Stevia and Diabetes: A New Functional Food on the Table?

Diabetes mellitus, a metabolic disorder, is becoming a serious threat to mankind health. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a global epidemic with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 246 million people in 2007, and forecast to rise to 380 million by 2025. The treatment goals for T2DM patients, are effective control of blood glucose, blood pressure and lipids. Functional foods (FFs), with their specific health effects, represent a new mode of thinking about the relationships between food and health in everyday life. Functional ingredients, such as stevioside, have been addressed for its specific actions towards different reactions involved in diabetes development. Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) a natural sweet tasting and non-caloric herb, is a new food compound with pharmacological and therapeutic activities. Researches showed that the sweet and functional components of stevia are stevioside and rebaudiosides A, B, C and D. Many clinical studies indicate that compounds present in stevia can produce beneficial antihyperglycemic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, insulin tropic and antiviral effects on human health. Some studies showed that stevioside enhances both insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. In addition, it also enhances glucose stimulated insulin secretion but does not affect fasting insulinemia. To be concluded, stevia is a new replacement for sweeteners and considering its recent GRAS acceptance, an increase in the consumption of this functional food will be expected. Although many studies reported health promoting effects of this natural product. Further research is needed to demonestrate use of stevia as apart of healthy diet for diabetic patients.

Keywords:

Diabetes , Stevia , Stevioside , Antioxidant , Functional Food