I’m not going to read the studies, as I consume neither stevia nor erythritol (in general), but …

If the factor that is bad is NOT stevia, consider correcting the thread title.

Pure stevia is a natural sweetener and by itself does nothing bad to the body I am aware of. Erythritol is a sugar alcohol whose purpose I suspect is to bulk up volume. There are sources of stevia that contain no erythritol. Here is one that folks can use to avoid the manufactured artificial sweeteners.


https://www.intheraw.com/produ...s/stevia-in-the-raw/

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:

Curious. Do you consume any sugar? My wife who has been Type One for well over sixty years will not touch the stuff if she can help it. She only uses Splenda for a sweetener.

I'm curious...does your wife use mealtime insulin, or just basal? It sounds like we're pretty similar in our approach, and I've been able to avoid using fast-acting insulin completely so far. I just take basal every morning and control my levels throughout the day by eating and exercise. So far (about 3 years) it has worked ok and my numbers have been good, but the doc tells me that it'll eventually get worse.

Like your wife, I won't touch sugar if I can help it, which is hard because people put it in everything. I rarely eat out anymore because you never know what the restaurant put in their seasonings, sauces, or dressings, and if I'm just going to order a plain salad or meat I can make that better and cheaper at home.

I try to minimize carbs in general and keep my body in Ketosis, but I do have a small bowl of homemade granola every morning (basically just oats and cinnamon that my wife bakes up for me) with a couple of blueberries or strawberries before I go run. I monitor my blood sugar religiously, and I'm usually low in the morning so my body can tolerate it, especially right before exercise.

If I do consume sugars I prefer they be natural rather than added, and I won't touch it at all of there's more than a couple of grams. For the most part, I just don't eat sweet things period anymore. Like I said in my first post, the "fake" stuff is a poor substitute for the real thing. I was also never really big into sweets and actually miss the starches lik rice, beans, corn, and potatoes more than I miss the sweet stuff.

Truvia is another sweetening product that contains Erythritol. My wife uses at most 10 single serving packets a week and had a TIA and a small stroke within the last 9 months. Whether this was the cause or not, best to eliminate it as a possible future factor.