All About Health

What is Truvia?

Truvia is a processed, sugar substitute created by Coca Cola and Cargill, and is primarily comprised of Stevia but also contains a  natural sugar alcohol called erythritol that is found in both fruits, fermented milk or fruits. It is almost seventy percent sweeter than normal sugar, and is known not to affect blood sugar levels or lead to tooth decay, since mircroorganisms are unable to break it down. Erythritol is unique in the sense that it does not cause gastric discomforts which are usually experienced from other sugar alcohol based sweeteners.

What is Stevia?

Stevia is a plant based sweetener which belongs to sunflower family and is native to subtropical and tropical regions of South America. Once it has been extracted from the plant leaves, it is used as a sweetener in either food or drink. It is three hundred times sweeter than table sugar although some extracts from some plants in the same family may have a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste when used in very high concentrations. This type of sweetener is sometimes referred to as sweetleaf or sugarleaf.

Truvia Vs Stevia

The main different is that Truvia has erythritol as one of its chief ingredients whereas Stevia does not have this component. This means that Truvia is more processed than natural Stevia. Other than than, the differences are minimal. Both have been found to have medicinal value, but there are some slight differences between the benefits. Stevia can produce glucose tolerance, in that it lowers the blood sugar level of people who consume it farther than Truvia does. Stevia also reduces the ability that the body has to store fats, which helps lower cholesterol. This is also something that Truvia doesn’t do as well, since it’s not true Stevia.

Overall, both are very healthy alternatives to normal sugar, however, given a choice, pure Stevia and not Truvia is what should be considered. Make sure to look at the label of what you buy, to make sure it is pure Stevia, or as pure as you can get.

Learn about liquid stevia