Stevia instead of sugar

[Norma Rozas Leal]

I don't know if this topic has been discussed before, but I've found that STEVIA  is a natural sweetener that can be used instead of sugar. Besides, it's a very useful herb to prevent lots of illnesses. The plants can be grown in any climate and you can use the leaves to sweeten your tea, coffee, etc. There is a lot of information in internet, but I give you a link to start with.

http://www.theherbalinsider.com/archives/80

 

I've just bought some plants. They are very small so I have them under roof meanwhile, since we have very nasty weather here in the south of Chile at this time. I hope this tip is useful for you.

[Jerry & Linda Beers Aydlott]

Stevia is native to Paraguay. It is a tropical climate loving plant, so it won't tolerate any type of winter, no matter how mild. We live in Northern Michigan, and planted some nursery grown plants last year. They grew and did fine throughout the summer here, but forget trying to dig them up and bringing them in for the winter. Tried that with Lemon Grass too and it didn't work. We love Stevia. It is super sweet with zero calories! It is perfect for diabetics, who like sweet things but their bodies can't tolerate sugar. You can find Stevia on a lot of grocery shelves in the baking section. Walmart has it in this area and all natural food stores will carry it too. If you purchase the herb as crushed leaves or powdered you can use it in baking. It also is now processed into white (sugar looking) product for people who have a problem using the natural herb.
To make a liquid sweetener with Stevia... take one teaspoon of Stevia and steep in one cup of boiling hot water. The resulting sweet liquor can be refrigerated and used to sweeten coffee, tea, or drop on your cereal in the morning. In baking or dessert recipes, one teaspoon of finely ground Stevia is equivalent to one cup of sugar. It is really, really, REALLY SWEET. Said to be 300 times sweeter than sugar!

[Norma Rozas Leal]

Very good information, because I did'nt want to plant my little stevia plants in the middle of winter here, but just out of instinct, so thank you very much for sharing your experience. I have my little plants under roof, thay look so weak that I'm wishing for summer soon.

Jerry & Linda Beers Aydlott said:

Stevia is native to Paraguay. It is a tropical climate loving plant, so it won't tolerate any type of winter, no matter how mild. We live in Northern Michigan, and planted some nursery grown plants last year. They grew and did fine throughout the summer here, but forget trying to dig them up and bringing them in for the winter. Tried that with Lemon Grass too and it didn't work. We love Stevia. It is super sweet with zero calories! It is perfect for diabetics, who like sweet things but their bodies can't tolerate sugar. You can find Stevia on a lot of grocery shelves in the baking section. Walmart has it in this area and all natural food stores will carry it too. If you purchase the herb as crushed leaves or powdered you can use it in baking. It also is now processed into white (sugar looking) product for people who have a problem using the natural herb.
To make a liquid sweetener with Stevia... take one teaspoon of Stevia and steep in one cup of boiling hot water. The resulting sweet liquor can be refrigerated and used to sweeten coffee, tea, or drop on your cereal in the morning. In baking or dessert recipes, one teaspoon of finely ground Stevia is equivalent to one cup of sugar. It is really, really, REALLY SWEET. Said to be 300 times sweeter than sugar!

[KM]

Xyletol (pronouncd zyletol) from birch trees is also used as a natural sweetner. Both are really good substitutes!