Reading the label of bottled lemonade, does anyone know what “Stevia leaf extract” actually means? Is that processed Stevia or unprocessed? Does anyone have any idea how much Stevia would be in a 50oz bottle of Lemonade? With research I’ve been led to believe that unprocessed Stevia has high oxalates.
I’ve been unsuccessful in getting information directly from the company.
Thanks.
Stevia is about 200-300x sweeter than sugar. So they dose much less. The leaf contains a mix of sweet compounds called rebaudiosides. Rebaudioside (Reb A) is the most clean tasting, some others taste more like liquorice or have long lingering sweet aftertaste. Reb D tastes even better than reb A, but is present n low quality. They can change Reb A to D using enzymes.
Extracts will most often be purified and dried using solvents. There are also more physical ways (membrane filters).
So if normally a 250ml drink contains 25 grammes of sugar, it contains about 0,1 gramme of stevia.
The exact makeup of the extract depends on the producer.
Oxalates are taken out in the process, but even they were still in the concentration is so low it’s nothing to worry about. If you eat rhubarb there’s much much more.