My parents texted me about this "zevia" soda shit that's sweetened with stevia extract which is supposedly 0 calories, thus healthy. but knowing other "diet" sodas that doesn't mean its good for you, and i can't find any studies on the effects of it and i'm super confused. apparently indigenous people would use the whole leaf as a sweetener, but the extract may be different? is it a fruit juice situation, where removing the rest of the leaf removes all of the healthy shit? does anybody know?
No soda is healthy for you. Stevia extract (steviol glycosides) is just a zero calorie sweetener. It looks like sugar to your taste buds but you don't break it down so it doesn't give you any energy. I can't remember any specifics but I think stevia is less bad than other sweeteners like sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame k, etc. Those have some nasty side effects.