stevia & agave syrup

[mrsym0r]

what's the consensus on Agave and Stevia sweeteners as opposed to good old fashioned aspartame and the sucralose - are they actually any better or are they just zero calorie sweeteners for the sandal wearing hippies?

[Diab0lic]

Agave syrup is still sugar bro, but is mainly fructose. Similar to honey.. Good stuff though. True stevia is a natural calorie-free sweetneer. Again, good stuff if you need it. i seem to get by without needing sweetneers

[Kalidane]

Agave syrup is still sugar bro, but is mainly fructose. Similar to honey.. Good stuff though. True stevia is a natural calorie-free sweetneer. Again, good stuff if you need it. i seem to get by without needing sweetneers

I'm trying to get some people off that there sugar and thought stevia was the answer but now I'm uncertain after seeing this sort of thing, in reference to livestock supplements:

"Stevia increases animal's appetite, multiplies useful microbes in animal's digestive organs, promotes digestion, and accelerates growth. As the result, the breeding period is reduced for sooner shipment of livestock to the market and higher productivity." TBH that sounds like some kind of wicked cool peptide rather than a sugar substitute.

The people who need to lay off the sugar usually don't require appetite stimulation. I'm not seeing good authorities writing on this. Apparantly glucose suppresses ghrelin and fructose does nothing but does interfere with brain-leptin connection.

Maybe it's too late at night for me. Does someone have good info/sources on stevia use in humans or the general case of non-nutritive sweeteners?