Explorations with Stevia

My Problem. Two years ago, my wife bought a quarter sheet cake for my birthday. My birthday falls between the Christmas holiday and the New Year, so there are always a lot of food and dessert dishes around the house. For some odd reason, this year no one helped to eat the birthday cake. So in one week, I ended up eating a quarter sheet cake and two quarts of ice cream… by myself.

The Intervention. That same week, while preparing for my Spring Semester science methods course, I watched a documentary called That Sugar Film. Well, I didn’t need a documentary film to help me see that I had a problem. But it certainly didn’t hurt. After that week of hedonistic indulgence, I radically altered my diet. I avoided all foods with added sugar.

The Backslide. The no sugar diet was good as long as it lasted. Although others have gone much longer with greater success (see Shaub’s, Year of No Sugar), I made it for three months. Once March hit, my travel schedule made it very difficult for me to find alternatives to foods with added sugar. Before long my old habits took over, and while I wasn’t eating entire birthday cakes alone, I was eating much more sugar than I would have liked.

Explorations into Stevia. This is where my interest in stevia began. Stevia is different from artificial sweeteners (like saccharine or aspartame) in that it is a plant and it is regarded as a healthy alternative to sugar. In reading up on stevia, the first thing I learned was that stevia is much sweeter than sugar. On the low end are reports that stevia is 40 times sweeter than sugar. On the upper end are reports that it is 350 times sweeter. I have no idea how it could be determined how much sweeter stevia is than sugar. However, I did need some idea of how the two compared in order to accurately use stevia as a sugar substitute. The second thing I learned early on is that most of the stevia available in stores (e.g. Truvia, Purevia, or Stevia in the Raw) is more highly processed than table sugar. These substitutes often contain stevia mixed with non-natural sweeteners. What I wanted was the actual leaf from the stevia plant. But where would I find it?

If you are looking for the stevia plant in Walmart, you can forget about it. I visited 4 local health food stores before I finally found “dried stevia leaf” at the fourth store. The terminology is important. If you call a store and ask for “stevia”, you will very likely get a highly-processed sweetener that is made with stevia. If you want pure stevia (from the actual leaf), you should ask for “stevia leaf” or “stevia powder.” Stevia leaf is made by taking the leaf of the plant, drying and crushing it. It looks like dried basil or oregano. Stevia powder is made by taking the dried stevia leaf and grinding it into a powder with a pestle and mortar. This past spring I also found that nurseries sometimes carry seeds for growing stevia, and stevia plants. I now have two stevia plants growing in my garden. So there are a number of learning opportunities that I stumbled upon in my explorations with stevia. You may want to try some of them with your own family.

Summer Family Fun. One activity would be to develop a sweetness scale. Who determined that “stevia is 40 times sweeter than sugar.” The number (40 times) makes it all sound very official. But scales can vary. Work as a family to develop a sweetness scale. Then use the scale to measure foods you commonly eat.

Another activity would be to grow stevia from seed. Getting the stevia seeds to germinate is a big challenge. Stevia seeds are not as hardy as other seeds. So, it might require some experimentation to get them started. Vary the amounts of water and light used with different seeds and take good notes. This would be a fun study.

Use stevia to make a dish that you like. Although you might find some suggestions for a stevia-sugar substitution, is not always straightforward. Factors you will need to consider are (a) whether to use stevia leaf or stevia powder, (b) whether the loss of bulk from sugar will throw off the wet-dry balance of the recipe, (c) whether the stevia aftertaste will upset the dish. Pick a dish and make multiple versions of it until you get it right. The fun and learning is in the trial and error… and success!

And as always... Have Fun!


Jomo W. Mutegi, Ph.D. is an author of science-related children’s books, and an Associate Professor of Science Education at the Indiana University School of Education in Indianapolis. He is also Principal Investigator of the (ES)2 Research Program. To learn more about Dr. Mutegi’s books, visit www.JomoMutegi.com. To learn more about Dr. Mutegi’s research, visit www.ES2RP.org.