PureVia All Natural Zero Calorie Sweetener Review

PureVia All Natural Sweetener is first not really quite zero calorie, as has been pointed out elsewhere it contains 2 grams of Carbohydrates which convert to some small percentage of calories but less than 1/2 of 1 calorie.  Splenda by contrast is able label itself 0% of carbs as it has less than 1 gram.  Honestly all of this is pretty much in the range of meaningless.

PureVia is made primarily from Erithritol, Isomaltulose and the third listed ingredient Reb A which is an extract from the Stevia Plant and is where most of the sweetness comes from although it is only the third and final ingredient listed (which by labeling standards means that it is the least plentiful ingredient of the 3).  The other ingredients are "natural" in the sense they are derived or fermented from growing things, the first is a sugar alchohol and is produced from glucose through fermentation.  The second is manufactured enzymatically from sucrose and is a natural constituent of honey and sugar cane.  It is absorbed into the small intestine as glucose and fructose - which means it is unsuitable as a sweetener for people with disorders in fructose metabolism, such as heridetary fructose intolerance.  Wikipedia warns that Isomaltulose (the second listed ingredient) is not suitable for people with such disorders as they are likely to experience severe adverse affects.

Stevia (or more correctly Reb A which is what is actually approved for use in the US) seems to be the current flavor of the day in alternative Sweeteners or Sugar Substitutes and probably like other testers I was glad to receive a free box of PureVia to try.  I may still try the Stevia Product that is combined with Cane Sugar to determine if the aftertaste and bitterness is from the Reb A or the other ingredients.

Fortunately neither my Wife or I have any fructose intolerance so we were able to try the free sample of PureVia we received as sample from the company through Viewpoints.  We both have now tried multiple packets of the sweetener and our 2nd Point regarding it is much more damaging from our perspective than the first.  It has both a bitterness and an aftertaste.  Neither of these are as pronounced as many other artificial Sweetners such as Saccharine (Sweet 'n Low) or Asparteme (Equal & NutraSweet) and were it not for other better alternatives (at least by my and my wifes taste) this would be a winner.  Unfortunately for PureVia and the similar TruVia they are coming out after a decade or more of Sucralose Sweeteners (Splenda) and Marketing and the aftertaste and bitterness is much more pronounced than that from Sucralose (Splenda).

In addition, Sucralose is stable when heated making it a suitable cooking substitute for sugar in many cases or it can be combined with real sugars and even comes packaged with brown sugar for baking.  As a Professional Chef, I would not even use Sucralose for cooking without thoroughly testing the recipe, although I will commend several of the recipes in Marlene Koch's Sensational Splenda Recipes cookbook and for those who want baked sweets without so many calories they are quite good.  However, when cooking or baking for a non-dieting or mixed audience I still find that real sugar is a key ingredient.

Back to PureVia, again it is probably too bad that it came 10 years after Splenda because it is certainly superior to and less objectional tasting than either Sweet 'n Low or Equal / NutraSweet and probably would have a major market were it not for Splenda and the other Sucralose products.  But with pricing similar too or higher than Splenda and the other Sucralose products I fear that PureVia will have tough sledding.  For those who find Splenda unsatisfactory and still want an alternative low calorie sweetener, I would not hesitate to recommend PureVia over the other alternatives.  But for my Wife and I, we both find Splenda to be a superior tasting and lower carb alternative and PureVia would have to be MUCH less expensive to make it a reasonable alternative (and honestly I'm not sure even at half the price would I choose PureVia over Splenda.

Add in the ability to cook and bake with Splenda, an its availability in bulk packaging and the choice really becomes no choice at all in my mind.

As to the packaging being recyclable or recycled either one this to me is so meaningless as to be not worth mentioning except someone else did so I will debunk it.  It is packaged in very bulky packaging for the amount of sweetener delivered and the cost and energy in producing the excessive packaging and then transporting it far offsets any gain from recycling.  So even if you are fool enough to buy into the environmental claptrap at least think critically enough to realize when companies claim some green BS that almost always that is what it is BS.