What is Stevia?

Stevia, also called steviol glycosides is a plant-based sweetener that is 300 times sweeter than regular sugar. It is a popular sweetener and is favoured by those looking for a sugar substitute for day to day intake.

Why do we use Stevia?

Stevia has zero calories, and no effect on blood sugar, making it a suitable choice to include in our Purition protein powder. Our meal replacement shakes with Stevia naturally have less sugar and additives than other products, because at Purition we understand the need for a protein powder that ticks all the right boxes without a negative impact on your diet.

Top Tip: You can even grow your own Stevia, if you wished. The plant Stevia rebaudiana is commonly known as “sweet leaf” and has been used for many years around the world as a natural sweetener.

How Stevia grows

• The upright stems hold oval, toothed bright green leaves.
• In late summer it produces a white flower.
• Stevia is a tender perennial and needs frost protection.
• Plant outdoors in April/May and harvest throughout the summer months.

Enjoy Stevia Protein Powder with Purition

Here at Purition, we don’t want to encourage a sweet tooth, even if it’s zero calorie and has no effect on blood sugar!

We have the philosophy that a real food, seasonal diet naturally low in sugar can have the best health outcome.

Stevia vs Sugar

Swapping regular white sugar for a supermarket sweetener, or swapping foods that are high in sugar for those containing large amounts of sweetener isn’t what we’re suggesting here!

This isn’t a good idea for your long term health. Even zero calorie sweetness can promote overconsumption – our brains are hardwired to crave the sweet stuff – out ‘hunter gather brains’ kick into gear, meaning we’re more tempted to opt for sugary options. This is particularly the case in the summer. Summer fruits with naturally occurring sugars were more available, and our ancestors used to stock up in order to survive the winter.

The good news is, we don’t need to follow in our ancestors footsteps when it comes to food habits! A healthy, balanced diet is the best way to achieve healthy results, which is why we only blend real food into every Purition protein powder.

With vegan friendly, dairy free and keto friendly options, we’ve made Purition available to as many people as possible. We’re proud to offer an additional way to keep your balanced diet on track, with delicious, original recipes to mix up your day.

Why does Purition use Stevia?

Purition products contain a very small amount of stevia to balance the flavours in our recipes. We could use sugar, however, this goes against our philosophy of providing real food and a healthy product without any unnecessary additional additives, calories or carbohydrates. Our products are carefully considered to provide the best possible blend of real foods, for a nutritious small meal whenever you need one. Mixing with nuts, seeds and natural flavourings, we think a tiny amount of Stevia is the right solution. In a single batch of Purition we use just a few grams to get that flavour profile just right and never super sweet.

Not every Purition blend contains Stevia; both Purition Golden Milk and our Naked Blend Purition contain no stevia at all. Instead we encourage customers to sweeten these products themselves.

What type of Stevia do we use?

• The Stevia we use is very different from the stevia you can buy in the supermarkets.
• We use a steviol glycoside called Rebaudioside A or Reb A for short, it is a pure off white powder and has the least bitterness of all the steviol glycosides in the Stevia rebaudiana plant.
• To produce rebaudioside A commercially, stevia plants are dried, and subjected to a water extraction process. (You can read up on this process here)

Supplement companies use vast amounts of sweeteners and flavourings to make their products hyper palatable. They often combine different sweeteners and other ingredients to mask the aftertaste. You will not get this from Purition because we use so little, and compromising on flavour isn’t what we’re about!

For more nutritional information about Purition’s extensive product range, head to our blog. Otherwise, check out our protein powder samples and Discovery Box on our website. Enjoy!