Stevia — a wonder of nature

According to a 2013 study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, 17 percent of adults in Bangladesh are either overweight or obese. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 1 in 3 adults are overweight, and 1 in 10 adults are obese. Overweight and obese individuals are at a greater risk of developing type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and cancer. 

In Bangladesh, 17 percent of deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases, while 10 percent deaths are caused by cancers, reports WHO. That is more than a quarter of the population whose deaths are caused by diseases or complications possibly resulting from overweight and obesity problems.

Exercises or any kind of movement and diet are key to a healthy lifestyle. People are becoming increasingly health conscious, and realising how damaging poor eating and sedentary lifestyle can be.

It's no secret that ingredients like sugar, excess oil and too much carbohydrate increase body weight, can expedite our ageing process, and make cholesterol level and sugar level high. 

Consuming less oil is achievable, as is eating less carbohydrate or eating low GI carbs, instead of high GI. The Glycemic Index (GI) is a scale that ranks carbohydrate-rich foods by how much they raise blood glucose (sugar) levels compared to a standard food.

Foods like honey, molasses, maple syrup, coconut sugar, dates, etc. are naturally sweet, and high in sugar. While these can be used to curb your sweet cravings from time to time, they cannot be used in all foods like tea, coffee, lemonade, or for baking in many desserts. 

To find a sugar substitute that can be widely used, artificial sweeteners were developed. To name a few, aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, and neotame are all artificial sugar substitutes that are chemically synthesised — the sweetness is added, calories are reduced, while containing significantly less food energy. 

Many people opt for artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, and while this seems like a great alternative, what people often miss out is the short and long term health problems caused by these synthesised sweeteners. 

That being said, Mother Nature is great, as it brings an option for a natural sweetener that is quite versatile — Stevia. 

Stevia is a plant native to South America. Naturally grown, it has been used as a regular sweetener by the indigenous people of South America for thousands of years. It has only been commercially used in other parts of the world in the last few decades. The extract from stevia plant is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and contains zero sugar, zero calories, and no carbohydrates as gifted by the Almighty. 

This is Mother Nature's answers to all the aforementioned problems. Its success in the West has now led it to making its way to the East, and now local Bangladeshi companies Like Purnava, a subsidiary of Renata Pharmaceuticals, are also marketing Stevia sweetened sweeteners. 

Stevia is the only sweetener that has been marked safe in pregnancy, especially if one is diabetic, by medical practitioners globally. Stevia is not only an answer for diabetic patient's sweet tooth but also for health conscious people trying to ditch sugar.

So is this the answer to Bangladesh's growing obesity, and cardiovascular diseases problem? Quite possibly.

By Raeesa Rahemin, Senior Officer, Purnava

Photo: Collected