SweetLeaf(R) Sweetener(TM) Offers Only 100% Natural Stevia Sweetener

Tag : acetic acids
Many players in the beverage industry are working frantically tobring the latest craze in sweeteners to the marketplace - but onlyone provider can boast claims to have the purest, most naturalformulation of stevia available - Wisdom Natural Brands'SweetLeaf(R) Sweetener(TM).

"I don't want consumers to be mistaken or misled by claims thatother products out there are all-natural when they're not," saidWisdom Natural Brands CEO Jim May. "Some of our competitors aremixing stevia with agents that are not natural. In some cases,these may even mitigate the health benefits of stevia."

In production more than a month now and making its way intoretailers, SweetLeaf(R) Sweetener(TM) stands alone as the ONLYstevia-based sweetener that uses only pure water in its proprietaryextraction process. Unlike Truvia(TM), the Cargill/Coca Cola steviaproduct, SweetLeaf(R) does not have to pass its product throughabsorption resins nor "elute" its stevia in a final stage utilizingeither methanol (wood alcohol) or ethanol, according to their justreleased study, or add "natural flavors" to improve its taste.

"Stevia is the gold of the sweetener market," said May. "Manycompanies will jump on the bandwagon to bring products with steviato market, and consumers need to be aware of what they're buying."

Just this week, the use of steviol glycosides (the sweet substanceof the stevia leaves) was approved by the World Health Organization(WHO) as a safe food additive, bringing additional credibility anddemand for the product in European countries. The requirements callfor products to contain a minimum of 95 percent steviol(steviosides). SweetLeaf(R) is the only brand on the marketcontaining 98 percent stevia sweet glycosides, the highest of allcompetitors.

Wisdom Natural Brands has been working doggedly over the pastseveral months to bring a consistently pure stevia product tomarket before any competitors and received approval for its productin March 2008. Unlike artificial sweeteners which may containchemicals, formaldehyde, acetic acids and chlorine, SweetLeaf(R)Sweetener(TM) is the first and only stevia extract to have receivedGRAS status (generally recognized as safe), enabling the company toexpand the product beyond the dietary supplements market and sitalongside sugar and other sweetening alternatives in grocery storeaisles. The new sweetener is available at www.sweetleaf.com and isarriving in retail outlets now. SweetLeaf(R) Sweetener(TM) iscompletely calorie-free, all-natural, and has a zero glycemicindex. No other stevia product can make this claim.

Long used in the United States as a dietary supplement andnutritional additive, stevia is a naturally sweet plant, native toParaguay, that is 30 times sweeter than sugar. The pure glycosidesthat are extracted from the stevia leaves are 250 to 400 timessweeter than sugar.

SweetLeaf(R) Stevia has gained an underground following in recentyears among celebrities, health gurus, professional cooks,nutritionists, doctors and anyone looking for low-carb dietalternatives. The product can be used in beverages, cooking, bakingand anywhere sugar might be used.

Gilbert, Ariz.-based Wisdom Natural Brands(R) is the parent companyof the highly respected consumer brands known as: SweetLeaf(R)Sweetener(TM), and Wisdom of the Ancients(R) herbal teas. Thecompany will soon be filling orders of its new stevia extract inbulk to major food and beverage manufacturers. The company alsooffers SteviaClear(TM) Liquid, SteviaTabs(TM) and a wide variety ofLiquid Stevia Flavors. Recipes, equivalency charts and moreinformation are available at www.sweetleaf.com.

SweetLeaf B-roll Footage Link: From harvesting in Paraguay topackaging in Chicago