It's not an artificial sweetener, and does not contain fructose. Turns out it's related to licorice. My next question was, what kind of effect does it have on us? After all, fructose is natural, but wreaks a lot of havoc on our bodies.
Stevia is a South American plant, from in and around Paraguay. It has been widely used there for hundreds of years, and has been in commercial use by Japan since the 1970's. Stevia also suffers from some bad science; there are some old, poorly executed studies that conclude that stevia can be harmful. Even though the studies have little validity, their flawed conclusions have lived on.
