Stevia or Aspartame
 

I am new at this diet, and instead of taking "Aspartame" I take "Stevia", it says that is the juice of a south american plant. Away from the fact that it has like 1 gm of Carbs for a Tsp. I wonder if the taste of "sugar" has other impact in my body to trigger my body to store "Fat" All I found is this site about the comparison of both.

But I bet people here have some news on this.


http://www.vegsource.com/davis/sweeteners.htm

I assume you mean a teaspoon of the fillered stuff. Most of the fillered Stevias have half a carb per teaspoon. A packet is the equivelant of 2 teaspoons. For example, the Stevia+Fiber brand which is fillered with FOS (Chicory Fiber) has 475mg of Carbs per serving. But, a serving is for some odd reason only half a packet. A packet has 950mg of Carbs, all of that FOS (Chicory Fiber.) There's other brands out there fillered with all kinds of things. You have Maltodextrin like Splenda, FOS which is Chicory Fiber, Erythritol which is a Nonglycemic, super low-calorie (0.2 kcal/g) sugar alcohol, and many others. The pure extract [stevia rebaudiana is the only ingredient] only weighs 1g per teaspoon if I remember correctly, and I would assume its not 100% Carbs. Plus, 1 tsp of the Pure Powdered Extract is the Equivelant of 1 cup of Sugar.

Wow, I don´t know much at all about Stevia, but the package I bought said 1 gm of Carb. So now I got a little confuse, is it ok to eat Stevia in pouder with or without fiber?
Or should I just simply try to avoid it?.

The carb in stevia comes from the filler. I have heard that if you use too much in a meal it gives an aftertaste.
I didn't find a mention of stevia in DANDR but I have heard lots of people here using it. It is a natural plant extract-FDA has not approved it for a sweetner but only as a herbel supplement.

The packets of stevia I have use inulin (fiber) as a filler, I suppose you would deduct the fiber anyway. I also thought the liquid stevia extract has no carbs.

If you use too much stevia it tastes like licorice but its supposedly very healthy. I cant get used to the taste though, but its probably better than splenda.

Now that I am thinking about fillers, why cant they use inulin with splenda instead of maltodextrin to bulk it?

If the filler is FOS (Inulin) or Erythitol, I'd count it as 0 Carbs. If the filler is Maltodextrin or Dextrose, treat it like Splenda. I.E. each packet = 1 Carb.

Oh... thank you!!,
Poeple are very patient with me... thanks.

Check out this link for more on stevia and aspartame. I don't use aspartame, but I never did care much for it. I do, however, use sucralose and saccharin, both of which are listed as "bad" sweeteners. When it comes right down to it, it's all a matter of personal preference.

HTH!! :D