Jana Kutarna said:

anyway, i guess why i am writing is that stevia seems like a miracle
to someone like me, who has eaten so much sugar all her life.  in
fact, i find i am using it to make my food as sweet as i have been
used to all my life.  i am wondering if it is a miracle, if there is a
"catch" somewhere and if anyone has found the catch??  ;-)



I read somewhere (I read a lot and can't keep track!) that any kind of
sweetener hits the same tastebuds that sugar hits, the ones that detect
sweet tastes obviously, and those tastebuds send signals to your body that
something sweet is coming, which causes your insulin levels to rise just
like eating sugar does . . . don't know whether it's true or not though. And
like you said, the way they process stevia to make it even sweeter is
probably a bad thing, removing any nutrients that might have been there in
its natural form.