Acceptance of stevia as a sugar substitute and its determinants among health educated individuals

Abstract

Stevia is a safe, zero calorie, low glycaemic, natural sweetener and is suitable for pre-diabetic and diabetic patients. This study investigated the perceived effect of a stevia product on taste, satiety, appetite and carbohydrate craving, and its acceptance as a sugar substitute. An exploratory study was conducted among the randomly selected group of 73 medical students and eight lecturers. The participants consumed commercially available stevia, replacing sugar, with their morning drink for a week. Data was collected by face to face interview using a standardized questionnaire pre and post stevia challenge. The Majority (66.7%) of respondents from student group liked the taste of stevia,74.1% experienced after taste and 65.4% reported taste change of the drink with stevia. During the challenge week, 34.6% experienced early satiety, 8.6% had increased appetite and 16.0% noted carbohydrate craving. The majority of respondents were willing to continue with stevia for their health benefits and 95.1% wanted to recommend it for diabetic patients. In contrary, 66.7% of participants from lecturer group did not like the taste of stevia. Significant association was found between the amount of stevia used and liking the taste of stevia (p <0.05). Taste liking is positively (p <0.001) and perceived taste change of the drink is negatively correlated to its acceptance (p <0.05). The majority of respondents demonstrated good acceptance of commercially available stevia product. Liking sweet taste of stevia and perceived taste change of their drink determined the acceptance of stevia product among health educated individuals. Future research should focus on effectiveness of natural sweeteners in reducing calorie intake to fight against obesity to provide public health policy makers with more evidence based information on use of non-caloric sweeteners.