PureVia All Natural Zero Calorie Sweetener Review

Pure Via is a brand name for a stevia based product. There are some additional ingredients in this product. With additional ingredients comes the potential for additional problems and I prefer for things to be as simple as possible.  I've been on the road since I received my sample and haven't had a chance to find out anything about the additional ingredients.

The Purevia is good for some things, even for some cooking. I first learned about stevia a couple or three years ago when I spent a few days at the Gesundheit Institute.  One of the places to volunteer on the grounds is in the kitchen and I did.  There is even a photo of me making pancakes in my collection.  We made pancakes with stevia.  It had been grown and extracted on the premises.  I could tell no difference in these pancakes and other pancakes, but then they were drenched in maple syrup, also produced on the premises.  

Leaving sugar out of any recipes that calls for sugar is problematic because it has a lot more volume than substitutes and reacts chemically with the other ingredients. I know of no substitutes that eliminate the calories and also replace the volume and chemical reactions in cooking.  The pancakes probably worked so well because there is little or no sugar in most pancakes to begin with, and besides, what can taste bad when drenched in homemade maple syrup?

There does seem to be something about stevia and heat though.  In reviews, most people who complained about an aftertaste, seemed to be using it in a hot drink.  While some people have different tastes and the ability to detect different things that others can not, there could be something there.  I only tested my Purevia in cold tea and did not have the problem.  It tasted good and I liked it.

Once, many years ago, I wrote off for the free information on sugar substitutes then available from the Government Services Administration.  Now some information is online and some is not free, but the website is www.pueblo.gsa.gov.  I was quite surprised at the information.  It was plainly written, full of facts about health as well as the process for approval and I haven't used any of these substitutes since, nor have I checked to see if there is new information.  I didn't find anything there on stevia.  What I was able to find from the most reputable of other sources was considerably less unpleasant.  It seems like it is even less likely to cause health problems than actual sugar.  From a health perspective stevia seems to be far and away ahead of the crowd, but please do your own research and see what you can find.

What frustrated me is that there are some amazingly simple solutions to some problems that food manufacturers seem to miss.  During my first trip to Japan I was introduced to Coke light.  There, it was a product that simply had half the sugar and that was it. No sugar substitutes.  I loved it.  Now they have the sugar substitutes and Coke light as I knew it is no longer available.  I was sad to learn that.

When I was much younger I spent some time cutting out sugar completely.  It is challenging, especially if you bake or travel or eat anywhere other than home. I now use sugar in foods and baking, but in an effort to better control my weight, I have recently trained myself to drink un-sweet tea as my healthiest alternative to water and I carry it with me as often as possible for better variety, economy and recycling.  That may also effect how I perceived this taste, but I like the stevia in my cold drinks and I will use it from time to time for a change of pace. I would very much like to see more stevia in the soft drink cooler for those times when I choose a ready prepared sweet drink, and I would like to see no additional ingredients other than stevia in the Purevia.  I think many producers try to be too many things to too many people when it is better to excel in a smaller niche.