Stevia is perhaps unique among food ingredients because it's most valued for what it doesn't do. It doesn't add calories. Unlike other sugar substitutes, stevia is derived from a plant. The stevia plant is part of the Asteraceae family, related to the daisy and ragweed. Several stevia species called candyleaf are native to New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. But the prized species, Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni), grows in Paraguay and Brazil, where people have used leaves from the stevia bush to sweeten food for hundreds of years. 

Stevia is an herb that naturally tastes sweeter than sugar. It’s considered non-caloric, has zero impact on blood sugar levels, and has been used as a sweetener and medicine in its native South America for hundreds of years. Even better, studies suggest it might help reduce blood pressure, be anti-inflammatory, improve immunity and digestion, and fight weight gain. 

The form of stevia found in today’s foods and beverages around the world is generally high-purity stevia leaf extract, which is a purified form of stevia extract that has been evaluated and approved by major regulatory agencies around the world. Purified stevia leaf extracts can contain one steviol glycoside or several different glycosides, and can be up to 350 times sweeter than sucrose.