can you use Stevia on your diet is
Stevia safe to use and if you use it
could it possibly sabotage your weight
loss success the answer to all three of
these questions is yes and in this video
I explain why hi my name is Dr Becky
from Dr Becky fitness.com I'm a college
instructor on the science of nutrition
can I safely use Stevia on my diet is
one of the most commonly asked questions
I get so let's take a look at what
Stevia is Stevia is an edible plant and
the leaves have a natural sweetness so
if you want to stay completely natural
you could grow Stevia in your garden or
on your window sill and use the leaves
directly in things like tea or coffee
now the fresh leaves are not going to be
very sweet but we can process the leaves
to enhance their sweetness one way to do
that would be to dry and crush the
leaves and use them like you would use
any other dried herb or to bring out
even more sweetness the leaves can be
ground into a powder now this is the
form that you're probably familiar with
because this is what we find at the
grocery store in the powdered form
stevia's sweetness is intensified to 300
times that of sugar yet there are no
calories now there's no denying that
getting that much sweetness for zero
calories is appealing but there are both
pros and cons to consider
on the good side this calorie-free
sweetener has a glycemic index of zero
the glycemic index is just a measuring
tool that we use to show how much a food
is going to affect your blood sugar
since stevia's glycemic index is zero
consuming that product doesn't raise
your blood sugar level at all so that
makes Stevia safe for
diabetics also because blood sugar stays
low insulin stays low and that's good
for weight control because insulin is
the hormone that drives sugar into your
fat cells so when you use Stevia there's
no direct impact on your weight gain so
all is good so far right but there are
some definite uh negatives to having
this much intense sweetness the first
problem has to do with packaging because
Stevia is such a concentrated sweetness
very small amounts of the product are
needed to get your desired taste so so
it's hard to package very small things
so food producers often add bulking
agents to make the product easier to
sell a favorite buling agent is
maltodextrin which is a form of sugar
that's made from starchy Foods it has a
glycemic index of
110 which is outrageously high in fact
it's twice the glycemic index of sugar
which means it has twice the impact on
your blood sugar and Insulin as as just
table sugar does so you'd really be
better off just having table sugar now
if you do decide to use Stevia the trick
is to be a little bit of a detective and
make sure that you check the ingredients
list you want to make sure that you
don't see multitran or dextrose on the
uh ingredients list if you do put that
one back the brand I recommend is Sweet
Leaf uh if you turn that one over and
you look at the ingredients what you'll
find is Stevie and inulin uh inulin is
just a type of fiber that we get from
certain vegetables uh it actually can
benefit your digestive tract and your
gut health so it's safe to use now even
if you use pure stevia there are some
things to consider especially if you're
using Stevia to try to lose weight as
soon as you eat something with stevia in
it that intense sweetness is picked up
by your taste buds and your taste buds
send a message straight straight up to
the reward center of your brain that is
the same center of the brain that gets
activated when we have that wow factor
response you know when we eat sugar so
when you consume Stevia you're keeping
your sugar addiction alive now is that
what you want I'll tell you it is
certainly not what I want and it is
really one of the main reasons I don't
use Stevia or any other artificial
sweeteners another concern is how your
digestive tract reacts to stevia so when
you ingest that intense sweetness your
pancreas starts cranking out enzymes
because it's anticipating all of these
calories coming through those calories
never come so your appetite stays High
um if you use artificial sweeteners a
lot of times during the day you can
really create some problems for yourself
with false hunger
signals another consideration is what
sugar substitutes can do to your
waistline a study involving 6,000 partip
ipants showed that those who consumed a
diet soda a day had more belly fat with
a 36% increase risk of metabolic
syndrome and their increased risk of
diabetes was
67% so what's the bottom
line can you use Stevia on your diet
yes is Stevia safe to use uh in its pure
form without any bling agents
yes um Can stevia sabotage your weight
loss unfortunately yes so that's why I
recommend that you try to wian yourself
off both sugar and artificial sweeteners
uh if you've tried to do this before and
you haven't been able to succeed at it
uh I highly recommend that you watch my
free video series that will give you a
simple strategy to get the sugar out of
your diet um I'll leave a link on this
video and down below in the description
area to so you can find those videos and
other than that as always um if you
enjoyed uh learning this about Stevia
today and you'd like more facts that
will help you reach your ideal weight
please subscribe to my YouTube channel
here and I will be back with more thanks
for watching