"Japan currently consumes more stevia than any other country; there, stevia accounts for 40% of the sweetener market."
"...the European Commission banned stevia's use in food in the European Union pending further research."
"In 1991, at the request of an aspartame manufacturer, the United States Food and Drug Administration labelled stevia as an "unsafe food additive""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia
Thought this might interest all the fans of all things food and Japan in here.
There's already a thread to talk about Japanese food.
Japanese Food
http://4-ch.net/food/kareha.pl/1102228744
Stevia has kind of a weird aftertaste. It's okay for sweetening tea but not for stuff with tons of sugar, like homemade soda. Probably can't cook with it either.
It does make me think of the two most delicious pilots in that from time to time. ; )
I went on a garden tour at a food museum. The guide let us each nibble a stevia leaf. It was weird to get this chemical, ultra-sweet taste from a leaf. Although you can buy powdered stevia at health/natural/etc. food stores (including Trader Joe's), after that I wasn't too interested. I'm sticking to honey (ha...), unrefined sugar, and white sugar as a last resort.
What the hell is stevia?
>>7 fails at following links
>>7 wins the Mocademy "not reading the thread" award..
and this wouldn't fit in it, plus 4-ch is about all things japanese, so discusion about japanese food doesn't have to stay in one thread, so you fail
>plus 4-ch is about all things Japanese
Nope! I'd rather it not be. Sure we have 3 boards for Japanese-related things (anime, manga and 日本語), but I'd prefer if it the other boards were not just centered around Japanese things.
still a suger substitute is not strictly japanese just because it is used there, you are being pretentiouse by yelling at everyone, saying they have to go to that thread to talk about this subject
Stevia is not "Japanese food" any more than coffee is.
What about canned coffee? :3