EDIT: VapeyMama I realize only the first sentence is to your statement and the rest is to the main topic, I’m bad at etiquette.
This is just a low-tech version of what I saw in the patents really. Are other extract purveyors using similar methods? This is how you’d get anything like an esther, alcohols are one of the best ways to do that.
I’d say if you, personally, have some kind of reaction to Stevia, avoid it. But it’s pretty typical, and yes, it meets the criteria for ‘natural’ – natural substances are taken out of existing organic matter, artifical are constructed from base compounds. . .even if they are chemically identical as in the case of say, vanilla extract (in fact almost all vanilla in the world is lab-made) – or the case of almond flavour, which the natural version of has cyanide in it XD. Not a lot mind, but the lab-version has none, so victory.
But of all those dozens of processes listed, yeah, most flavours use something similar.
Now, I have no idea if the thing they’re taking out of Stevia plants is any kind of dangerous, you’d need experimentation for that googles it – [basically it’s safe] (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Johan_Buyse/publication/267861645_About_the_safety_of_stevioside_used_as_a_sweetener/links/54c0ce3c0cf21674ce9fdff5.pdf). As an aside, the only reputable links sourced in your maina rticle are the patent applications themselves, which mean jack shit to most people [Also this, quickie, study] (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/shokueishi1960/26/2/26_2_169/_article/-char/ja/) There’s more as well, but I’m not buying the papers, you do it if yer worried :P.
But that’s just me parroting really, I’m nothing like an expert. But I’d say don’t worry about what the holistic hippy types are driving at if they have no evidence for it – after-all, ecogeeks have LOADS of proof for the things they’re actually right about.But ecogeeks know science.
As for whatever the actual name of the Stevia Extract was – people fear chemical names so, naturally, companies stick to the descriptive name. That chemical is indeed Stevia Extract – but it isn’t ‘Stevia’ any more than sugarcane is ‘Sugar’.
Don’t think I’ve ever spelled sugar before. . .cause I really wanna put an ‘h’ in there somewhere.
One last Edit: Remember, literally nothing is 100% safe, I set my bar at something like “Is it more damaging than moderate drinking?” Because moderate drinking, properly defined, might actually help some things in your health, and correlates to some other health issues, and it’s basically a wash. Most things one chooses to do should be close to a wash when it comes to actual life expectancy (as opposed to specific health risk). Even driving, I’d starve if I didn’t do it, so it’s worth the fairly high risk of eventually dying in a car crash and near certainty of being in one.