Is Truvia really Stevia or a Fake? I keep seeing TV commercials advertising Truvia as Stevia. Is it truly Stevia?  What is Truvia? Artificial sweetener manufactured by Cocoa Cola Company!

Advertisement found online at truvia.com and ad as seen on TV;

Stevia: the plant with a sweet secret Sweetness born from a leaf, not in a lab. Meet the stevia plant. The proud parent of our new natural sweetener. People have been sweetening foods and beverages with stevia leaves for hundreds of years. The taste comes from a natural ingredient from the leaves called rebiana.   

Question? Is your child really you in body? NO, well I don’t believe Truvia is actually Stevia either! Why do I think that? 

The ingredients listed in Truvia are; Erythritol, Rebiana, Natural flavors Parve. I do not see a single mention of Stevia yet the advertisements I've seen on TV and heard on radio infers that it is!   

Don't be fooled! 

While Truvia’s name may seem terribly scientific, number one ingredient is erythritol, found in nature at low levels in grapes, melons and pears and can be found at higher levels in fermented products like wine. No mention of Stevia there! 

Truvia Ingredient #1 Erythritol ((2R,3S)-butane-1,2,3,4-tetraol) definition; a natural sugar alcohol (a type of sugar substitute) which has been approved for use in the United States and throughout much of the world. It occurs naturally in fruits and fermented foods. At industrial level, it is produced from glucose by fermentation with a yeast Moniliella pollinis. It is 60-70% as sweet as table sugar yet it is almost non-caloric, does not affect blood sugar, does not cause tooth decay, and is absorbed by the body, therefore unlikely to cause gastric side effects unlike other sugar alcohols. (They don’t really know as there are no studies to back up that claim) 

Disclaimer seen: The erythritol in the Stonyfield Farm products and other labels, is made from sugar. The sugar is mixed with water and fermented with a natural culture. How exactly is that better than straight sugar? It’s not and actually worse with the change in fermentation. 

As a whole, erythritol is generally free of side-effects in regular use, but if consumed in very extreme quantities (sometimes encouraged by its almost non-caloric nature), effectively consuming it faster than one's body can absorb it, a laxative effect may result. The laxative response does not begin until the body's natural absorption threshold is crossed, which means when more erythritol has been ingested than is found in reasonable servings of food products and is usually a larger amount than most people will eat in a single sitting. 

Interestingly, erythritol exhibits some, but not all, of the tendencies to "starve" harmful bacteria like xylitol does. Unlike xylitol, erythritol is actually absorbed into the bloodstream after consumption but before excretion. However, it is not clear at present if the effect of starving harmful bacteria occurs systemically. (Now xylitol is known to kill dogs when consumed by them. Liver failure and hypoglycemia occurs when only small amount is consumed. What does it to the human? Nobody knows for sure!) 

Placing blame by the maker of erythritol; beyond high intensity sweeteners, erythritol is often paired with other bulky ingredients that exhibit sugar-like characteristics to better mimic the texture and mouthfeel of sucrose. Often these other ingredients are responsible for the gastric side effects blamed on erythritol. The cooling effect of erythritol is rarely desired, hence other ingredients are chosen to dilute or even negate that effect.  

Ingredient number two Rebiana - The Coca-Cola Company developed rebiana – a natural, zero-calorie sweetener with a clean, sweet taste. The key to bringing rebiana to market was in perfecting the taste. The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill states that they zeroed in on the components of the stevia plant that deliver the best taste. 

Did you notice the words developed and components? Nowhere can I find the statement that Rebiana comes from the Stevia plant itself. I read words like developed, components and potential but they haven't gone so far as to actually state that Rebiana comes from the Stevia plant. I have to give them credit for that one honesty but marketing it to appear as such and brainwashing people to believe it is is dishonest as well as dangerous since these ingredients haven’t been around long enough for us to know the outcome from ingesting them! 

I did find the studies released by the CocaCola company - who manufacturers Truvia - to state: Human metabolism of rebaudioside A is similar to that of stevioside, the most abundant steviol glycoside in the stevia leaf;.  

Similar to? Is that the same as actually being Stevia? No! That statement leads me to believe that Rebiana is not from the Stevia plant at all. What do you think? 

The third ingredient listed is Parve - definition;  said to be a derivative of Parave meaning; Prepared without meat, milk, or their derivatives and therefore permissible to be eaten with both meat and dairy dishes according to dietary laws: 

How is that for truth in Truvia? Thought you might like some input into the loudly advertised, supposedly healthy sugar alternative! 

The truth is somewhere out there and we may not know it for another 25 or 30 years and by that time how many will die or suffer severe illness from it?
Lena