Stevia Keto-Friendly
The keto diet is a diet which allows you to eat low-carb, moderate protein, and high fat meals. The goal of keto diet is to shift you in a metabolic state called ketosis.
Where body burns fat instead of carbs. During ketosis, body cells use glucose in less amount and more fat that is good for weight loss. You may miss pastries, cakes, cookies and other sweets on keto. The good thing is that stevia is a keto-friendly sweetener.
There is two interdependent physiological state give signal to your body to enter in ketosis.
- Low blood glucose level
- Low insulin levels
Promoting these states is the goal of keto diet. While keto diet may sugar cravings bother you. But you can’t use sugar. It may be difficult for sometime to stick with this type of diet. Once you deprived you no longer stay with keto diet.
What Is Stevia?
Stevia is a plant based natural sweetener. Hundreds years ago, its leafy green shrub found in the jungle of South Africa. It is derived from a plant named Stevia rebaudiana. Stevia is used as medicine and also as sweetener in Paraguayan and in Brazilian culture from last many years.
The leafs of this shrub has sweet taste. Now stevia is using as a zero-calorie sweetener all over the world. U.S Food and drug administration has confirmed that stevia is high purity extract is safe to use.
Stevia extract has high level steviol glycosides compound. This compound is responsible for sweet taste and also for health benefits. Because of this compound stevia is 200 times more sweeter than the equal dose of the table sugar. Leaves of the stevia plants harvested then dried out and use in whatever form.
As compared to the regular sugar stevia contains 64% less carbon and 95% of water. Stevia is found in liquid form or also in the form of white powder.
How Does It Works?
The stevia plant consist on some steviol glycoside compounds which gives it sweetening power. Includes:
- Steviosides
- Rebaudiosides A
- Rebaudiosides C
- Dulcosides
A small amount of two compounds can go a long way. Without calories, stevia is much sweeter than natural sugar. One common thing is that they trick your body into the response of glycemic. That cause of spikes in blood sugar levels. But stevia may not have this case. Stevia extract improves the blood sugar response.
Health Benefits Of Stevia Sugar
Stevia has no calorie it is sweeter than other sugar. It is more than a zero-calorie sweetener. Stevia extract also have some medicinal benefits. This benefit is because of glycoside compound. These compounds are highly-researched for its antidiabetic, hypoglycemic, and antioxidant properties. There is some health benefits of stevia.
May Improve Diabetes
In the traditional treatments stevia is using as a medicine for the type 2 diabetes patient in south America. Type 2 diabetes is metabolic disorder include high blood sugar, high insulin level, and high blood pressure. High sugar diet is responsible for this alarming situation.
When blood sugar level is low so stevia side does not contain this insulin stimulating effect. This safe situation decrease dangerously low blood sugar, which is called hypoglycemia.
Antioxident Properties
When you undergo life, body produce a compound named reactive oxygen species. That works as a normal byproduct of metabolism.
Too much ROD may increase the risk of ageing and disease. Phenol’s are the compound of stevia that helps to reduce the oxidative stress.
May Improve Blood Pressure
For an experiment, adults who are suffering from high blood pressure. 500 mg Stevioside gives to those adults three times in a day for two years. At the end of the trial, that group which having stevioside significantly lower blood pressure.
Can Improve Oral Health
Eating stevia for its benefits is not the only way for its positive results. It is also use for the oral hygiene. If you daily use a mouthwash made by stevia it significantly lower plaque and gingivitis.
Might Help Liver Health
ROS oxidative damage in the liver because of diabetes. This per-oxidation organ tissue lead to liver broken and present a common and serious diabetic compilation. Stevia fed rats showed peroxidation prevent 30% of liver as compared to other group.
Negative Effects Of Stevia
While stevia is used as a medicine from the last many years. Recently researchers showed its both benefits and drawbacks.
There is some side effects of stevia:
Allergies: Stevia is also a member of marigold plant and ragweed family. If a person have allergy of marigold and ragweed. Then the person needs to avoid stevia because it may inflame allergy.
Fertility: Compounds in the stevia plant may disturb the human hormone system. This may explain that why stevia is used to control fertility in South America.
As you learn that stevia have potential to control blood sugar and blood pressure, so if you have any problem with these issues. Then talk to your doctor before using of this plant-based sweetener.