The Stevioside Controversy

I suspect that some folks are unfamiliar with stevioside, since the information was new me. The Asian bloggers probably are up to speed because the product is widely used in the Far East to sweeten food. My introduction came from the Flying Chair.

Steviocide is a chemical in the stevia plant, a perennial shrub native to South America which is grown commercially throughout the world. Major multinational corporations use stevia extracts to sweeten food wherever it's approved for use. In Japan, Korea, and China, it is used extensively in lieu of saccharine and aspartame.

However, due to continuing concerns about its safety, steviocide has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States. It has also been banned in Hong Kong and Macao because of health concerns. The government of Hong Kong has even established a penalty of six months in prison and a $50,000 (HK) fine for violators of the ban.

In summary, the use of stevioside as a sweetener has been a raging international controversy for years and I just found out about it today. Where have I been? Of course, there's nothing comparable to the awareness of gaping holes in knowledge to trigger that rare but therapeutic personal feeling of being a miserable failure.