Truvia moves to #2, but there's a problem

The Truvia® brand now ranks as the number two sugar substitute in the U.S. with a 12.8 percent share at retail within the sugar substitute category. Truvia® has achieved this milestone after just over two years on the market, surpassing Merisant's Equal® (aspartame) for the past 16 months and the 52 year-old brand, Cumberland's Sweet'N Low® for the past 12 weeks. Splenda® (Sucralose) is number one.

Bonnie - while we are encouraged that Truvia (which contains stevia and erythritol) is beating far more unhealthy brands, Truvia is not the "end-all-be-all." Regardless of what Cargill claims, erythritol is a corn-based artificial sweetener that can cause digestive distress. I've had many clients tell me this over the last few years. Cargill could not release a pure stevia product because they needed something that tastes more like Splenda and Equal. Hence, the addition of erythritol. The other issue is that Cargill gets most of its stevia from China, where quality control is a major issue.

We continue to exclusively recommend the Sweet Leaf brand because it is stevia only and comes from Paraguay, where the herb originated.

The other non-caloric alternative we prefer is Emerald Forest Xylitol, which comes from birch bark, not corn.