Yay! A new sweetener for Coke and Pepsi!*

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(But this one’s natural, so it must be good.)

The new zero-calorie sweetener comes from the leaves of the plant Stevia rebaudiana, a pretty, white-flowered herb that grows in Paraguay that is also known as sweetleaf and sugarleaf -- yes, the leaves are sweet. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. are hot to put an extract of it in new zero-calorie beverages, and Pepsi’s out ahead: The company says it will introduce its stevia-sweetened drink in Peru within weeks. Coke, as yet, is mum on its plans. (The Pepsi stevia extract’s called PureVia, Coke’s is called Truevia, and don’t they both sound good for you?)

There’ll be no soft drinks sweetened with stevia in this country yet, because the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved stevia extract for use in foods and drinks, though you can buy it at health food markets as a ‘supplement’ and as a tabletop sweetener, also. (These regulatory rules can tie you up in knots.)

The Wall Street Journal describes the stevia sweetener (even if it does sport a licorice aftertaste) as an industry holy grail: ‘natural, has no calories and tastes good.’ Not to get boring, but I never did quite get this ‘natural’ thing. Deadly nightshade is natural. Anthrax is. And earthquakes. And, like saccharin and aspartame before it, stevia’s not without its iffy rodent studies, one reason why the FDA has held off on permitting it as an additive to foods and drink. How compelling these studies are is another thing -- for that matter, most researchers believe that artificial, lab-brewed aspartame and saccharin are also safe, though popular controversy continues to simmer for both.

Here’s my favorite example of the quirkiness of food regulation: In the U.S., cyclamate sweeteners are banned and saccharin isn’t. In Canada, saccharin is banned and cyclamate isn’t.

And here is my favorite artificial sweetener fact: In the early 20th century, the European sugar beet industry persuaded several countries to make saccharin -- inexpensive, and presumably a threat to the beet-growers -- available only by prescription. In response, a cartel of saccharin smugglers sprang up, sneaking it over the Swiss border inside car tires, false-bottom suitcases, waistcoats, candles and bottles of Champagne.

Finally, want to read lots and lots about stevia by folks who sell it and have a fact-filled website that’s all-stevia-all-the-time? Go here.

-- Rosie Mestel

*P.S. I’ve been informed (and urged to do my homework next time!) that a soft drink containing stevia already exists. It is called Zevia, and you can read more about it here. Thanks, those who wrote, for letting me know. Zevia, I’m told, is labeled as a dietary supplement--and thus it is okay per the FDA’s rules.