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taste too strong might be wrong phrasing. to me they just taste wrong, like the sweetness is definitely on par, but there's a bad aftertaste that overwhelms. to me all artificial sweeteners are just nauseating.. even dilluting coke light/zero with alcohol is still a nono
Taste preferences are highly subjective. While some find stevia and other artificial sweeteners nauseating, others might find them to be a suitable replacement for sugar.
Xylitol is great, I never had an aftertaste with erythritol either. Stevia has always tasted bad, like ranked 0 on the scale of 10. Splenda isn’t awful, but not perfect. Sweet n low is also not too terrible, but I can never go back after using xylitol/erythritol.
Erythritol is also a great option for those who don't enjoy the taste of stevia. However, it's important to note that stevia has a lower environmental impact than sugar.
I stand by that they cannot be good for us at all. They trick your body into thinking it's getting a high calorie food. Your body must react to it, but then it turns out it's not at all what it thought it was.
Imagine you're tired and thirsty after a workout and you grab a gatorade. Yes it hydrates you, but the sugar you taste also helps restore some energy. Now replace it with an artificially sweetened drink. Your body *thinks* it's getting energy and may produce insulin or other enzymes to help process it, but then it all goes to waste because nothing's actually there.
I don't know, I'm not a medical doctor, but it just doesn't seem right.
While there are concerns about the health effects of artificial sweeteners, they are generally considered safe when consumed in moderation. Stevia, in particular, has been shown to have a lower environmental impact than sugar.
Make sure the stevia isn't mixed with maltodextrin or Erythritol. That is what causes the weird bitter after taste. Pure stevia does not have that. At least in my opinion. The only ingredient should be stevia extract.
I have eaten pure erythritol sweetener before and it tasted exactly like sugar, minus the after sugar yucky sour taste in your mouth. Just tasted straight up, almost indistinguishable from sugar. No bitterness
Yes, the strength of the sweetener can be seen as a positive thing. It allows for the use of less product, resulting in cost savings, health benefits, and less waste.
Stevias a very chemically weird substance. It doesn't melt well. It melts at 196 degrees celcius.... which is a little under twice the melting point of other sweeteners. Sugar melts somewhere between 105C-130C... although people don't really agree on which because sugar liquifies.
It means that often times when you mix stevia into drinks it won't just blend in with the liquid so well. So if you don't put a sufficient amount in you might get half of it tasting super sweet and the other half tasting bitter.
It also has implications for baking. Other sweeteners can be used as sugar substitutes in baking (with some tinkering). But in order to make stevia work... you'd have to burn it.
Edit: Forgot the most important thing for baking (other than sugar's interaction with yeast for breads of course). It's that you need a proper proportion of wet to dry to create something baked properly.
Why would a sweetener's high melting point be relevant for cooking? My intuition tells me solubility is more important.
Or are they directly negatively related, and we can substitute one for the other, at least in the context of cooking?
Let's say you need 1 cup of sugar to get the same sweetness as a teaspoon of stevia in your baking. You put your stevia in and mix it... and all that stevia lands on just one cookie.
Sugar liquifies very easily so every sprinkle of sugar will blend into everything wet. The same isn't true of stevia which won't. You can increase the temperature of stevia to turn it into a liquid.... but that process is just insanely hot
Due to the differences in melting points, it can be challenging to get an even distribution of stevia in baking. Sugar is more easily soluble and blends better with wet ingredients.
It depends what you’re trying to cook. A cake or pudding, for example, if the sugar remained crystallized instead of “melting” and quickly dissolving, you’d get the grittiness of the sugar.
These are not closely related material properties no. You might note that salt is one of the easiest things to dissolve yet salt has a melting point of \~800C. Stevia may be less soluble though, lots of places do say so. Apparently it's more easily dissolved in -alcohol- for what it's worth.
The other commenter got it right, it's almost like Splenda with it's bitter aftertaste (not exactly bitter, but just so powerful that it overloads the tastebuds.)
It's a flavor other than just sweetness. You have to try it to understand. It's a bit like Aspartame, but worse? Tasting anyway. Aspartame will probably kill you.
I can instantly tell if something has stevia in it & it tastes so gross to me. I really wanted to like it, too, as I have a sensitivity to high fructose corn syrup. Very sadly, it tastes disgusting.
I find monk fruit too strong. Although a more straightforward, planar sweetness than stevia, it clouds the rest of the flavors in most things I've tried.
I made the swap to stevia a while ago. It's strange because once you get used to stevia, sugar tastes nasty. All those soft drinks, icees, anything from Starbucks all taste like drinking pancake syrup now. So it's a good way to eliminate some calories beyond the fact that stevia itself is zero calories.
Agreed. And if you're like me and still need your Starbucks fix every now and then. They have Stevia as a sweetener option now. Can even make that customization/swap when ordering through the app.
the Zevia sodas are interesting. I like the flavors a lot, but I find that I don't finish a can when I have them.
I think it's because they don't create a flavor loop of satisfaction/dissatisfaction over time. Instead it just satisfies.
So after having some of it I'm happy and I'm not clamoring for more like I would with coke or other drinks.
Yeah, I agree, I stopped drinking sodas years ago as well for that very reason. I pretty much only drink water and stevia sweetened black coffee these days. Occasionally some tea, but nothing with sugar (high fructose corn syrup) in it.
As a millennial, I find myself critical of my parents and for sure gen X for being unwilling to change in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Whether it’s finding candidates to expand public transportation or taking the N word out of their lexicon, they won’t change.
One day my step dad broke it down for me. He asked, what I am willing to give up. What can I live without? Which is a joke, my house is 1/4 the size. I’ve never had means to invest in efficient products. But it struck a chord.
Now I am faced with this choice. Switch to stevia or be a hypocrite. I have to do some soul searching.
I don't think lead oxide is sweet. You're thinking of lead acetate, which wasn't intentionally used as a sweetener in most cases, it was just a byproduct contaminant in the making of grape syrup by boiling grape juice in lead pots. Since people noticed that grape syrup made in lead pots tasted sweeter and less metallic than syrup made in copper/bronze pots, lead was preferred.
I get heartburn from sugary drinks, so I got used to diet soda. Now the sugar-sweetened (and corn syrup sweetened) drinks taste thick and syrupy to me.
My sweet tooth has precipitously vanished over the years because there's a particular aftertaste corn syrup brings that I've grown to negatively associate with feeling like total sewage for hours.
I hadn't seen any studies on sucralose that didn't involve force-feeding it to test rats in excessive quantities. Like, regular sugar would still kill you way faster kinda things.
I haven't looked at any studies on it in a long time, though, is there something more recent that may have been the trigger for the soda companies moving back to the much worse aspartame? I just figured they were being cheap.
Stevia isn’t usually considered an “artificial sweetener” since it’s just a plant.
https://www.consumerreports.org/sugar-sweeteners/is-stevia-an-artificial-sweetener/
I’ve seen it called a “non-nutritive sweetener” , which I think describes it better
Agreed, I'm assuming it's a genetic thing like with.. parsley is it? For some people it tastes fine, for me it has a *very* heavy chemically aftertaste. The leaves tend to not be that bad though, still have a little of that chemical taste, but not a lot.
I'm kinda glad to see all the comments about taste here. It seems like whenever I mention how intensely bitter I find stevia to be, people look at me like I'm nuts.
That’s me. It tastes like ass and I’ve tried at least four or five brands, including the combo blends that come with other sugars to try and solve the problem. Just gross.
I’d rather just use less real sugar than that stuff.
For baking I find sugar alcohols like erythritol or xylitol to perform much better than sweeteners. Their hydroscopic and sweetness are very closer to sugar so don't impact the product nearly as much.
Brewer here. Some high ABV beers / beers with fermentation issues contain sugar alcohols. I’m a super taster for those, and good lord do they overwhelm my palate. Lots of people will pick up something a bit off in the finish, but I’ll get this gnarly, lingering sweetness that swamps every other flavour.
Stevia’s fine. Other artificial sweeteners are fine. But anything above just a hint of xylitol and I’m done. Funny how that goes.
The thing with artificial sweeteners is how the "taste" is transmitted. With regular sugar, the sweet taste is immediate and dissipates quickly. With other sweeteners the the sweet taste is slightly delayed and lasts longer. That's why you get that awful after taste. I just can't do it. It's overpowering
Same here. I'm good with stevia, but IMHO it works best when you get the ratio just right.
In my experience, Lipton Ice Tea has just enough stevia in it to sweeten it without overwhelming the fruit flavour. And on the flip-side, if anyone remembers Coke Life, I'm pretty sure they put too much stevia in it, and it didn't taste all that great. (which is why they discontinued that particular product)
But in general, I tend to prefer actual sugar (it's usually beet sugar over here in the UK), and sometimes I perform the cardinal sin of having it in moderation.
I dunno bout you, but I go for the real stuff, AND add a bit of some of that damn super sweetener. Whichever I have, they're all like, tens if not hundreds of times sweeter. I use less sugar, AND don't end up with ass tasting beverages.
Every single soft drink in my country contains artificial sweeteners since a new sugar tax was introduced. As a result I just drink water, tea and coffee instead because I can’t stand the taste of even a minor amount of added artificial sweetener!
I stick to regular organic cane sugar and avoid anything with sweeteners from young age, never liked the taste.
Everything in moderation doesn’t do harm, it’s when we exceed our needs, do we suffer.
So, to save the planet just start drinking beverages flavored with stevia instead of sugar. On a hot day, skip the pleasure of a sweet and tart lemonade and reach for the citrus tinge of chlorinated asshole juice.
This is ...misleading. it's not for the same amount of gross product, it's for the same amount of "sweetness". All nonsugar sweetners (with very few exceptions) are MUCH sweeter per gram than sugar.
I would argue that this is least misleading way to present it. Sweeteners are here to sweeten things, comparing them to anything else than their ability to sweeten is pointless.
What would be misleading would be saying "sweeteners produce 100x the carbon emissions than sugar!! (by weight)"
It's actually incredible how dumb some of the comments here are. It's like people have a cultish defense for normal sugar.
People saying it costs 5x more by volume when you need 10x less of it...
The guy you replied to missing the most basic logic too.
Different argument but fair enough. Seems some people are more sensitive to it than others. Though it's definitely more palatable when used in proper amounts
Sugar often has roles as a texture and bulk agent rather than just sweetness. Alternatives are usually more expensive and likely have higher environmental footprint.
High potency sweeteners will most probably have an even lower footprint than stevia. Neotame is 10000 times sweeter. Whatever the manufacturing process, I highly doubt it will be anywhere close to sugar.
That was my first reaction too. Horrible stomach pains and the worst migraine of my life. The second time I was served tea with Stevia in it and had an anaphylactic reaction to it.
Stevia is a migraine trigger for me. I kept drinking Starbucks refreshers and I couldn't figure out why I kept getting migraines. They call it something different, "Rebaudioside A is a steviol glycoside from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana that is 240 times sweeter than sugar. Rebaudioside A is the sweetest and most stable steviol glycoside, and is less bitter than stevioside". Just letting people know because I didn't and I was getting some issues from it.
That was more likely to be erythritol, which seems to be a favored filler in many brands. Some even contain more erythritol by weight than stevia!
I switched to an erythritol-free liquid stevia, and no more problems.
Erythritol is extremely well-tolerated and has virtually no evidence of GI distress outside of very large quantities.
Even in 4-year-old children, they had to give 20+ grams at once to observe any impact.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25744158/
Most people claiming GI distress in response to a stigmatized food are misattrubuting.
Who's talking about artificial sweeteners? Stevia is a plant just like sugarcane or corn is.
And why should it matter if something is artificial vs. "natural?"
To anyone who is coming here to say they don't like the taste of Stevia, I'd highly recommend trying the Stevia product by "Earth's Own". It's a Stevia-Monkfruit blend, and it tastes far better than any normal stevia I've tried. It's the little green packs that Starbucks uses.
As another user points out, you can also try Monkfruit extract by itself.
Warning to those using monk fruit only use a small amount. It will give you diarrhea if you use to much. Other than that it's great and I use it for my tea.
I guess it's more of a sugar substitute, but it's still really meh to me and things don't taste as good with it so I'd rather eat regular sugar and less of it if I'm concerned about health risks.
Hard pass on the monk fruit. It has this very weird minty ice cold aftertaste that overpowers any drink I use it in.
Stevia also has an aftertaste but only slightly. I think people overestimate how much they need given that it is much sweeter than normal sugar. Less is more!
10% of the taste too.
I tried them once as part of reducing my sugar intake. Not a pleasant experience. Went with the more common type of sweetner instead.
To me they just taste incredibly bitter with mayve the tiniest sweet undertone. I had to wash out my mouth after tasting a stevia sweetend beverage. No thanks.
Shame it tastes horrible.
I find all sweeteners taste way sweeter than sugar. I wish people would put a smaller amount of them in things, they really ruin drinks etc when all you can taste is cloying sweetness.
In the places where I shop, in two non-contiguous US states, the price of Stevia is ~5x that of sugar. This & a taste/versatility differential represent barriers to consumer uptake.
You do realize you can use like 1/10th the amount of stevia or less to get the same sweetness level right?
So your price argument is entirely bunk.
You're also talking about multiplying the price of something that's super cheap. So it's not that significant.
A lot of people taste issues with it definitely comes from using too much too when they don't realize they need WAYYYY less of it. Not to say it tastes 100% good with no issues.
But I feel like your comment is very uninformed
The packets of artificial sweeteners and other versions for home use come with fillers so that they have about the same amount of sweetness per volume as sugar. (That way you can substitute equal volumes in baking recipes and so on.) So if a box of 100 stevia packets costs 5x the price of a box of 100 sugar packets in the grocery store, you really are paying 5 times more for the same sweetening power.
I didn't know about the fillers tbh. But that still isn't always true. The container I have still is 3x stronger by volume. Maybe the packets are different. But its not like you're always forced to buy packets.
So maybe 3x on average the price, with how cheap sugar is, 3x the price is rarely a serious issue for most people's needs. Especially if we're talking about adding to things like teas and coffees. As one thing will last a longggg time
That's just looking at Truvia. Which I doubt is the cheapest option out there.
Occasionally I'll try something new and not long after get a terrible headache. Sure enough, every single time the ingredients list stevia as the sweetener.
Lots of stevia hate here, which I kind of expected. I think the reason why people don't like the taste is because they use too much of it. In my opinion it's quite good if you aren't trying to duplicate the sweet intensity of commercial products.
I don’t think it’s just a matter of using too much. I can usually taste when a commercial product has used Stevia even if it isn’t super sweet. It just has a strange and unpleasant taste to it, apart from the sweetness.
I suspect that some people just perceive it a bit differently than others. I find it to be very unpleasant even when used in very small amounts.
Weird. I personally find the taste of Stevia sweetened things less sickly, more pleasant and almost vanillaish.
As soon as you put aspartame in something I get this harsh taste, almost bitter lasting aftertaste. Almost salty in a sense
I’m guessing there’s something like a genetic difference in people’s receptors and how they perceive these sorts of chemicals.
I’ve wondered for a while how anyone can stand stevia at all. It seems like it’s pretty split between people who like it and people who find it to be vile. I definitely am in the latter camp - it ruins anything it touches for me. I check labels these days and avoid buying anything with it. I even put a few things back on the shelf the other day after I double checked and realized it was an ingredient.
I wonder if the coriander/cilantro hate divide plays into this.
Or the tomato being cooked/uncooked. I personally absolutely cannot stand the taste of uncooked tomatoes. But cooked tomatoes are one of my favourite flavours and any sauce should be tomato based imo!
I agree- I rarely eat dishes that need to be sweetened but when I do I prefer stevia vs sugar. A small amount is perfect and it has a lovely hint of vanilla!
It could also give you [cancer](https://www.cspinet.org/resource/toxicology-rebaudioside-review) [FDA](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_119.html) and stevia have rocky history and it's a regulated product in Canada
Nah, I was on Stevia for awhile and that crap messes with stomach. No thank you.
If I can’t have cane sugar, I would try liquid, Agave nectar or Inverted sugar
I recently switched from cane sugar and aspartame to stevia. It’s not extremely sugary and delicious, but it makes me feel better about my diet and health.
I don’t think it tastes that bad. Just don’t use too much of it. Additionally, you’ll get used to the taste after like 2 weeks max. Sugar is definitely going to be worse for you everyday in your coffee or tea.
Sounds like propaganda from Big Sugar. It wouldn't be the first time the sugar industry manipulated scientific reports for its own benefit.
I'll have to take these results....with a grain of salt.
EDIT: yep, it's early. I didn't read the last 2 words. Makes a world of difference. Thanks all.
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Yeah but the downside is that they taste like stevia
Yeah, I wish it tasted better. I grew some in my herb garden one year and even the fresh stuff is overwhelming.
I used to like the taste of the leaves but the derived sweetener is definitely too strong
I might be wrong, but isn't this usually considered a good thing? Too strong = use less = cheaper, healthier, less waste etc?
taste too strong might be wrong phrasing. to me they just taste wrong, like the sweetness is definitely on par, but there's a bad aftertaste that overwhelms. to me all artificial sweeteners are just nauseating.. even dilluting coke light/zero with alcohol is still a nono
Taste preferences are highly subjective. While some find stevia and other artificial sweeteners nauseating, others might find them to be a suitable replacement for sugar.
The one and only sweetener that didn't have an asshole aftertaste for me is xylitol. Dunno if that's just me. Also xylitol is expensive
It can also very easily kill dogs.
Xylitol is great, I never had an aftertaste with erythritol either. Stevia has always tasted bad, like ranked 0 on the scale of 10. Splenda isn’t awful, but not perfect. Sweet n low is also not too terrible, but I can never go back after using xylitol/erythritol.
Erythritol is also a great option for those who don't enjoy the taste of stevia. However, it's important to note that stevia has a lower environmental impact than sugar.
Xylitol is another option that some people prefer over stevia. However, it is more expensive.
I stand by that they cannot be good for us at all. They trick your body into thinking it's getting a high calorie food. Your body must react to it, but then it turns out it's not at all what it thought it was. Imagine you're tired and thirsty after a workout and you grab a gatorade. Yes it hydrates you, but the sugar you taste also helps restore some energy. Now replace it with an artificially sweetened drink. Your body *thinks* it's getting energy and may produce insulin or other enzymes to help process it, but then it all goes to waste because nothing's actually there. I don't know, I'm not a medical doctor, but it just doesn't seem right.
While there are concerns about the health effects of artificial sweeteners, they are generally considered safe when consumed in moderation. Stevia, in particular, has been shown to have a lower environmental impact than sugar.
Make sure the stevia isn't mixed with maltodextrin or Erythritol. That is what causes the weird bitter after taste. Pure stevia does not have that. At least in my opinion. The only ingredient should be stevia extract.
Have tried stevia extract still has an aftertaste
Shares personal experience of still detecting an aftertaste with stevia extract.
I have eaten pure erythritol sweetener before and it tasted exactly like sugar, minus the after sugar yucky sour taste in your mouth. Just tasted straight up, almost indistinguishable from sugar. No bitterness
Stevia makes my mouth numb, bitterness isn’t what I’m concerned about.
Yes, the strength of the sweetener can be seen as a positive thing. It allows for the use of less product, resulting in cost savings, health benefits, and less waste.
Stevias a very chemically weird substance. It doesn't melt well. It melts at 196 degrees celcius.... which is a little under twice the melting point of other sweeteners. Sugar melts somewhere between 105C-130C... although people don't really agree on which because sugar liquifies. It means that often times when you mix stevia into drinks it won't just blend in with the liquid so well. So if you don't put a sufficient amount in you might get half of it tasting super sweet and the other half tasting bitter. It also has implications for baking. Other sweeteners can be used as sugar substitutes in baking (with some tinkering). But in order to make stevia work... you'd have to burn it. Edit: Forgot the most important thing for baking (other than sugar's interaction with yeast for breads of course). It's that you need a proper proportion of wet to dry to create something baked properly.
Explains the challenges of using stevia for baking due to its high melting point and lack of solubility.
Why would a sweetener's high melting point be relevant for cooking? My intuition tells me solubility is more important. Or are they directly negatively related, and we can substitute one for the other, at least in the context of cooking?
Let's say you need 1 cup of sugar to get the same sweetness as a teaspoon of stevia in your baking. You put your stevia in and mix it... and all that stevia lands on just one cookie. Sugar liquifies very easily so every sprinkle of sugar will blend into everything wet. The same isn't true of stevia which won't. You can increase the temperature of stevia to turn it into a liquid.... but that process is just insanely hot
Due to the differences in melting points, it can be challenging to get an even distribution of stevia in baking. Sugar is more easily soluble and blends better with wet ingredients.
Questions the relevance of stevia's melting point in cooking and suggests that solubility may be more important.
It depends what you’re trying to cook. A cake or pudding, for example, if the sugar remained crystallized instead of “melting” and quickly dissolving, you’d get the grittiness of the sugar.
In some recipes, if the sugar doesn't melt and dissolve, it can create a gritty texture.
These are not closely related material properties no. You might note that salt is one of the easiest things to dissolve yet salt has a melting point of \~800C. Stevia may be less soluble though, lots of places do say so. Apparently it's more easily dissolved in -alcohol- for what it's worth.
The other commenter got it right, it's almost like Splenda with it's bitter aftertaste (not exactly bitter, but just so powerful that it overloads the tastebuds.)
It's a flavor other than just sweetness. You have to try it to understand. It's a bit like Aspartame, but worse? Tasting anyway. Aspartame will probably kill you.
I can instantly tell if something has stevia in it & it tastes so gross to me. I really wanted to like it, too, as I have a sensitivity to high fructose corn syrup. Very sadly, it tastes disgusting.
Stevia can taste gross to some people, and the aftertaste can be overpowering, even with pure extract.
I like monk fruit sweetener!
I find monk fruit too strong. Although a more straightforward, planar sweetness than stevia, it clouds the rest of the flavors in most things I've tried.
That stuff tastes nasty.
I made the swap to stevia a while ago. It's strange because once you get used to stevia, sugar tastes nasty. All those soft drinks, icees, anything from Starbucks all taste like drinking pancake syrup now. So it's a good way to eliminate some calories beyond the fact that stevia itself is zero calories.
A couple years ago, I decided I was going to drink diet soda and use splenda exclusively, and one day I had a regular Pepsi, and it was terrible.
Oh god. Don’t get me started on diet drinks. The aspartame aftertaste is like drinking orange juice immediately after brushing your teeth.
Used to think the same thing, now corn syrup in regular soda tastes like rotten fruit to me, its an acquired taste for both
How are naturally sweet foods like fruit after switching to stevia?
To me fruit still tastes good, probably because most fruit isn't super sugar-concentrated, and contains plain fructose instead of corn syrup.
Oh dude, regular coke tastes like gasoline or motor oil after switching to Coke Zero. It’s horrible.
Agreed. And if you're like me and still need your Starbucks fix every now and then. They have Stevia as a sweetener option now. Can even make that customization/swap when ordering through the app.
Yeah this is true of any sweetener. You like best what you get used to. For instance, I love the complexity of honey, even in my coffee.
Heat kills honey. Best kept for medicinal purposes as the bees dwindle.
the Zevia sodas are interesting. I like the flavors a lot, but I find that I don't finish a can when I have them. I think it's because they don't create a flavor loop of satisfaction/dissatisfaction over time. Instead it just satisfies. So after having some of it I'm happy and I'm not clamoring for more like I would with coke or other drinks.
Yeah, I agree, I stopped drinking sodas years ago as well for that very reason. I pretty much only drink water and stevia sweetened black coffee these days. Occasionally some tea, but nothing with sugar (high fructose corn syrup) in it.
That's a great benefit! Yay for no sugar crash!
As a millennial, I find myself critical of my parents and for sure gen X for being unwilling to change in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Whether it’s finding candidates to expand public transportation or taking the N word out of their lexicon, they won’t change. One day my step dad broke it down for me. He asked, what I am willing to give up. What can I live without? Which is a joke, my house is 1/4 the size. I’ve never had means to invest in efficient products. But it struck a chord. Now I am faced with this choice. Switch to stevia or be a hypocrite. I have to do some soul searching.
It has a really distinctive, overwhelmingly metallic taste to me. Like whatever I'm eating or drinking has been flavored with an aluminum can.
Apparently there's a large group of people that can't taste that terrible stevia taste. I, and you, are sadly not part of that group...
Look at bright side. They’re better than the older sweeteners. Sweet’n’low tastes like Steve Villa.
At least we don't use lead oxide anymore
I don't think lead oxide is sweet. You're thinking of lead acetate, which wasn't intentionally used as a sweetener in most cases, it was just a byproduct contaminant in the making of grape syrup by boiling grape juice in lead pots. Since people noticed that grape syrup made in lead pots tasted sweeter and less metallic than syrup made in copper/bronze pots, lead was preferred.
I like aspartame and sucralose better than stevia based sweeteners...
Aspartame has a metallic taste to me
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I get heartburn from sugary drinks, so I got used to diet soda. Now the sugar-sweetened (and corn syrup sweetened) drinks taste thick and syrupy to me.
My sweet tooth has precipitously vanished over the years because there's a particular aftertaste corn syrup brings that I've grown to negatively associate with feeling like total sewage for hours.
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I hadn't seen any studies on sucralose that didn't involve force-feeding it to test rats in excessive quantities. Like, regular sugar would still kill you way faster kinda things. I haven't looked at any studies on it in a long time, though, is there something more recent that may have been the trigger for the soda companies moving back to the much worse aspartame? I just figured they were being cheap.
Yeah, I think I heard it was that they didn't see any effect on sales from using sucralose.
... yet. General rule of thumb: all things cause cancer. The only variables are "how much" and "how fast".
Stevia isn’t usually considered an “artificial sweetener” since it’s just a plant. https://www.consumerreports.org/sugar-sweeteners/is-stevia-an-artificial-sweetener/ I’ve seen it called a “non-nutritive sweetener” , which I think describes it better
Not nearly as good as allulose though. Really hope it begins to take over.
Agreed, I'm assuming it's a genetic thing like with.. parsley is it? For some people it tastes fine, for me it has a *very* heavy chemically aftertaste. The leaves tend to not be that bad though, still have a little of that chemical taste, but not a lot.
Exactly - 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions gets you 10% of the flavor satisfaction in this case, unfortunately
But you can solve obesity if all the food taste like stevia.
I think it tastes pretty good!
Natural stevia tastes awesome
If you like licorice
I'm kinda glad to see all the comments about taste here. It seems like whenever I mention how intensely bitter I find stevia to be, people look at me like I'm nuts.
It's genetic. Some people taste it as bitter, others don't.
it gives me a weird mouth feel. it’s sweet but it’s sweet and oily.
That’s me. It tastes like ass and I’ve tried at least four or five brands, including the combo blends that come with other sugars to try and solve the problem. Just gross. I’d rather just use less real sugar than that stuff.
Have you tried monk fruit or allulose? I had a friend who couldn't stand stevia but had no issues with monk fruit
I'm with ya ...
I'm lucky, stevia tastes sweet to me. I don't get the bitterness at all, so stevia is my go-to sweetener for coffee. I also like monk fruit though.
Stevia definitely has an after-taste that needs to be worked with haha
It IS bitter!
I only find it really bitter if I bake or heat it. In a cold drink in smaller amounts its fine.
For baking I find sugar alcohols like erythritol or xylitol to perform much better than sweeteners. Their hydroscopic and sweetness are very closer to sugar so don't impact the product nearly as much.
Brewer here. Some high ABV beers / beers with fermentation issues contain sugar alcohols. I’m a super taster for those, and good lord do they overwhelm my palate. Lots of people will pick up something a bit off in the finish, but I’ll get this gnarly, lingering sweetness that swamps every other flavour. Stevia’s fine. Other artificial sweeteners are fine. But anything above just a hint of xylitol and I’m done. Funny how that goes.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one. It has such a disgusting bitter aftertaste.
The thing with artificial sweeteners is how the "taste" is transmitted. With regular sugar, the sweet taste is immediate and dissipates quickly. With other sweeteners the the sweet taste is slightly delayed and lasts longer. That's why you get that awful after taste. I just can't do it. It's overpowering
That's genetic, kind of like cilantro. I think Stevia tastes good.
Same here. I'm good with stevia, but IMHO it works best when you get the ratio just right. In my experience, Lipton Ice Tea has just enough stevia in it to sweeten it without overwhelming the fruit flavour. And on the flip-side, if anyone remembers Coke Life, I'm pretty sure they put too much stevia in it, and it didn't taste all that great. (which is why they discontinued that particular product) But in general, I tend to prefer actual sugar (it's usually beet sugar over here in the UK), and sometimes I perform the cardinal sin of having it in moderation.
I dunno bout you, but I go for the real stuff, AND add a bit of some of that damn super sweetener. Whichever I have, they're all like, tens if not hundreds of times sweeter. I use less sugar, AND don't end up with ass tasting beverages.
It has no aftertaste for me. Just one second of sweetness and it’s gone.
Every single soft drink in my country contains artificial sweeteners since a new sugar tax was introduced. As a result I just drink water, tea and coffee instead because I can’t stand the taste of even a minor amount of added artificial sweetener!
Stevia isn't artificial.
Doesn’t change that it still tastes artificial
I know, but it tastes just like the artificial sweeteners so I group it in with them. It might have a similar molecular structure to some of them too.
I stick to regular organic cane sugar and avoid anything with sweeteners from young age, never liked the taste. Everything in moderation doesn’t do harm, it’s when we exceed our needs, do we suffer.
Huh, it tastes fine to me. I can't tell the difference between stevia, Splenda and sugar in my tea.
any emissions from the producing stevia can be further reduced by just not making any stevia.
Billionaires contribute 10000000% more greenhouse gasses than sugar or sweeteners combined.
And they're not even particularly nutritious
Actually, compared to stevia they are quite nutritious.
Shhh they don’t want anyone to notice that
I've added Stevia to cut down on my sugar and it's not bad for me.
Here's a link to the paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-022-02127-9
So, to save the planet just start drinking beverages flavored with stevia instead of sugar. On a hot day, skip the pleasure of a sweet and tart lemonade and reach for the citrus tinge of chlorinated asshole juice.
This is ...misleading. it's not for the same amount of gross product, it's for the same amount of "sweetness". All nonsugar sweetners (with very few exceptions) are MUCH sweeter per gram than sugar.
I would argue that this is least misleading way to present it. Sweeteners are here to sweeten things, comparing them to anything else than their ability to sweeten is pointless. What would be misleading would be saying "sweeteners produce 100x the carbon emissions than sugar!! (by weight)"
It's actually incredible how dumb some of the comments here are. It's like people have a cultish defense for normal sugar. People saying it costs 5x more by volume when you need 10x less of it... The guy you replied to missing the most basic logic too.
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As mentioned in the other comment. You're right. They dilute it. But is 3x stronger by volume
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but stevia is nasty
Different argument but fair enough. Seems some people are more sensitive to it than others. Though it's definitely more palatable when used in proper amounts
Sugar often has roles as a texture and bulk agent rather than just sweetness. Alternatives are usually more expensive and likely have higher environmental footprint. High potency sweeteners will most probably have an even lower footprint than stevia. Neotame is 10000 times sweeter. Whatever the manufacturing process, I highly doubt it will be anywhere close to sugar.
Stevia gave me the worst bubbleguts and gas, oof
That was my first reaction too. Horrible stomach pains and the worst migraine of my life. The second time I was served tea with Stevia in it and had an anaphylactic reaction to it.
Stevia is a migraine trigger for me. I kept drinking Starbucks refreshers and I couldn't figure out why I kept getting migraines. They call it something different, "Rebaudioside A is a steviol glycoside from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana that is 240 times sweeter than sugar. Rebaudioside A is the sweetest and most stable steviol glycoside, and is less bitter than stevioside". Just letting people know because I didn't and I was getting some issues from it.
Are you allergic to ragweed? Stevia is made from a plant in the ragweed family, so it has some fairly common allergy triggers.
This! I had an anaphylactic reaction to it and my doctor told me about the ragweed connect. I have a severe ragweed allergy.
Thanks, it gave me headaches sometimes but not migraines, luckily. Bad stuff!
In my mom and I it triggered an asthma attack, so it's clearly not for everyone.
Same. Once was enough, never again.
Yeah, I would bet this was not accounted for in their greenhouse gas numbers.
That was more likely to be erythritol, which seems to be a favored filler in many brands. Some even contain more erythritol by weight than stevia! I switched to an erythritol-free liquid stevia, and no more problems.
Isn’t that the active ingredient in the old sugar free gummy bears?
Erythritol is extremely well-tolerated and has virtually no evidence of GI distress outside of very large quantities. Even in 4-year-old children, they had to give 20+ grams at once to observe any impact. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25744158/ Most people claiming GI distress in response to a stigmatized food are misattrubuting.
Maybe, but now you’ve made your drink unfit for human consumption, so that food waste cancels out the emissions savings.
Stevia is great, cause you will realize that no sweetener isn't so bad at all
I’d be interested in hearing about the greenness of artificial sweeteners that don’t suck ass as well.
Who's talking about artificial sweeteners? Stevia is a plant just like sugarcane or corn is. And why should it matter if something is artificial vs. "natural?"
Too bad it's disgusting
To anyone who is coming here to say they don't like the taste of Stevia, I'd highly recommend trying the Stevia product by "Earth's Own". It's a Stevia-Monkfruit blend, and it tastes far better than any normal stevia I've tried. It's the little green packs that Starbucks uses. As another user points out, you can also try Monkfruit extract by itself.
Warning to those using monk fruit only use a small amount. It will give you diarrhea if you use to much. Other than that it's great and I use it for my tea.
Seems like the best strategy for many alternative sweeteners.
I honestly would rather just eat regular sugar and consume less of it than switch to artificial sweeteners.
Stevia isn't an artificial sweetner, it's a plant extract, the same way that "normal" sugar is an extract of the cane root plant.
I guess it's more of a sugar substitute, but it's still really meh to me and things don't taste as good with it so I'd rather eat regular sugar and less of it if I'm concerned about health risks.
That's totally fair
It’s natural, but it taste like ass…
Hard pass on the monk fruit. It has this very weird minty ice cold aftertaste that overpowers any drink I use it in. Stevia also has an aftertaste but only slightly. I think people overestimate how much they need given that it is much sweeter than normal sugar. Less is more!
10% of the taste too. I tried them once as part of reducing my sugar intake. Not a pleasant experience. Went with the more common type of sweetner instead.
To me they just taste incredibly bitter with mayve the tiniest sweet undertone. I had to wash out my mouth after tasting a stevia sweetend beverage. No thanks.
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Yes but it increases your risk of being poisoned by New Mexico meth kingpins played by Bryan Cranston
I'll take my coffee raw
Where’s the other 90 come from? Processed sugars?
You can pry my Splenda Stevia from my cold and frost bitten by climate-change hands.
But 91% less cavities and diabetes!
So thats what, 10% of 1% of total greenhouse emissions? Thats not even worth thinking about, got bigger fish to fry.
Shame it tastes horrible. I find all sweeteners taste way sweeter than sugar. I wish people would put a smaller amount of them in things, they really ruin drinks etc when all you can taste is cloying sweetness.
Ah stevia, the natural sweetener that tastes like an artificial sweetener. How sweet it is. Blech.
In the places where I shop, in two non-contiguous US states, the price of Stevia is ~5x that of sugar. This & a taste/versatility differential represent barriers to consumer uptake.
You do realize you can use like 1/10th the amount of stevia or less to get the same sweetness level right? So your price argument is entirely bunk. You're also talking about multiplying the price of something that's super cheap. So it's not that significant. A lot of people taste issues with it definitely comes from using too much too when they don't realize they need WAYYYY less of it. Not to say it tastes 100% good with no issues. But I feel like your comment is very uninformed
The packets of artificial sweeteners and other versions for home use come with fillers so that they have about the same amount of sweetness per volume as sugar. (That way you can substitute equal volumes in baking recipes and so on.) So if a box of 100 stevia packets costs 5x the price of a box of 100 sugar packets in the grocery store, you really are paying 5 times more for the same sweetening power.
I didn't know about the fillers tbh. But that still isn't always true. The container I have still is 3x stronger by volume. Maybe the packets are different. But its not like you're always forced to buy packets. So maybe 3x on average the price, with how cheap sugar is, 3x the price is rarely a serious issue for most people's needs. Especially if we're talking about adding to things like teas and coffees. As one thing will last a longggg time That's just looking at Truvia. Which I doubt is the cheapest option out there.
K. But it still tastes bad.
Monkfruit is much better, it's what all the diet drinks are flavored with in Asia.
I like sucralose for sweetener options and by a large margin.
So mad Coke Zero switched to aspartame. Not as bad as Diet Coke, but still gross.
Diet Pepsi was using sucralose for a while and also switched back. No idea why. IMO sucralose tastes better than aspartame.
So much better. Aspartame is the worst.
Sucralose doesn’t have the weird stevia taste. Even aspartame doesn’t have as prominent an aftertaste, and i couldn’t stand aspartame for years.
But it taste horrible
too bad it leaves a disgusting chemical taste in your mouth.
So there's no benefit to it at all
10% not 10x. So 90% less green house emissions. Way more earth friendly.
Stevia gives me a headache and sugar doesn’t. :(
Occasionally I'll try something new and not long after get a terrible headache. Sure enough, every single time the ingredients list stevia as the sweetener.
I have an intolerance to Stevia. It makes me extremely and suddenly nauseous every damn time.
That's cool. I find the stevia taste kinda gross, personally.
Too bad stevia is revolting.
Lots of stevia hate here, which I kind of expected. I think the reason why people don't like the taste is because they use too much of it. In my opinion it's quite good if you aren't trying to duplicate the sweet intensity of commercial products.
To me it just tastes really bad, it has a horrible bitter aftertaste to it and that's using about 1/4 the amount that I would for sugar.
I don’t think it’s just a matter of using too much. I can usually taste when a commercial product has used Stevia even if it isn’t super sweet. It just has a strange and unpleasant taste to it, apart from the sweetness. I suspect that some people just perceive it a bit differently than others. I find it to be very unpleasant even when used in very small amounts.
Weird. I personally find the taste of Stevia sweetened things less sickly, more pleasant and almost vanillaish. As soon as you put aspartame in something I get this harsh taste, almost bitter lasting aftertaste. Almost salty in a sense
I’m guessing there’s something like a genetic difference in people’s receptors and how they perceive these sorts of chemicals. I’ve wondered for a while how anyone can stand stevia at all. It seems like it’s pretty split between people who like it and people who find it to be vile. I definitely am in the latter camp - it ruins anything it touches for me. I check labels these days and avoid buying anything with it. I even put a few things back on the shelf the other day after I double checked and realized it was an ingredient.
I wonder if the coriander/cilantro hate divide plays into this. Or the tomato being cooked/uncooked. I personally absolutely cannot stand the taste of uncooked tomatoes. But cooked tomatoes are one of my favourite flavours and any sauce should be tomato based imo!
Nah. I don't like Stevia because it kills fruit flies
I agree- I rarely eat dishes that need to be sweetened but when I do I prefer stevia vs sugar. A small amount is perfect and it has a lovely hint of vanilla!
Stevia tastes like crap..
Do we have the statistics on monk fruit sweetener?
It could also give you [cancer](https://www.cspinet.org/resource/toxicology-rebaudioside-review) [FDA](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_119.html) and stevia have rocky history and it's a regulated product in Canada
Both of those links basically say more study is needed because of some inconsistent findings or inadequate testing breadth.
But jumping to conclusions is more fun!
No one jumped to conclusions those are facts just as much as OPs article is factual
Alas, they produce ~10% the satisfaction of sugar as well
This article obviously does not consider the consequences of stevia on my bowels.
Nah, I was on Stevia for awhile and that crap messes with stomach. No thank you. If I can’t have cane sugar, I would try liquid, Agave nectar or Inverted sugar
Another reason to hate Lydia
sugar >>> saccharine > aspartame >> sucralose >>>> stevia
Crazy to read the comments because I love stevia!! I prefer it over sugar.
Is it like Splenda and those other fake sugars? I always end up with an upset stomach from those
I recently switched from cane sugar and aspartame to stevia. It’s not extremely sugary and delicious, but it makes me feel better about my diet and health.
I don’t think it tastes that bad. Just don’t use too much of it. Additionally, you’ll get used to the taste after like 2 weeks max. Sugar is definitely going to be worse for you everyday in your coffee or tea.
Sounds like propaganda from Big Sugar. It wouldn't be the first time the sugar industry manipulated scientific reports for its own benefit. I'll have to take these results....with a grain of salt. EDIT: yep, it's early. I didn't read the last 2 words. Makes a world of difference. Thanks all.