In many of the recipes in Eating Alive II and on this website, we use stevia and/or Chicolin™ as safe, natural sweeteners instead of sugar.

Stevia is a plant that is native to Brazil and Paraguay. This no-calorie herb is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar and has a slight licorice taste. It doesn’t feed yeast and other “Bad Guys,” doesn’t cause an increase in blood sugar levels, and doesn’t promote tooth decay. Stevia is sold in leaf, powder, and liquid forms.

In our recipes we use the white stevia extract, which is a very fine powder. Approximately ½ teaspoon (2 ml) of stevia powder is equivalent to the sweetness of 1 cup (250 ml) of sugar. Due to its unique sweetness and licorice-like aftertaste, stevia combines best with strong or bold flavors such as unsweetened cocoa, sauces, dressings, dairy foods, lemon, cranberries, and most other fruits.

When baking, replace each cup of sugar with ½ teaspoon (2 ml) of stevia powder plus 1 cup (250 ml) of unsweetened apple fiber to make up for the volume missing from the replaced sugar. To make apple fiber, place unsweetened applesauce in a sieve lined with a clean tea towel or several layers of cheesecloth. Place the sieve over a bowl to catch the liquid and leave to drain in the fridge for several hours or overnight. The apple fiber will also add moistness to your baked goods so you can decrease the amount of oil that you would have used (from Pure-le Natural Stevia).

You can also combine stevia with water to make a stevia solution—dissolve 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of stevia powder in 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of filtered or purified water and store it in a dropper bottle in your fridge (from The Stevia Cookbook by Ray Sahelian, MD, and Donna Gates). Use the stevia solution to sweeten sauces, dressings, etc. or to make a quick glass of lemonade: In a tall glass, stir together filtered or purified water, 1 or 2 droppers of stevia solution (to taste), ice, and freshly squeezed lemon juice (to taste); add the sections of squeezed lemon for more flavour.

Because stevia is very sweet and difficult to measure in small amounts, combining it with Chicolin™ makes it easier to work with.

Chicolin™ is a powdered food substance derived from the whole tubers of the chicory plant. Chicolin™ contains non-digestible plant sugars that behave like soluble fiber; they pass through the digestive system unchanged—when they reach the large intestine, they are used by the bifidobacteria (your friendly intestinal flora). Chicolin™ doesn’t cause the same rapid increase in blood sugar levels as regular sugar does.

You can combine stevia and Chicolin™ to create a mixture that can be used to replace sugar in baking, cooking, smoothies, sprinkled on pancakes or waffles, etc. Add 20 grams of stevia to a 250 g container of Chicolin™ and stir or shake very well. The mixture is easy to sprinkle but is still very concentrated. Approximately 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of the stevia/ Chicolin™ mixture is equivalent to the sweetness of 1 cup (250 ml) of sugar. Be aware that you may have to adjust the measurements of other ingredients in your recipe to make up for the volume missing from the replaced sugar.

See this month’s recipe for Yummy Oatmeal Cookies, which uses stevia and apple fiber for natural sweetness.