant thoroughly.  Since this process we are embarking on concentrates chemicals, if you have stuff like pesticides on your plants, this will only concentrate the pesticides, so I wouldn’t suggest you do it. But if your Stevia plant is pesticide free, chop the leaves semi-course to almost finely chopped to try to open up as much surface area of the Stevia leaves as possible. Try not to mangleand mash the leaves too much or you’ll start drawing out a bitter taste.

3a. Now, supposedly, and I don’t know this for sure, if you heat up the leaves to between 60-200 degrees C, you can somewhat kill that licorice taste. I think that’ll dry out the leaves and make it harder to make a good Stevia extract, but I’ll let you decide on what the best way to do it is.

4. Extract the Stevia Essence. Soak the Stevia leaves in grain alcohol for 24 hours, not to exceed 48. Some people prefer vodka or flavored vodkas to try to add a different flavor or to mask that licorice after-taste. 24 hours seems to be the magic number to pulling out the Stevia plant’s sweetness. Too long and you start drawing out the bitterness.

5. Strain the mixture. Put a coffee filter or two together and use it to strain the Stevia leaves and other plant matter out of your Stevia extract solution. What remains should be a greenish alcohol solution.

6. Remove alcohol from Stevia Extract. This is done by placing the mixture over a low flame for approximately 20-30 minutes to cook off the alcohol. Since Stevia is heat-stable to over 200 degrees, you have nothing to worry about here, it won’t carmelize like sugar and end up like a giant brick of stevia at the bottom of your pan.  

7. Store in a refridgerator and consume as you see fit. Remember, this Stevia extract is 300 times sweeter than sugar, so go easy on that morning coffee, buddy.

I know this seems like a lot to go through to get Stevia extract for yourself to consume, but if you like tinkering, and cooking, it might be the perfect afternoon project for you. Or, if you’re like me and too lazy to do that, just go buy it in a store.  Some brands you might want to check out are at these urls: www.soooosweet.com or www.SteviaExtractInTheRaw.com.

According to the research performed and published by the Journal of Phytomedicine, it would appear that Stevia actually promotes the absorption and creation of insulin. This, in turn, helps to increase the effective regulation of blood glucose levels the blood stream.  It was suggested, at the time by the researchers, that Stevia extract may be the core of some new diabetic medication suitable for those suffering from Type 2 Diabetes (just like the little Jonas Brothers guy) But the only hold up is that in order for Stevia to have that affect, a person would have to consume approximately 20 grams of it, and let me tell you something right now. I don’t care if it’s Stevia or sugar or something as benign as gold, 20 grams is too much for a person to consume of anything. So unless someone figures out how to compress the beneficial health effects of 20 grams of stevia into a pinch of it, this isn’t going to work.

Please, someone finish this research and cure Diabetes so we can STOP hearing about the Jonas Brothers!

So let’s ignore government waste and unbridled spending, double dipping and corruption in the everyday agenda of politicians for a moment and just accept their decision to raise taxes on soda at face value – to make people consume less soda. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. People certainly haven’t stopped smoking or drinking because of the tax, so why would this work. Quite frankly it won’t, it’s just an excuse to try to make up for the burgeoning budget deficit. For instance, NY state wants to implement 18% tax on soda. That’s an estimated $420 MILLION dollars a year for New York state to squander! But I guess $420 million is a small price to pay to ensure that there aren’t too many fat kids running around.

But let’s look on the other side of the coin for a second. What does that do to Coke and Pepsi and Schweppes and Pennsylvania Dutch and all of those other soft drink folks? Can you imagine if everything you sold in your store had to be marked up an additional 18%, all of which you don’t even get? So now your stuff is more expensive because the government branded your products as menaces to society and want to punish you for making your product. What does that do to your bottom line? How much will you lose in sales? And if Coke and Pepsi fold because of this action, we’ll ultimately have to give them Federal bailout funds anyway to keep them afloat because they’re too big to Chapter 11, so we’ll pay even more money than ever as tax payers. It’s an absolutely vicious cycle that government has placed us is, and fortunately for us, the soda makers are actually thinking through this problem rather than taking the quick fix.

Coke has announced that it is coming out with a new line of Coke using Stevia. Sprite will have a new product too called Sprite Green. All these new sodas, using Stevia Rebiana as a sweetener, will bypass all that fat tax BS because Stevia is all-natural and 0 calories. So there’s no more empty, kid-fattening calories anymore, so the government can’t do their soda tax anymore. Well, let’s just hope that’s the case.

Oh, and if you’re a tea or coffee drinker reading this, I certainly hope that you don’t like hopping up your cup with cream, half-and-half or, dare I say it – sugar! The government might tax you for that too at the rate they’re going. So, just to ensure that you don’t get audited for drinking tea or coffee, you too can use Stevia in your caffeinated drinks. Some of the bigger makers of Stevia who currently have products on the shelves are companies like Stevia Extract in the Raw (Same guys that make Sugar in the Raw), Purvia and Sweatleaf. Listen to me, use these now before the feds slap you with an 18% tax on your $5 coffee grande, half-cal, no whip.  

This Stevia site is dedicated to all those who are like me, those who are too lazy to work out all the time, but still want to be healthy.  I’m not a health fanatic, I don’t do yoga, pilates nor do I run or bike or swim.  Because I lack these really healthy qualities, I do other things to try to make myself feel better. 

One of the easiest things that I do is moderate what I eat. Sure I don’t work out, but you know what, I also try not to put too much junk in my body too. And that’s why I want to write about Stevia.

Before Stevia became available, I used regular sugar. You know, the really bad stuff that people avoid now. Then I went over to Sweet n Low, then Splenda, and most recently, Sugar in the Raw. I love Sugar in the Raw. But, you know what, it may be sugar that’s less processed, but it’s still sugar.  Then Stevia got approved by the FDA and that’s what I use now. I actually use Stevia from the bigger companies and not from the holistic and organic places because the Stevia from the big companies don’t have that licorice aftertaste that Stevia normally has. And I swear to you, licorice and me don’t mix.