What is stevia and is it healthy?

<p>I get questions about stevia all the time. Sometimes people ask why we use the zero-calorie plant-based sweetener in our <a href="https://drinklmnt.com/products/lmnt-recharge-electrolyte-drink?variant=16358367199266" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zero-Sugar Electrolytes</a> (it’s in everything except the <a href="https://drinklmnt.com/products/lmnt-recharge-electrolyte-drink?variant=16358367232034" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Raw Unflavored</a> variety) and <a href="https://drinklmnt.com/products/lmnt-sparkling?variant=41058153889815" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sparkling Electrolyte Drinks</a>, and whether it’s safe to consume.</p><p>The answer boils down to a few simple points. First, First, the available evidence suggests the amount of stevia used in LMNT falls well within established safety benchmarks. Second, <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/low-carb/12-popular-sugar-substitutes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">swapping sugar for stevia</a> is a net win for your metabolism. <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/did-you-know/how-sugar-is-making-us-sick/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Added sugar</a> is one of the biggest drivers of obesity, inflammation, and metabolic dysfunction out there. If that wasn’t enough, research suggests stevia delivers a few perks of its own.</p><p>That said, it’s a commonly&nbsp;misunderstood ingredient. Some vilify it as “hormone-disrupting” or “toxic,” often based on in vitro studies or research in lab animals consuming extremely high amounts.</p><p>Let’s unpack where the misunderstanding came from — and what the science says.</p><h2>What Is Stevia and Why Is There Confusion About It?&nbsp;</h2><p>Stevia comes from the leaves of<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4890837/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> <em>Stevia rebaudiana</em></a><em>, </em>a plant native to South America. Its leaves are packed with compounds called steviol glycosides —&nbsp;the most abundant being rebaudioside A and stevioside — which are about 200–300 times sweeter than table sugar.</p><p>The stevia you’ll find in foods and drinks today isn’t the same form as the crushed leaves people used for centuries to sweeten tea. The <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/aspartame-and-other-sweeteners-food" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FDA</a> only allows the use of high-purity stevia extracts containing 95% or more steviol glycosides, compounds that don’t raise <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7103435/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blood sugar</a>, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4890837/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">provide calories</a>, or have the same <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2900484/#:~:text=and%20aspartame%20conditions.-,Postprandial%20Insulin%20Levels,01)." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">metabolic and hormonal impacts</a> as sugar.</p><p>So why the scrutiny? For starters, when stevia hit the U.S. market in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30268795/#:~:text=In%202008%2C%20FDA%20responded%20without,general%20purpose%20sweetener%20in%20food." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2008</a>, it followed decades of backlash against artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose and got inaccurately lumped into the same category.&nbsp;</p><p>Plus, when stevia was first being researched, animal studies using extremely high doses of unrefined, whole-leaf extracts (not the purified steviol glycosides we use now) found potential negative effects on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Brusick/publication/51401891_Overview_The_history_technical_function_and_safety_of_rebaudioside_A_a_naturally_occurring_steviol_glycoside_for_use_in_food_and_beverages/links/5ab43446aca272171003cc20/Overview-The-history-technical-function-and-safety-of-rebaudioside-A-a-naturally-occurring-steviol-glycoside-for-use-in-food-and-beverages.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fertility</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/037887419501271E?via%3Dihub" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">kidney function,</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10619379/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hormone levels</a>. Predictably, headlines <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/lmnt-at-work/finding-the-truth-in-era-of-memes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">oversimplified</a> a complex toxicology issue into click-bait cannon fodder — context be damned.&nbsp;</p><p>And then there’s the “it’s processed” argument. Clean eating advocates may distrust stevia extracts because they undergo <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4890837/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">several processing steps</a> – drying, extraction, filtration, and drying again – on their journey from plant to powder. The process is similar to making pantry staples like vanilla extract or olive oil. Processing simply means the food has been changed after harvest. That can be good, bad, or neutral depending on what’s done — in other words, there’s nuance here. In stevia’s case, we’re talking about purification, not chemical modification. You still end up with the same calorie-free compounds the leaf makes naturally.</p><h2>How Is Stevia Metabolized in the Body?&nbsp;</h2><p>Stevia moves through your body like a widget on a factory line:</p><ul><li>Your small intestine passes it to your colon</li><li>In the colon, workers (your gut bacteria) break it down into parts.&nbsp;</li><li>Then it rolls down the conveyor belt to your liver, which repackages it into a harmless form —&nbsp;steviol glucuronide— and ships it off to your kidneys.&nbsp;</li><li>They prep it for delivery and send it out to be excreted in urine, no scraps left behind.</li></ul><p>Here’s how that process works in a bit more detail.&nbsp;</p><h3>1. Digestion and absorption</h3><p>The chemical structure of steviol glycosides includes a steviol backbone with sugar molecules your digestive enzymes can’t break apart.&nbsp;</p><p>So while stevia lights up the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf301297n" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sweetness receptors</a> in your taste buds, your <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273230020301537" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">small intestine</a> doesn’t absorb it and almost no calories or glucose enter your bloodstream. This is why <strong>stevia doesn’t raise blood sugar or insulin levels.&nbsp;</strong></p><h3>2. Metabolism in the colon</h3><p>Your <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273230020301537" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gut microbiota</a> — especially the <em>Bacteroidaceae </em>species — does the work your small intestine can’t. Using enzymes like <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18550247/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">beta-glucosidase</a>, they snip the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32745585/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bonds</a> holding sugar molecules onto their steviol backbone, releasing steviol, the non-sugar part of the molecule. This hydrolysis process unfolds slowly over 10 to 24 hours. In other words, your small intestine can't digest stevia, so it travels on to your colon where gut bacteria slowly break it down.</p><p>Even though gut bacteria handle this step, studies show stevia has little to no effect on microbiome balance at normal consumption levels. This matters because it means stevia doesn't disrupt your gut health — even though bacteria do the digestive work, stevia passes through without throwing off the delicate balance of good bacteria in your colon.</p><p>This puts stevia in a different category from certain artificial sweeteners that can shift gut bacteria in ways that may influence glucose tolerance or inflammation. In other words, it’s a safer bet for folks who care about maintaining a healthy microbiome.</p><p>In fact, a 150-pound person would have to eat almost 40 packets of tabletop stevia sweetener in a day to exceed the daily limit set by the FDA. I’ll explain why and break it all down in a moment.</p><h3>3. Liver processing</h3><p>Once freed from the sugar molecules by your gut bacteria, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17202597/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">steviol</a> travels through the bloodstream to your liver. There it’s converted into steviol glucuronide, a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285709592_Steviol_Glucuronide_as_Excretion_Product_of_Stevioside_in_Human_Volunteers_Lack_of_Carcinogenic_Properties_of_Steviol_Glycosides_and_Steviol#:~:text=Abstract,a%20sweetener%20are%20not%20safe." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">harmless</a>, water-soluble compound which is then filtered by your kidneys into the urine. This detox-like conversion packages stevia for elimination, ensuring no buildup in tissues or organs.</p><h3>4. Excretion</h3><p>You eliminate steviol glucuronide through urine within about <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17202597/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">24 </a>&nbsp;to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18555578/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">72</a> hours of ingestion. It doesn’t linger or <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf052693e" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">accumulate</a>, and your body doesn’t store it as energy like it does glucose. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.&nbsp;</p><h2>What Does Research Say About How Stevia Affects Our Health?</h2><p>Like most things in nutrition, context and dose matters, but the bulk of the evidence paints stevia as metabolically neutral or even slightly beneficial. Let’s walk through some of the biggest claims about stevia’s health impacts, from the well-supported to the wildly overblown.</p><h3>Claim: Stevia improves metabolic health.</h3><p><strong>What we know: This claim is supported by strong evidence</strong></p><p>Unlike sugar, stevia doesn’t raise blood sugar or insulin. In fact, a recent meta-analysis of 26 studies suggests <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S187140212400153X" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stevia</a> modestly improves fasting glucose in people with obesity, type 2 diabetes, or high blood pressure. Stevia appears to enhance insulin signaling, helping cells pull more glucose out of the bloodstream to use for energy.</p><p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fsn3.2904" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Studies</a> also suggest that stevioside and steviol nudge the pancreas to release a little more insulin when blood sugar is high — just enough to help bring it down, not enough to send you crashing.&nbsp;</p><p>You’ll sometimes see stevia labeled “anti-diabetic,” but that’s overselling it. Stevia isn’t medicine but, the research suggests it does make it easier to manage blood sugar and avoid the rollercoaster.</p><h3>Claim: Stevia supports weight loss.</h3><p><strong>What we know: This claim is partially supported by research.</strong></p><p>Swapping sugar for stevia can help you cut calories, which — as you know — is how weight loss happens.&nbsp;</p><ul><li>In a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/7/1744" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">small pilot study</a>, overweight people who sweetened their foods with stevia instead of sugar for 90 days lost 3–4 pounds and trimmed up to 1.5 inches from their waists.&nbsp;</li><li>Another <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/10/3049" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">small randomized trial</a> found that normal-weight people who added stevia to their diet but changed nothing else ate fewer calories and didn’t gain weight over the next 12 weeks, while people in the control group gained a pound on average.</li></ul><p>There’s also an interesting hormonal angle: Stevia may boost <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2023/fo/d3fo00818e" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">glucagon-like peptide 1</a> (GLP-1), the same satiety hormone targeted by GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro). It stimulates bitter taste receptors, triggering GLP-1 which slows down how quickly food leaves your stomach. In theory, that could help with appetite control — but we’re a long way from calling it Ozempic-lite.</p><h3>Claim: Stevia wrecks your gut microbiome.</h3><p><strong>What we know: This claim is unproven in the research.</strong></p><p>Some influencers claim stevia throws off your microbiome by killing the good bacteria in your gut. It’s true that one<a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00919-9#:~:text=Impacts%20on%20the%20microbiome%20are,signals%2C%20as%20exemplified%20by%20sucralose." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> study</a> found stevia, in doses at 75% of the upper limit, shifted the composition of some gut microbes. But the same study <em>also </em>showed that these changes didn’t lead to any measurable negative health impacts.&nbsp;</p><p>Another <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9028423/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">study review</a> suggests that stevia might beneficially increase the diversity of gut bacteria.</p><p>Other research suggests stevia doesn’t change the gut microbiome at all. In a study published in <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/2/296" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nutrients</em></a>, people who added stevia to drinks and food every day for 12 weeks had no changes in bacterial diversity or function compared to controls.</p><h3>Claim: Stevia extracts affect fertility&nbsp;</h3><p><strong>What we know: This claim is unproven.</strong></p><p>This fertility concern stems from rat studies dating back to the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17744732/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1960s</a> that used unrefined, high-dose extracts that differ from the purified form of the sweetener you can buy in food and drinks today.</p><p>The same goes for sperm studies. Some <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10619379/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">research</a> in rats suggested stevia might lower sperm count, but again, those studies used unrefined extracts. Two other <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9274198/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">studies</a> feeding rats a “very high dosage” of purified stevia found no impact on sperm count or production.</p><p>As for whether these results apply to humans, we don’t have much to go on. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303720716300533" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2016 in vitro study</a> (read: in a petri dish, not a person) found that when human sperm cells were bathed in high amounts of steviol, a component of stevia, they produced more progesterone and showed some changes in hormone signaling. Theoretically, this could affect a sperm cell’s ability to fertilize an egg, but here’s the thing: <strong>The doses of stevia used in the study simulated stevia intake at two to six times the upper limit. </strong>Plus, there’s no evidence that steviol ever even reaches sperm cells or the fluid that carries them. Remember: when we consume stevia products, steviol is altered by the liver and then excreted by the kidneys. This is quite different from bathing “swimmers” in a highly concentrated steviol solution in a petri dish!</p><h3>Claim: Stevia Benefits Oral Health</h3><p><strong>What we know: This claim is supported by evidence.</strong></p><p>Unlike sugar, stevia doesn’t promote tooth decay, and it may even make your mouth less hospitable to cavity-causing bacteria.</p><p>One clinical trial published in <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6364349/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Dental Research Journal</em></a><em> </em>found college students who swished with a 1% stevia solution maintained a neutral plaque pH of 7.1. When they switched to sugar water, their plaque pH dropped to 6.2 —&nbsp;a nearly tenfold spike in acidity. That matters, since plaque bacteria produce acids that eat away at enamel and fuel bad bacteria.</p><p>Other studies echo the benefit: A 6-month <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5767988/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">randomized controlled trial</a> found stevia mouthwash had both antiplaque and antigingivitis effects.&nbsp;</p><p>And in a pilot study published in the <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7335598/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dentistry</em></a>, kids who chewed gum containing stevia for 15 minutes reduced their salivary levels of <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3257652/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Streptococcus mutans</em></a><em>,</em> acid-producing bacteria that wear down tooth enamel.&nbsp;</p><p>More research is needed to fully understand how stevia supports oral health, but the early evidence is intriguing.&nbsp;</p><p>One theory is that it makes it harder for <em>Streptococcus mutans</em> to set up shop on your teeth. Sugar helps these bacteria build a sticky biofilm (basically a microscopic plaque fortress), while stevia seems to do the opposite. In a cell <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10113668/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">study</a> <em>S. mutans </em>and its cavity-promoting fungal friend <em>Candida albicans </em>created a weaker biofilm when exposed to stevioside instead of sugar. The researchers even found that stevioside changed the activity of more than 1,000 genes tied to biofilm formation.</p><h3>Claim: Stevia Encourages Overeating&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3><p><strong>What we know: The evidence doesn’t show stevia itself drives overeating.</strong></p><p>A recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/obr.13902" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">meta-analysis</a> of clinical trials found stevia didn’t change hunger, fullness, or how much people planned to eat. Compared to other sweeteners, it could lead you to eat less: In one <a href="https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1750-3841.16224" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">study</a>, folks eating yogurt sweetened with stevia actually reported the biggest drop in hunger compared to sugar, xylitol, and monk fruit.&nbsp;</p><p>But there’s something I call the barbecue-chicharrones phenomenon, where flavorings can make foods so tasty you overeat them. Give me a bag of plain chicharrones, and I’ll eat one or two. Barbecue flavor? Suddenly, I’m halfway through the bag.</p><p>That’s the story here. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40429-022-00417-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Hyper-palatable</strong></a><strong> foods containing sweeteners —&nbsp;stevia included —&nbsp;can be engineered to hijack our normal satiety cues, leading us to eat more.</strong> The problem isn’t stevia’s chemistry; it’s how it’s used in foods like zero-sugar candies and ice creams.&nbsp;</p><h2>How Much Stevia Is Safe to Consume?</h2><p>Global authorities including the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/168517/download?attachment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Food and Drug A</a>dministration (FDA) and <a href="https://apps.who.int/food-additives-contaminants-jecfa-database/Home/Chemical/267" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), have deemed purified stevia safe at levels up to 4 milligrams (mg) of steviol equivalents per kilogram of body weight per day.&nbsp;</p><p>That equals 12 mg of high-purity stevia extracts using a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316622163650" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">conversion factor</a> that accounts for the metabolism of steviol glycosides to steviols. <strong>For a 150-pound (68 kg) person, this </strong><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4890837/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>equates</strong></a><strong> to 816 mg of stevia, or roughly 39 packets of a tabletop stevia sweetener that contains 21 mg steviol glycosides per packet.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>For context, each LMNT stick pack contains about 0.3 grams (300 mg) of stevia extract — roughly 70% less than a standard tabletop stevia packet once you account for purity and conversion. A 130-lb person would need to drink 50 LMNT stick packs a day to even approach the upper safety limit of 708 mg of steviol equivalents.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>So I’m not personally losing sleep about the tiny amounts of stevia in our drinks and other products. I’d rather focus on cutting out the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/php/data-research/added-sugars.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">71 g</a> of added sugar most Americans eat every day.&nbsp;</p><h2>Answers to Other Common Questions About Stevia&nbsp;</h2><h3>Is stevia natural?</h3><p>Stevia comes from a plant (<em>Stevia rebaudiana</em>), but what ends up in your drink isn’t a crushed leaf — it’s a purified compound like rebaudioside A or stevioside that’s extracted and refined for consistency and taste.&nbsp;</p><h3>What’s better: stevia or sugar?</h3><p>Stevia tastes sweeter than sugar, but it’s zero-calorie and doesn’t raise <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7103435/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blood sugar or insulin</a>. Meanwhile, a typical <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdoe.12725" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sugar-sweetened drink</a> packs 140 calories or more. So if stevia helps you cut back on added sugar, it’s a solid choice.&nbsp;</p><h3>What about “whole-leaf” stevia or stevia tea?</h3><p>Skip it. Whole-leaf stevia products aren’t FDA-approved and can contain <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10076456/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">other plant compounds </a>with different effects. Stick with purified forms (≥ 95 % steviol glycosides) — listed on labels as “<a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/119340/download" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stevia leaf extract</a>”— for safety.&nbsp;</p><h2>The Bottom Line: Is Stevia Healthy?</h2><p>Generally, stevia is healthy when used in reasonable amounts. Most people tolerate it just fine (it’s not an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278691514004785" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">allergen</a>, by the way) and replacing some of your daily sugar with it can do your metabolism a real favor. Like anything, your mileage may vary, so pay attention to how your body responds.</p><p>Although I believe that worrying about stevia is majoring in the minors, I fully support folks coming to their own conclusions.</p><p>I encourage you to try stevia if you crave sweetness on a <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/low-carb/what-is-ketosis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">low-carb</a>, <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/low-carb/keto-vs-paleo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">paleo</a>, <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/low-carb/best-diet-for-ketosis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">keto</a>, or otherwise <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/did-you-know/whole-foods-diet" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">healthy diet</a>. It’s an easy way to enjoy something sweet without the <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/did-you-know/sugar-and-inflammation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">metabolic downsides</a> of sugar.</p>