Is stevia safe?

[Nedo]

I've been drinking a few Zevia pops per week which are sweetened with stevia. I also use stevia in lemonade and green tea. Have any studies been conducted to determine if stevia is safe?

[ironwill2008]

I've been drinking a few Zevia pops per week which are sweetened with stevia. I also use stevia in lemonade and green tea.


Have any studies been conducted to determine if stevia is safe?

edit:

I spoke too soon; was thinking of another sweetener. I don't know if stevia has any study data. I don't think FDA has ever approved it, FWIW.

[Plateauplower]

I've been drinking a few Zevia pops per week which are sweetened with stevia. I also use stevia in lemonade and green tea. Have any studies been conducted to determine if stevia is safe?

If its not safe I'm dead. I put liquid stevia in my coffee everyday (NOW Organic). Its made from essentially a weed, you can grow it in your yard and use the leaves if you want. Its been used by indigenous tribes of South America and heavily used by Japanese for a long time. The indigenous tribes of South America have gone extinct, but the Japanese are still around....Id say you got a 50/50 shot of waking up tomorrow opie.

[Shadowman82]

I used it to sweeten plain unsweetend yoghurts . I have no reason to believe it's not safe .

[keyboardworkout]

I think this is where the FDA left it.

The FDA banned stevia in 1991 due to preliminary studies suggesting that it may lead to cancer. This was revoked in 1995 when the FDA ruled it safe to be sold as a food supplement. They then granted GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status to Reb A in 2008 after the makers of Pure Via and Truvia submitted research supporting its safety. Whole-leaf stevia and stevia extracts, however, are still considered dietary supplements.

[MikeK46]

Nothing is "safe" or "unsafe" out of context. The answer to whether anything is "safe" or "unsafe" depends on the quantity and the timeframe. Apple seeds contain cyanide, a highly toxic compound. You won't die from chewing apple seeds because the quantity of cyanide is extremely small. Similarly, water in a large enough quantity within a short enough timeframe will kill you.

High-purity (but not crude) steviol glycosides are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA. They're also approved for use in areas of the world that are much stricter on allowing junk into their food, such as the European Union (this actually speaks much more more highly about it because they're much stricter with allowing garbage into their food). Recent short-term studies have generally agreed that they're safe to consume in reasonable quantities.

[Plateauplower]

I think this is where the FDA left it.

The FDA is a sham of an agency. The driving factor in any negativity toward it in plant form is because its not made in a lab or able to be trademarked since anyone can grow it....Therefore lobbyist for companies that make sweeteners "research it" or try to suggest nah, don't use that plant, use saccharine...

[Celstick]

Lots of good information here (remove space):

examine .com/supplements/stevia/

I actually buy the pure reb-A from Amazon. Lifechanging.

[rhadam]

From everything (data) i have read, if consumed in moderate amounts you don't have too much to worry about.

[melDorado]

I buy stevia whey bc the regular sweetened whey is too sweet for me, and i drink loads of koolaid with stevia powder so i hope it's safe. I did read up on it and didnt find anything bad.

[chasedaviis]

The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) is the amount of a substance that people can consume in food or beverages on a daily basis during their whole life without any appreciable risk to health. Several regulatory authorities have rigorously evaluated more than 200 peer-reviewed studies on animals and humans examining the safety of high-purity steviol glycosides. Based on this evidence, JECFA has established an ADI that applies to adults and children. The ADI is expressed as steviol equivalents of 4 mg/kg of body weight per day.7 This equates to approximately 12 mg of high-purity stevia extracts/kg of body weight per day, using a conversion factor of 0.33. This ADI was established using a safety factor of 100, which includes a 10-times factor to account for potential differences between humans and animal species used in toxicological testing and a 10-times factor to account for potential differences within the human population, such as between children and adults. Thus, any potential increased susceptibility of children compared with adults to steviol glycosides has been addressed in the establishment of the ADI. For example, to put the ADI for high purity steviol glycosides into perspective, a 150-lb (70-kg) person would need to consume approximately 40 packets of a table top stevia sweetener that contain 21 mg steviol glycosides per packet daily for a lifetime to maximize the current ADI. Here is the calculation: A 70-kg person consuming the ADI (12 mg/kg per day) would consume 70 × 12 = 840 mg steviol glycosides per day. If a tabletop packet contained about 21 mg steviol glycosides, this person would need to consume 840 / 21 = 40 small tabletop packets per day to maximize the current ADI.

In the United States, high-purity stevia leaf extracts are considered GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Stevia has been shown to be safe in more than 200 studies, and JECFA has established an ADI of 4 mg/kg body weight per day, expressed as steviol equivalents, to guarantee this safety to consumers.

Full Read Here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4890837/

[ErikTheElectric]

Yes.

[Nedo]

I figured it was safe, thanks everyone.

[dawjoms]

I drink coffee sometimes and I use it as a sweetener.

[401Delta]

Depends on who you're sitting across from.

Srs.