Does Stevia Help with Weight Loss?

Written by: Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN

The bottom line is that the only way to lose weight is to create a calorie deficit by eating fewer calories than your body burns for energy.

There are many ways to accomplish this, and targeting added sugars and replacing them with stevia is an easy and tasty fix.

Research has shown that subjects given stevia-containing foods or beverages consumed fewer calories throughout the day. (2,3)

The Truth About Added Sugars

It seems like everything we read talks about avoiding carbs and sugar.

In the U.S., the average intake of added sugars reaches up to 270 calories or more than 13 percent of calories per day based on an average 2000 calorie diet.

Not surprisingly, the largest source of added sugars in the typical diet is beverages, including soft drinks, fruit drinks, sweetened coffee and tea, energy drinks, alcoholic beverages, and flavored waters. They account for almost half (47%) of all added sugars consumed by the U.S. population.

The other major source of added sugars is snacks and sweets.(1) Most people don’t realize how much sugar they consume from other sources like marinades, sauces, salad dressings, yogurt, crackers and other items that don’t “seem sweet.”

The 2015-2020 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting added sugars to less than 10% of total calories or about 50 grams per day based on 2000 calories.

If your body needs fewer calories based on size, age, and activity level, the gram limits are even lower.

To take it a step further, the American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars to 24g grams per day (6 teaspoons) for women and 36 grams per day (9 teaspoons) for men.

It’s obviously an area of concern in our standard American diet as the term “added sugars” appeared 138 times in the dietary guidelines report!

Knowing Your Limit for Added Sugars

Simply put, consumption of added sugars can make it difficult for people desiring to lose weight to meet their nutrient needs while staying within calorie limits.

Whenever anyone restricts total calories, everything eaten needs to contain more nutrients to make sure you get what you need for proper fueling while limiting total calories.

One of the simplest strategies is to limit added sugars.

Why? Because they are more often found in foods that do not provide quality vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that we look for to help prevent lifestyle diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancers.

That’s where products like stevia fit in.

Can Stevia Help with Weight Loss?

Since stevia is a plant-based, zero-calorie sweetener with a taste 50-350 times sweeter than sugar, a little goes a long way. By substituting stevia for sugar in your daily routine, there are many ways to cut total calories and sugar grams.

1. Using stevia to sweeten your coffee or tea (hot or iced), saves 16 calories per teaspoon over sugar. A few cups per day with a few teaspoons each can really add up quickly. Each stevia packet is formulated to equal the sweetness of 2 teaspoons of sugar. Take some with you to your favorite coffeehouse or restaurant and add your own.

2. Instead of eating pre-sweetened Greek yogurt with up to 20 grams of sugar, start with the plain variety and add your own stevia, vanilla extract, cinnamon and fruit.

3. Swap stevia for sugar, honey or maple syrup in your oatmeal, homemade salad dressings, baked goods and other recipes that call for sugar. Even subbing in ½ the amount in a recipe can make a big difference.

We would love to hear your sugar swap success stories. How do you enjoy Pyure Organic Stevia?

References:

1. Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015- 2018, 8th edition, Added Sugars page 54: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf

2. Anton SD, Martin CK, Han H, Coulon S, Cefalu WT, Geiselman P, Williamson DA. Effects of stevia, aspartame, and sucrose on food intake, satiety, and postprandial glucose and insulin levels. Appetite 2010;55:37–43.

3. Tey SL, Salleh NB, Henry J, Forde CG. Effects of aspartame-, monk fruit-, stevia- and sucrose-sweetened beverages on postprandial glucose, insulin and energy intake. Int J Obes (Lond) 2017;41:450–7.

ALCOHOL AND YOUR GOALS

Maybe one of your Goals is to be consistent with diet and exercise. Awesome!

Let’s take a holistic look at this. When setting out to work on this, there are many aspects of our lifestyle that can impact our efforts. 

One of those aspects of our lifestyle that can really impact our goal attainment is drinking alcohol, and the chain of events that can sometimes occur when drinking alcohol. That chain of events may include starting with intending to only drink 1-2 alcoholic beverages. That can sometimes lead to socializing and mindless over consumption of more alcohol, more drinking to stay social if we are wanting to have fun, let loose, or to deal with increased anxiety in social settings, and possibly then mindlessly over-eating on foods that may not be the healthiest options.

So what is the impact of drinking alcohol on our goals of body composition changes and exercise? Alcohol tends to be a source of empty calories, and like we explored in the chain of events in the previous paragraph, people don’t always stop at drinking 1-2 alcoholic beverages. This can lead to consuming excess calories. Consuming excessive calories in any form - food or alcohol - leads the body to storing extra fat and gaining weight, often in terms of excess belly fat, or the dreaded “beer belly.”

And what about alcohol and its impact on exercise? Small geeky moment alert. A study from Barnes, Mündel, and Stannard (2010) suggests that a moderate dose of alcohol may impair normal muscle recovery after very strenuous exercise. If exercise and performance are a goal for you, drinking alcohol in excess could contribute to injury and impact your goal attainment.

So what are some healthy mindset exercises to practice when looking at alcohol consumption and what are some healthier alternatives for alcohol beverages? Here are some ideas:

Behaviors: 

1. Go into a social event with a plan. If you know that you have to get up early the next day, or have an exercise planned, reminding yourself of your goals may impact your decision to drink in excess.

2. If you know that you are going to drink alcohol, similar to the idea of taking time to really enjoy and savor the taste of your food, pick an alcoholic beverage that you truly like. Pick 1 drink, and sip it slowly, being mindful of the taste and flavor, and pay attention to the social setting that you are in, enjoying the environment you are in, and people you are with.

3. Make it a goal to have 1 glass of water for every alcoholic beverage consumed.

If you know that you will be drinking, here’s some healthier alternatives:

• Vodka seltzer with lemon or lime

• Bloody Mary

• One glass of red wine

• Scotch on the rocks

Lastly, here’s some non-alcohol containing beverage ideas:

• Virgin Bloody Mary - just omit the vodka

• Instead of a Margarita, try sugar-free lemonade with a salt rim and a wedge of lime.

• A dressed up tonic water - go wild and add sliced cucumber.

• Flavored sparkling water- dress it up with added fruit, herbs, or a little fruit juice.

Be well!

PS: We’ve been testing non-alcoholic Hop-Infused Tea and found one that we love here by HopTea. Check it out!

Higher Testosterone Level Associated with Lower Risk for CV Death in Men

Older men with higher circulating androgen levels combined with higher levels of physical activity are less likely to develop metabolic syndrome or die of cardiovascular disease than men with lower androgen levels combined with low physical activity, according to a cross-sectional analysis published in Clinical Endocrinology.

“In older men, having higher testosterone concentrations and being more physically active may reflect being healthier, or may contribute to better health,” Bu Beng Yeap, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, a professor at the University of Western Australia Medical School and endocrinologist at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, told Endocrine Today.

Yeap and colleagues analyzed data from 3,351 older men participating in the population-based Health in Men Study who completed questionnaires assessing physical activity and attended physical exams between 1996 and 1999 and again between 2001 and 2004 (mean age, 77 years; mean BMI, 26.4 kg/m²). Metabolic syndrome was defined as meeting at least three of five criteria: hypertension, hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol or central obesity. Follow-up of hospital admissions and death were assessed via the Western Australia Data Linkage System.

Based on using median splits to determine “high” vs. “low,” researchers stratified the cohort by four groups: high hormone and high physical activity; high hormone and low physical activity; low hormone and high physical activity; and low hormone and low physical activity.

Researchers used linear regression to compare mean BMI and waist circumference across the four groups and logistic regression to compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome across groups. In follow-up analysis, researchers used Cox proportional hazard models to compare risk for fatal and nonfatal CV events across the four groups.

During a mean follow-up period of 10 years, researchers observed 865 CVD events and 499 CV deaths.

Researchers found that, in models adjusted for age, prevalent CVD, smoking and cardiometabolic factors, men with higher total testosterone and higher levels of physical activity had a lower risk for CV events during follow-up than men with low testosterone and low physical activity (HR = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.67-0.98), as did men with higher testosterone but low levels of physical activity (HR = 0.73; 95% CI, 0.6-0.89).

“Thus, higher [testosterone] was associated with lower incidence of CVD events irrespective of [physical activity] levels,” the researchers wrote.

In similarly adjusted models, men with higher levels of testosterone or dihydrotestosterone and higher physical activity were less likely to die of CV causes during follow-up vs. men with low levels of testosterone or dihydrotestosterone, with HRs of 0.76 (95% CI, 0.59-0.98) in the testosterone group and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.55-0.92) for the dihydrotestosterone group.

Researchers also observed an inverse association between higher androgens and higher physical activity with a lower, age-adjusted risk for metabolic syndrome, with men in the high hormone, high physical activity group seeing the greatest benefit. Results for calculated free testosterone mirrored findings observed with total testosterone, according to the researchers.

Yeap said the findings provide a rationale for further research.

“A randomized controlled trial in which men are treated with testosterone and provided with an exercise program would be needed to prove whether or not this would improve their health,” Yeap said.

For more information:

Bu Beng Yeap, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, can be reached at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, 11 Robin Warren Drive, Murdoch 6150, Western Australia, Australia; email: bu.yeap@uwa.edu.au.