Sweetleaf sweetener is a danger to other sweeteners' manufacturers.

Sweetleaf (also known as Stevia) is a popular plant in the South and Central America. For centuries it has been used in Paraguay as a natural sweetener in yerba mate and herbal teas used for heart diseases. Recently it has become more and more popular due to the growing need for dietary replacements for sugar.

The boom for a Sweetleaf sweetener has begun in 1970s in Japan when it was used as alternatives to artificial sweeteners such as cyclamates, but they soon became very popular in other countries, too. Unfortunately, due to its increasing popularity, the artificial sweeteners' manufacturers fought back, using European and U.S. government agencies.

As the result, the European Commission forbade trading Sweetleaf in the E.U. And in 1991 the FDA banned Sweetleaf sweeteners. Both decisions were made because the authorities suspected Sweetleaf to be both toxic and carcinogenic. The researchers supposed also that it was extremely toxic to the liver.

The point is that there are several reasons to believe that Stevia is actually perfectly safe:

• the research of the toxicity of Sweetleaf was criticized for methodological reasons - the research was performed in a way that would make even distilled water appear toxic,
• Stevia has been safely used for centuries in Central America with no apparent increase of health problems,
• there have been no problems with liver toxicity in Japan where Sweetleaf took over about 40% of sweetener market,
• apparently the FDA decision was made under great pressure from the business and little respect for the law,
• the FDA has recently called of its decision and allowed Sweetleaf into the U.S. market again.

It does not mean of course that we are 100 per cent sure that Stevia is perfectly safe. There are now several ongoing researches trying to determine the exact impact of Sweetleaf to our health. However, it is clear even now that the Sweetleaf is a quite safe natural alternative both to sugar and artificial sweeteners.

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