Does Stevia effect anyone's bg?

[ickihun]

First time I've used Stevia today but my high bg is lingering.
Does anyone have experience of poor bgs once been used?

 

[JenniferG]

I've heard artificial sweetners, including stevia, once they hit the tongue, they activate a receptor which immediately tells the body to produce insulin to cover the perceived load of incoming sugar.

This can result in hunger because the extra sugar never gets to the bloodstream, because we fooled our body. So then either you might eat more .. crave more carbs or your body under stress will output cortisol causing the liver to release extra glucose from the liver, to cover it.

Maybe your body overdoes the cortisol and liver dumps more than needed to cover the insulin rise? Maybe your pancreas can't keep up with the amount the liver dumped due to the stevia intake? And then you end up with higher blood sugar?

I suggest doing without any sweetners, artificial or not, and see if your blood sugars improve. I am curious. Please let me know. I'm about to give up on Stevia myself.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900484/

 

[Aisling]

I found stevia causes the same reaction as sugar on my levels. I have just maltodextrin is raw stevia and it does the same thing. I had an UTI and took cystoprin my levels shot up from 7 to 25.5. I paniced thinking the uti was causing it until i read the ingredients.

 

[Energize]

There was a programme on the TV some time ago. Can't think of what it was called but was a doctor who, each week, presented some research he undertook, but on small scale. One of them was to have half of a group of non-diabetics, ie 4 people who continued to eat as they normally would, and the other half, again non-diabetics, who also normally took sugar, to take sweeteners. This to be done for a period of time. The result were that the first group (continue as they would normally) showed no change in blood results re glucose levels / ? HbA1c (can't remember) but the second group, ie those taking sweeteners, had increased glucose levels from their levels before the research.

On that basis, I decided to cut all sweeteners and all diet drinks, unless that was my best choice at the time. I'm not one for fizzy drinks anyway so it hasnt been too onerous but, a year on and I still don't enjoy my cup of tea without some means of tasting sweeter!!! One day, I'll perhaps enjoy a cuppa the same as 'before'

 

[Aisling]

There was a programme on the TV some time ago. Can't think of what it was called but was a doctor who, each week, presented some research he undertook, but on small scale. One of them was to have half of a group of non-diabetics, ie 4 people who continued to eat as they normally would, and the other half, again non-diabetics, who also normally took sugar, to take sweeteners. This to be done for a period of time. The result were that the first group (continue as they would normally) showed no change in blood results re glucose levels / ? HbA1c (can't remember) but the second group, ie those taking sweeteners, had increased glucose levels from their levels before the research.

On that basis, I decided to cut all sweeteners and all diet drinks, unless that was my best choice at the time. I'm not one for fizzy drinks anyway so it hasnt been too onerous but, a year on and I still don't enjoy my cup of tea without some means of tasting sweeter!!! One day, I'll perhaps enjoy a cuppa the same as 'before'

I can use all other sweeteners Stevia seems to be a nono. I dont drink tea with sugar but like extra milk. I dont use sweeteners for anything but use ribena no added sugar as hate plain water!

 

[Robbity]

Stevia is often mixed with other ingredients/fillers to bulk it out due to its extremely high sweetness, so you may need to look carefully at what exactly is in the mix in case these fillers may be the problem.

I've never had any problem at all with pure stevia (powder or drops) or stevia and erythritol combinations, and all the info I've seen suggests that these two are the ones that don't either raise glucose levels or trigger any nasty gastric side effects. The only issue I've ever had is with the somewhat unpleasant after taste from some brands if I've ever accidentally used a bit too much. But the only real way to know how you react to it is by testing.

Robbity

 

[nickm]

Yes, try it on yourself, but be aware that a good short term effect is no guarantee that it won't do you harm in the long term.
Natural food diets have a proven long term benefit.
realmealrevolution.com recommends erythritol et al as transitional treatment only.
See their post of 12 Mar 2015.

 

[FaithinOK]

Stevia is often mixed with other ingredients/fillers to bulk it out due to its extremely high sweetness, so you may need to look carefully at what exactly is in the mix in case these fillers may be the problem.

I've never had any problem at all with pure stevia (powder or drops) or stevia and erythritol combinations, and all the info I've seen suggests that these two are the ones that don't either raise glucose levels or trigger any nasty gastric side effects. The only issue I've ever had is with the somewhat unpleasant after taste from some brands if I've ever accidentally used a bit too much. But the only real way to know how you react to it is by testing.

Robbity

True for me too. Some stevia brands add maltodextrin which is a big no-no.