For those of you interested in an alternate sweetener that isn't an artificial sweetener, check this out. It has no effect on blood glucose, which makes it great for diabetics/ppl on low carb diets. http://www.stevia.net/



Stevia (aka Sweetleaf, Sweet Leaf, or Sugar Leaf) is a plant that has been used for hundreds of years as a sweetener. With its extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Stevia also has shown promise in medical research for treating such conditions as obesity[1] and high blood pressure.[2][3] Stevia has negligible effect on blood glucose, therefore it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets. However, health and political controversies have limited stevia's availablility in many countries; for example, the United States banned it in the early 1990s. Stevia is widely used as a sweetener in Japan, and it is now available in the US and Canada as a food supplement, although not as a food additive.

"In 1931, two French chemists isolated the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste.These extracts were named stevioside and rebaudioside. These compounds are 250â??300 times sweeter than sucrose (ordinary table sugar), heat stable, pH stable, and non-fermentable." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

Pretty cool. This spring I'm gonna grow one. The only problem is you don't want to grow from seed because stevioside content can vary greatly from one plant to another. It is best to grow from cuttings from plants that are already known to be good producers.