Sugar tastes good—but it comes at a high metabolic cost. Each spoonful of sugar causes a spike in blood glucose and insulin, triggering exhaustion, hunger, and more sugar cravings. Over time, this fuel‐and‐crash cycle contributes to weight gain, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic inflammation. According to the CDC, Americans eat an average of ~17 teaspoons of added sugar daily—almost 57 pounds per person each year.

Stevia helps break that cycle. Its sweetness comes from steviol glycosides—natural plant compounds that are 300 times sweeter than sugar but have zero calories and zero impact on blood glucose or insulin (NCBI – Review). This makes stevia one of the most reliable sweeteners for people managing diabetes, prediabetes, or following keto and low-carb diets.

Beyond being sugar-free, stevia brings potential health advantages:

• Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects have been observed in laboratory and animal studies, suggesting it may help counter oxidative stress and inflammation (NCBI – Study, NCBI – Steviol Research).
  
• Neutral or possibly beneficial gut effects—animal and in vitro research suggest stevia doesn’t disrupt gut bacteria, and controlled human trials show no significant microbiome changes with moderate use (NCBI – Review, MDPI – Human Trial, ScienceDirect).
  

While some studies hint at blood pressure support or enhanced glucose regulation, most of this work is preliminary, conducted in vitro or in animals—not yet in robust human trials (ScienceDirect – 2025 Review, Wikipedia).

In lab tests, fermented stevia extracts have even shown selective cytotoxicity against pancreatic cancer cells—but this is very early research, and findings haven’t been confirmed in humans (The Sun, NY Post).

What Exactly Is Stevia?

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is a leafy green plant native to South America, where it has been used for centuries by the Guaraní people to sweeten teas and traditional medicines. The sweetness of stevia comes from natural compounds called steviol glycosides. These compounds are 200–300 times sweeter than sugar, yet they contain zero calories and do not affect blood sugar or insulin levels.

Why Pure Stevia Is Unique

• Zero calories, zero sugar, zero carbs – A completely natural sweetener that fits perfectly into low-carb, keto, and diabetic lifestyles.
  
• Clean taste – Unlike many stevia products on the market that are blended with fillers or leave a bitter aftertaste, MonkVee’s Pure Stevia Sweetener is 100% pure, delivering smooth, clean sweetness.
  
• Highly concentrated – Because it’s so powerful, only a tiny pinch is needed to sweeten drinks or recipes. We include a microscoop with every jar for easy, precise measuring.
  
• Heat stable – Works in hot beverages, warm sauces, and stovetop recipes without breaking down.
  
• Plant-derived & family-friendly – A safe, natural way to cut added sugar for both adults and kids without creating sugar dependency.
  

How to Use Pure Stevia

Because of its intensity, less is more:

• Coffee or tea: A single micro-scoop (included) is enough for a full cup.
  
• Smoothies or protein shakes: Just a tiny pinch (about 1/50 tsp) can replace an entire tablespoon of sugar.
  
• Yogurt, oatmeal, or cereal: Mix lightly for a smooth, balanced sweetness.
  
• Desserts & recipes without bulk: Great for puddings, custards, cheesecakes, frostings, whipped cream, chia pudding, or keto fat bombs.
  
• Everyday foods: Sprinkle into sauces, salad dressings, or marinades to balance acidity or spice without sugar.
  

👉 For baking recipes that require volume and structure (cookies, breads, cakes), stevia alone isn’t enough—you’ll get the best results by pairing it with a bulking agent or one of our blends.

Health Benefits vs. Sugar

• Sugar: High in calories, spikes blood glucose, contributes to weight gain, insulin resistance, and long-term metabolic disease.
  
• Stevia: No calories, no glycemic impact, and research suggests potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Some studies also point to possible support for blood sugar and blood pressure regulation, though human trials are still limited.
  

Quick Tips

• Start small—stevia is very concentrated. Add gradually and adjust to taste.
  
• Best for recipes where you want pure sweetness without bulk.
  
• Store in a cool, dry place, away from moisture.
  
• Use the included microscoop for consistent measuring.

Quitting or reducing sugar may be the single most powerful dietary change you can make. The average American consumes 77 grams of added sugar daily, while the American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams for women and 36 grams for men. That means most people are consuming two to three times the safe limit.

The dangers of excess sugar:

• Sugar is calorie-dense and nutrient-poor. It contributes directly to the obesity epidemic — currently affecting over 42% of U.S. adults.
  
• High sugar intake accelerates insulin resistance. Today, 37 million Americans live with diabetes, and 96 million more are prediabetic.
  
• Harvard research found that people consuming 25% or more of daily calories from sugar were twice as likely to die from heart disease.
  
• Fructose, found in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, burdens the liver and can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The demand for stevia has skyrocketed, but not all products are created equal. Many brands use “stevia” as a marketing buzzword, only to dilute it with cheap fillers like maltodextrin or dextrose—which can spike blood sugar almost as much as table sugar. Others add unnecessary “natural flavors” or artificial ingredients that take away from stevia’s natural benefits.

First, understand how stevia is processed.

Harvesting and Drying

• The stevia plant leaves are harvested and dried.
  
• Drying helps preserve the sweet compounds called steviol glycosides (such as rebaudioside A and stevioside).
  

Water Extraction

• The dried leaves are soaked in warm water (similar to making tea).
  
• This pulls the natural sweet glycosides out of the leaf material.
  
• No chemical solvents are needed in this step—water is enough.
  

Filtration

• The plant material is removed, and the liquid extract is filtered to remove fibers, proteins, and other unwanted particles.
  
• At this stage, you have a crude stevia extract, but it may still have a bitter aftertaste because it contains multiple steviol glycosides.
  

Purification

• The extract goes through ion-exchange resins and activated carbon filters to separate and concentrate the sweetest, best-tasting glycosides (often Rebaudioside A).
  
• This step reduces bitterness and off-flavors.
  

Crystallization or Drying

• The purified glycosides are then either:

Spray-dried into a fine white powder, or dissolved in water to create a liquid stevia solution.

Blending (for consumer products)

• Pure stevia extract is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, so it’s usually blended with a bulking agent like erythritol, allulose, or inulin fiber to make it easier to measure and taste more sugar-like.
  
• In “pure stevia extract” products, no fillers are added—just the crystallized steviol glycosides.

Does purification remove beneficial compounds (like anti-cancer agents)?

Yes, partially.
Raw stevia leaves contain not only sweet steviol glycosides but also flavonoids, chlorophyll, polyphenols, and trace nutrients. Some research has shown whole-leaf extracts may have antioxidant and potential anti-cancer properties because of those additional compounds.

During purification, most of those non-sweet compounds are intentionally removed to improve taste (and meet food-safety regulations). The resulting high-purity stevia extract (95%+ steviol glycosides) contains almost none of the “extra” phytochemicals — it’s mostly just the sweet molecules.

So while purified stevia is safe and intensely sweet, it doesn’t deliver the same spectrum of compounds as whole-leaf stevia. That said, the research on anti-cancer benefits is still early and mostly lab-based, so it’s not yet considered a “nutraceutical” in practice.

Is the bitterness-removal process still considered “natural extraction”?

Yes, it is still “natural extraction” by food-science standards.

Here’s why:

The extraction starts with water infusion (tea-like).

The purification uses physical and natural processing steps: filtration, ion-exchange resins, and sometimes crystallization. No synthetic chemical modifications are done to the steviol glycosides themselves — the molecules remain exactly as they occur in the plant. Food regulators like the FDA, EFSA, and JECFA recognize this as a natural extraction and purification process, not a synthetic one. What’s not considered “natural” is chemically altering stevia (like enzymatically modifying it into “Reb M” via fermentation with yeast or GMO enzymes). That’s closer to a bioengineered sweetener, even though it’s marketed as stevia.

Stevia is not all Reb M

The stevia leaf naturally contains over 40 steviol glycosides (the compounds responsible for sweetness).

The big ones are:

• Stevioside – abundant but has a bitter/lingering aftertaste.
  
• Rebaudioside A (Reb A) – sweeter, cleaner taste, most common in traditional stevia extracts.
  
• Rebaudioside M (Reb M) – occurs naturally in the leaf, but in very tiny amounts (<0.1%).

Most stevia on the market historically has been Reb A–based.

Manufacturers extract and purify Reb A from the leaf because it’s present in much higher quantities.

These products are labeled “stevia leaf extract” (95%+ glycosides, often Reb A).

Reb M” and bioengineered stevia

Because Reb M tastes much closer to sugar (less bitterness), companies wanted more of it. But since it’s rare in the leaf, they produce it via fermentation or enzymatic conversion:
Fermentation method: Using genetically engineered yeast, corn, or other microbes to produce Reb M in vats. Enzymatic conversion method: Starting with common stevia glycosides (like Reb A) and chemically/enzymatically modifying them into Reb M.

These Reb M products are marketed as “stevia” even though they’re technically fermentation- or lab-derived, not directly from the leaf.

🌿 How Reb A is obtained from stevia

Stevia leaf harvest & drying – The Stevia rebaudiana leaves are harvested and dried.

Water extraction – Leaves are soaked in warm water (like making tea), which pulls out all the steviol glycosides, including stevioside, Reb A, Reb B, Reb M (tiny amounts), etc.

Filtration – Plant matter is removed, leaving a crude extract that contains a mix of sweet and bitter glycosides.

Purification – Through methods like ion-exchange resins, activated carbon, or crystallization, specific glycosides are separated. This is where Rebaudioside A (Reb A) is isolated and concentrated, because it has the best balance of sweetness and taste. Drying / crystallization – Reb A is crystallized into a white powder, which is 95–98% pure steviol glycosides, usually labeled “stevia leaf extract." Since Reb A is already present in the stevia leaf and the process is: Physical extraction (water, filtration, crystallization) No synthetic chemical modification to the molecule itself …it is considered a natural extraction process (similar to extracting caffeine from coffee or vanilla from vanilla beans).

Why Reb M is GMO’d

Scarcity in the leaf: Reb M is present in tiny amounts (<0.1% of the leaf). You’d need enormous fields of stevia to yield meaningful quantities which is totally impractical.

Taste advantage: Reb M tastes much closer to sugar than Reb A: less bitterness, faster onset and quicker fade (no lingering aftertaste).

Economics: Since the leaf can’t supply enough Reb M, food companies (Cargill, Coca-Cola, etc.) turned to fermentation or enzymatic bio-conversion:

Fermentation: genetically engineered yeast or corn microbes produce Reb M in fermentation tanks. Enzymatic conversion: Reb A or stevioside from the leaf are chemically/enzymatically altered into Reb M. This makes Reb M commercially viable at scale, but means that most Reb M on the market is bioengineered, not directly from the leaf.

Look at the ingredient label

If it says “stevia leaf extract” → usually Reb A, extracted naturally.

If it says “stevia sweetener,” “steviol glycosides,” “Reb M,” or just “stevia” without “leaf” → it’s often fermentation- or enzymatically produced Reb M.

Some companies intentionally avoid the phrase “leaf extract” to cover the fact it’s lab-made.


Cargill & DSM (Avansya): make a fermentation-based Reb M called EverSweet.

PureCircle (now Ingredion): makes “next-gen” stevia glycosides via enzymatic conversion.

Amyris (until recently): made Reb M from engineered yeast.

If a brand sources from these suppliers, it’s almost certainly using bioengineered Reb M.

Coca-Cola specifically

Coca-Cola partnered with Cargill years ago to develop Truvia, which was originally Reb A–based.

Then they moved toward Reb M because it tastes more like sugar.

Their newer “Coca-Cola Life” and “reduced sugar” products have been reformulated using EverSweet Reb M (fermentation).

Coca-Cola and Cargill have openly promoted this in press releases as a “more sugar-like stevia.”