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You can imagine my elation when I read an amazing bit of news; Coca-Cola is planning to use Stevia as its exclusive sweetener in diet soda. Can this be too good to be true? Well, if sources are correct, we could see the switch some time next year.

An ultra-secret project by two corporate giants broke into the open last week as the Coca-Cola Co. and Cargill Inc. announced they’ve developed a new sweetener from the Stevia plant. If you’ll recall from a previous Inspiration, The Magic of Stevia, this traditional plant has been enjoyed for centuries throughout South America and Asia for its many healing properties.

Stevia now has the chance to go mainstream - and I mean big time. If all goes well, we might see it on store shelves (in Asia and Brazil, anyway) by 2009. Unlike the US and the EU, Stevia is already approved in twelve countries including Brazil, China, and Japan, where it is a common table sweetener as well as an ingredient in many sweets, baked products, and health drinks.

The beverage giant has attempted to develop its own stevia-based sweetener over the past ten years. The concern among some plant purists, however, is that Coca-Cola will use only the sweetest extract of the plant, called rebaudiana. As happens with many plant extracts that become, for instance, drugs, supplements, or herbal extracts, sometimes the healing power of the plant is changed or lost. Could this be an issue with Coke’s new product, tentatively named rebiana?  Let’s hope also that Coke uses integrity and so does not combine Stevia with artificial sweeteners just so they can make a misleading claim on the label or in marketing. Call me a cynic but I’ve seen many attempts by the food industry to pull the wool over our eyes.

This monumental step comes in the wake of an unprecedented number of complaints the FDA receives every day against the most popular artificial dietary sweetener, aspartame, of the Nutrasweet company. Many, including myself (See A Sweetener By Any Other Name...Is Still a Sweetener), have complained for decades about the potential dangers of aspartame.  Just considering the doubling of our obesity rates since asparatame has been on the market is reason enough to seek an alternative. Well! Now the public may have a new, all natural option that may actually be good for us at the same time!

 Whether the rebaudiana extract, rebiana, is any less potent (or beneficial) than the entire Stevia plant remains to be seen, but what an interesting first step.