Scientists from the University of Surrey say that natural sweeteners made from stevia can be just as sweet as sugar, but they produce much less air pollution. These natural sweeteners create only 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions that regular sugar does.
A study done by scientists showed that using stevia as a sweetener is better for the environment than using sugar. This research showed that using this sweetener takes up less land, and uses less water than sugar does, but tastes just as sweet.
Non-nutritive sweeteners, like steviol glycosides, can give us the same sweetness as sugar, but without having to worry about bad health effects like cavities, being overweight or diabetes. The reason this is possible is because these sweeteners are very strong – 4g of steviol glycosides can deliver a sweetness level that would usually require 1,000 grams of sugar – which means they’re 250 times sweeter!
Dr. James Suckling from the University of Surrey’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability said that natural products like steviol glycosides have potential to be helpful for our planet. But he also mentioned that more research needs to take place in order to understand if these natural sweeteners can help us when consumed in bigger amounts as part of a diet.
A group of researchers wrote a paper called “Environmental life cycle assessment of production of the high intensity sweetener steviol glycosides from Stevia rebaudiana leaf grown in Europe: The SWEET project” which was published 14 January 2023 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. In it, they studied how growing and producing a type of sweetener affects the environment.
