0:09

Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's Ask

0:11

a Nutritionist podcast, brought to you

0:14

by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. We're

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thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on

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air discussing the connection between what you

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eat and how you feel while sharing

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practical, real-life solutions for a healthier living

0:26

through balanced nutrition. Thank you

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for your support and listenership over

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the years. Now let's get

0:32

started. On today's show,

0:35

we will be answering a question from one

0:37

of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners. The

0:39

question from our Facebook group today is,

0:42

Are Monk Fruit and Stevia OK?

0:45

Now this is a question I get asked about a

0:47

lot, so I was happy

0:49

to get to dive into the details of

0:51

these two sweeteners and do more research to

0:53

share with you all. The

0:56

short answer is yes. For

0:58

most people, Stevia and Monk Fruit can

1:00

be added to a balanced meal plan

1:02

safely. We'll dig into all of

1:04

the details about Monk Fruit and Stevia so

1:06

you can make the decision for yourself if

1:09

they're products you want to consume. Our

1:12

community knows that reducing sugar intake

1:14

and added sugar products is an

1:16

important lifestyle habit. It

1:19

can be important to help you lose weight and

1:21

sugar cravings, balance blood sugar

1:23

levels. Along with that may

1:26

cover the occasional need for a little

1:28

something sweet. And a

1:30

sugar substitute makes it a little easier to eat

1:32

less sugar. At Nutritional

1:34

Weight and Wellness, we recommend

1:36

avoiding artificial sweeteners like Aspartame,

1:39

which is the Blue Packet at

1:41

restaurants through Grillo's The Yellow Packet or

1:43

Saccharin, the Pink Packet. These artificial

1:46

sweeteners can interfere with metabolism

1:49

and may cause weight gain and

1:51

affect brain health. If

1:54

you see a sugar substitute that ends in

1:56

an O-L, that is a sugar alcohol. Examples

1:59

are and sorbitol and

2:01

erythritol. They're often bounded

2:04

things like protein bars, sugar-free

2:06

candies, and chewing gum. Generally,

2:09

these are okay in small quantities,

2:11

as long as you tolerate them.

2:13

Sometimes people notice sugar alcohols can

2:15

aggravate digestive issues. If

2:18

you have a little GI upset, I would avoid

2:20

sugar alcohols until you peel your gut. So

2:23

what sugar substitutes do we recommend at

2:25

Nutritional Weight and Wellness? We'll

2:28

start with monk fruit. It's newer

2:30

to consumers here in the United States, but

2:32

it's been used for hundreds of years in

2:34

Asia. Monk fruit extract is a sweetener from

2:37

a fruit. That's from the gourd

2:39

family and vine ripened. It

2:41

comes from Southern China. While

2:44

it's very rarely eaten raw,

2:46

it's one of the popular

2:48

non-nutritive sweeteners. What does

2:50

non-nutritive mean? It's a

2:53

sweetener that has zero or very little

2:55

calories or carbohydrates. They are

2:57

also called sugar substitutes for

2:59

artificial sweeteners. So

3:01

once the monk fruit is ripe, it's dehydrated

3:04

and made into a few different

3:06

types of products. It

3:08

can be made into a syrup, a

3:10

granulated powder, or a concentrated

3:12

liquid sweetener. Monk fruit contains

3:14

a natural compound called magracides,

3:16

which the body doesn't recognize

3:18

as a carbohydrate or sugar,

3:20

so it doesn't create an

3:23

insulin response. Steedia

3:25

is a natural sweetener that comes from

3:27

the leaves of a plant that is

3:29

native to Paraguay and Brazil. It's

3:31

been used for centuries by indigenous people,

3:33

but started becoming popular commercially in the

3:36

late 20th century. There

3:38

are even some reports that steedia was used

3:40

in Spain in the 16th century, but

3:42

then used more commonly in other parts of the bureau in

3:45

the late 19th century. All

3:47

that to say is steedia has been around for

3:49

a long time. The

3:51

compounds that make steedia sweet are

3:54

steedial glycoside. A couple of

3:56

the common ones you'll see on labels is

3:58

roboticia side A, or will... call it REP

4:01

A and stevia side. You may

4:03

also see REP M

4:05

and REP D. These are all

4:07

varieties of that glycoside in stevia.

4:11

The processing of monk fruit in stevia

4:13

can vary. The end

4:15

product of monk fruit can be 150

4:18

times sweeter than table sugar, all the way up to

4:20

400 times as sweet as table

4:22

sugar. Stevia can be

4:25

between 50 to 300 times sweeter than

4:27

table sugar, which is why

4:29

a small amount of monk fruit or

4:31

stevia goes a long way. So

4:34

are monk fruit in stevia products good

4:36

options for meeting your health goals? Well,

4:39

so far, research on monk fruit

4:41

extracts in stevia is positive. It

4:44

shows that there are minimal effects on blood

4:46

sugar levels after someone drinks a beverage sweetened

4:49

with monk fruit extract or stevia. Most

4:52

of the trials that have been done

4:54

on humans compare the sweeteners monk fruit,

4:56

stevia, or supergloss, and table sugar on

4:59

the basis of glycemic index and blood

5:01

sugar control. As

5:03

a reminder, the glycemic index is a

5:06

measure of how quickly a food or

5:08

beverage increases blood glucose levels, meaning

5:10

the higher the value on the glycemic

5:13

index, the faster the food increases your

5:15

blood sugar. Which

5:17

isn't a good thing because that increases our

5:19

risk of diabetes, creates more triglycerides, and can

5:21

cause damage to our nerves. Maple

5:24

sugar is rated as a 65 on

5:26

the glycemic index, honey is between

5:28

a 45 and 64, and pure maple

5:32

syrup is rated at a 54. Monk

5:36

fruit and stevia are both rated as a 0 on

5:38

the glycemic index because they contain natural

5:40

compounds, which the body doesn't recognize as

5:42

a cart or a sugar, so

5:45

it doesn't create an insulin response.

5:48

We're going to take a quick break

5:50

and when we return, we'll talk more

5:52

about the safety of consuming monk fruit

5:54

and stevia. Hi,

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Thanks for listening to Dishing Up

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Nutrition. Now, back to the show. So

7:29

we're back and so now that we

7:31

know these sweeteners aren't causing your blood

7:33

sugar to go up, the next question

7:35

is, are monk fruit and steedia safe

7:37

to consume? The FDA

7:39

considers both monk fruit and

7:42

steedia as generally recognized assay,

7:44

which means that experts have evaluated the

7:46

research on these products and concluded it

7:48

could be safely added to food. Animal

7:52

studies have shown no adverse effects of

7:54

high doses of monk fruit or steedia

7:56

on rats and mice. There aren't as

7:58

many human studies that that happened done

8:00

on monk fruit, but one study showed

8:03

no adverse effects when the participants ate

8:05

60 milligrams per kilogram body weight per

8:07

day of monk fruit, which is a

8:09

much higher amount than what would typically be

8:12

consumed by a person from foods sweetened with

8:14

monk fruit. And while studies have

8:16

shown that stevia is safe, in the past,

8:18

there were a couple of studies done on

8:20

the stevia and the fertility of mice that

8:22

drew a lot of attention. So I'm gonna

8:24

briefly tell you about those. One

8:26

was back in 1968, and

8:29

that was a study done on rats that gave

8:31

them very high doses of stevia, and

8:33

they produced less offspring than the control

8:35

group. Later, the author of

8:38

that study said the amount given to the

8:40

rats was an overdose of it, and there

8:42

isn't any evidence humans would experience the same

8:44

issues with fertility. Another study

8:46

that's talked about was done in 1988

8:49

by Alvarez that showed the same issues

8:51

with fertility, but that study was

8:54

then discredited, and even Alvarez, the author of

8:56

the study, went on to say that, is

8:58

newer research has led him to believe

9:01

that stevia is safe for human consumption.

9:04

Multiple studies since then have shown that

9:06

stevia does not have any adverse effects

9:08

on fertility. So besides

9:10

being safe for use in humans, there have

9:13

been a number of studies showing that there

9:15

might actually be benefits also to using stevia

9:17

as a sugar replacement. I found

9:19

studies over the past 10 or so

9:21

years that showed stevia could lower blood

9:23

glucose, decrease blood pressure, and improve metabolic

9:26

flexion. Most of these studies were

9:28

done on rodents. Other studies

9:30

have also shown that monk fruit

9:32

contains high levels of antioxidants and

9:34

may be anti-inflammatory. So

9:37

what should you pay attention to when choosing

9:39

monk fruit or stevia? Well,

9:41

no, monk fruit is a member of the

9:43

gourd family, so if you're allergic to gourds,

9:45

you might be at a higher

9:47

risk to being allergic to monk fruit. The

9:50

stevia plant is related to ragweed,

9:53

chrysanthemum, and sunflower seed plants. So

9:55

some experts recommend avoiding stevia if you

9:57

have an allergy to any of those

9:59

plants. There have

10:01

not been any reports of stevia-related allergies

10:03

in the literature, so it's rare to

10:05

have an allergy to stevia. Stevia

10:08

can cause bloating, nausea, dizziness, and numbness,

10:10

but this is very rare and often

10:13

from ingesting large colonies of stevia at

10:15

a time. But good to know

10:17

in case you do experience any of these subdumps, you

10:19

might want to find a different product to use. Another

10:22

issue with those monk fruit and stevia is

10:25

when other ingredients are added to them. Often

10:28

monk fruit and stevia contain an additive

10:30

like erythritol that's used to add bulk

10:32

to the sweeteners. Erythritol is

10:34

a sugar alcohol that contains about 70% of

10:38

the sweetness of sugar. Because monk

10:40

fruit and stevia are so sweet, very little is

10:42

used, and erythritol is added to

10:44

them to give them a more sugar-like, crystal

10:47

appearance and texture. Erythritol was

10:49

in the news recently because of a

10:51

study that showed people with existing risk

10:53

factors for heart disease, like diabetes, were

10:56

twice as likely to experience a heart attack

10:58

or stroke if they had the highest level

11:00

of erythritol in their blood. There

11:03

are a few issues with that study to

11:05

be aware of that I'll briefly go over,

11:07

including the fact that the researchers

11:09

didn't measure the amount of erythritol that

11:11

was given to the participants in the

11:13

study, just their blood level of that

11:15

erythritol. This is important to

11:18

note because erythritol can be made by

11:20

humans in their own bodies as a

11:22

response to eating glucose and fructose,

11:24

and it can be higher in people with

11:27

insulin resistance and high blood sugar, regardless

11:29

of whether the person ate erythritol at

11:31

all. So the participants in

11:34

this study might have had higher rates

11:36

of erythritol in their blood because their

11:38

body made it, related to their underlying

11:40

health issues and not from consuming it

11:42

from a product that contained erythritol. All

11:45

of that to say is that there definitely

11:47

needs to be more research on the use

11:49

of erythritol. You can also

11:51

find both monk fruit and stevia without the

11:54

addition of erythritol as well if

11:56

you want to avoid that additive until our research

11:58

is done on its safety. So

12:01

what about the taste of monk fruit and stevia?

12:04

One benefit of monk fruit is

12:06

that unlike some sugar substitutes, monk fruit

12:08

has very little to no aftertaste.

12:11

Most people also like the taste of

12:13

stevia, but there are some people who

12:15

have a genetic variation to tasting bitter

12:17

foods and may find stevia more bitter

12:20

than others. The taste of

12:22

stevia can also vary depending on what

12:24

form it's in, so powdered stevia might

12:26

taste different to you than liquid stevia.

12:29

If these are products you want to use, you

12:31

might need to do some experimenting to find which

12:33

one you like the taste of best. So

12:36

to recap today's podcast, yes,

12:38

monk fruit and stevia are recognized as safe

12:41

to be used as a more

12:43

natural sugar substitute that won't

12:45

raise your blood sugar. It

12:47

is important to note when choosing to use

12:49

stevia monk fruit sweeteners that because they can

12:51

be multiple times sweeter than sugar, the

12:54

sweet taste may trigger your cravings. Even

12:57

though it's technically sugar free. So I

12:59

would recommend focusing on eating real food

13:01

in balance and using stevia monk

13:04

fruit for an occasional sweet treat. If

13:06

you do find yourself experiencing more food

13:08

and baked good cravings choose a balanced

13:11

meal or snack and you can help

13:13

curb those sugar cravings. Thank

13:15

you so much for listening to dishing out

13:17

nutrition's Ask a Nutritionist. If you

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found this episode helpful, be sure to leave

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