How to Make Your Own Homemade Sweetener: Truvia Alternative

Today I want to introduce to you a homemade sweetener. When creating and making recipes that are LOWER fat, LOWER carb, and overall macronutrient friendly it sure helps to use a zero calorie sweetener such as Truvia. A lot of people opt for Splenda but splenda contains calories due to the fact they maltodextrin as their ‘bulking’ agent.

Truvia is a good tasting sweetener that you can use in place of granulated sugar. However at $10-15 per tub it can be rather expensive to buy. Here is an alternative to Truvia that you can make easily at home and it tastes great in recipes!

First off I ordered Erythritol and 98% Stevia extract from iherb.com. I bought 5 pounds of Erythritol for $34 and 113g of Frontier stevia for $25. Buying in bulk can greatly save you money BUT keep in mind that shipping will be somewhere around $10-15 and MAKE SURE you pick it up from over the US border or expect to pay almost $15-20 in duty (sneaky bastards). Gives you a reason to fill up on gas ;)

What is Erythritol and is it safe?

Erythritol exists in naturally low levels in fruits, cheese, wine, and beer and is about 70% as sweet as sugar. The body absorbs erythritol, but it is not metabolized (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8457525).

A dose of 0.3g/kilogram of body weight resulted in NO change in blood glucose or insulin and 90% of the erythritol was excreted in the urine.

Calories??
The available energy content of erythritol as 0.4 calories per gram (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8039489)(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8933644)

What is Stevia and is it safe?

Stevia has long been promoted as a natural sugar substitute, and an alternative to the artificial sweeteners

It is derived from a South American shrub, and is 250 to 300 times sweeter than table sugar

It has been used as a sweetener by the indigenous peoples of South America for centuries, and has also been used in Japan for over 30 years

Stevia’s history would imply that it is safe, but we cannot for certain establish the safety of a substance just because it has been used for a long time

Regulation:

Unlike many artificial sweeteners which have been approved for use in numerous countries, stevia’s regulatory status VARIES from country to country, and also varies depending on the TYPE of stevia extract:

*The sweet stevia extracts are known as steviol glycosides; the two main glycosides are stevioside and rebaudioside A.

The ADI of 4 milligrams of steviol glycosides per kilogram of body weight (high consumers might exceed the ADI, especially if a person were to replace all of his/her sweeteners with stevia)
(The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JEFCA) has evaluated the research on stevia)

*1 Tsp. = 0.64g SO a 158 pound person (71.8kg) can consume 287.2mg/day = 0.2872 g = Less than half a Tsp.

Stevia Metabolism

Stevia is not absorbed by your body but passes through your stomach undigested. Once the stevia reaches your intestines, the bacteria in your intestines break it down into steviol (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12738193) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17202597)(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17202597)

You EXCRETE some of the steviol in your feces, while absorbing the rest into your blood where your liver quickly converts it into steviol glucuronide, which you then excrete in your urine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17202597)

Consensus

The majority of evidence indicates that stevia is SAFE when consumed at amounts below the ADI but If you use a lot of stevia, it can be easy to EXCEED the ADI. Ofcourse this would be an everyday thing.  If you have allergies, eczema, or asthma, you may want to be careful with stevia or use another sweetener, as some people with these conditions may be allergic to stevia.(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9183561)(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17202597)(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1398-9995.2007.01317.x/pdf)

The Recipe

And finally here is the recipe for the Truvia Alternative:
266g Erythritol
4g Stevia Extract

Shake really well and wala!