Stevia, my dear...

When I realized that I had merely traded a white sugar addiction for a 'natural' sugar addiction, I became interested in kicking the whole deal altogether. But how could I possibly live without chocolate? Wasn't it enough that I was suffering the cruel fate of not being able to handle sweets like some other folks could?

So I was turned on to Stevia. It was so mysterious- still is; cloaked in a sordid past because of how this country is run- by beaurocrats who don't know their asses from their elbows, much less what the good of the commonfolk might be. How is it that a powerful lobby of chemical sweeteners could dump the health of the american people into the garbage by making claims that something proven to cause cancer in lab rats is SAFER than something indigenous peoples have been using for over a thousand years? All those Japanese can't be wrong... Stevia is not the big bad boogey man, that evil little blue or pink packet is.

It frustrates the hell out of me! What it comes down to is this: you want to avoid sugar, you either have no sweet nothings (tough call if you were raised on Oreos, like me), or you eat cancer powder in the form of "Lite" or "Sugar Free!" (which, by the way, is not healthier... they have to kick up the fat content to make that crap edible... 'why am I fat, when I eat diet cookies?'). Can you have a Stevia cookie? Nope! You can buy Stevia as a dietary supplement, which means YES you CAN consume it, but you can't buy it as a sweetner... I mean, come on! Who are they fooling!

The down side of all this crappy red tape is that yes, it's out there and amazing, but does anyone really efficiently know how to use it? No, because the market has stayed tiny as a result! And boy is it easy to screw up Stevia cooking. Just ask me. I have one cookbook, by Jeoffrey Goet?something, and the peanut butter cookies came out like dog buscuits. I have heard somthing like Stevia concentrates are better now than they were, so you have to use more or something, can't remember... either way... you almost have to cook on instinct. I have been experimenting, slowly and carefully for a couple of years; I will post my success stories here. But man-0-man it is easy to make it taste like ass!

So do like I did, research Stevia on the 'net, it's out there and all over the place. I like the "Kal" brand (red and white bottle) of powder, they have none/barely any aftertaste. I am keen to try the others and compare. I want more recipe books, I want to be free to buy products marketed with it as it is meant to be- a non caloric, safe sweetener!
Fuck the man. That's all for tonight.