IDK, but FYI the asapartame carcinogen meme from 2023 was yet another example of health news misinfo. It was classified as a Group 2B possible carcinogen, making it as possibly carcinogenic as coffee, and less carcinogenic than being a fry cook...

They find the stevia and they extract it

its a sweetener so any "health benefits" come in the form of it not being sugar, which has a number of ill effects especially in the refined forms and lrge quantities we consume it in. the leaf isnt "good for you" on its own it just doesnt have the same negative effects as HFCS. And it is generally regarded as safe but idk if there have been many specific studies.

I don't think stevia has any known health benefits, but it's still a lot better for you than sugar. Some people argue it's a bit better than stuff like aspartame, but it probably doesn't matter unless you're consuming an ungodly amount of artificial sweeteners every day.

I grew a stevia plant once and used the leaves for a sweetener as a try. It's kind of artificially sweet tasting with a weird aftertaste (at least to me). It an entirely different chemical structure to other sweeteners, which makes me question why there aren't studies about it.

Presumably the extract is made by water extraction and concentration. That is, soaking in water and then drying the water away. However, I don't know this for sure.

I found a study from 2002 that reviews safety tests of stevia compounds, and it appears that it is very safe. https://www.everstevia.com/Safety-Evaluation_of_Stevia.pdf

Doesn't taste very good

Zevia is good, we drink it regularly. They've got a bunch of flavours. And yeah it's just plant based non sugar sweetener. It's pretty anodyne as far as I have read

In my experience it exacerbated my gas problems, so it's bad if that's a problem you have.

Never heard about it having any health benefits or whatever, it's just a sweetener. Probably not missing much by taking it out of the leaf.

Stevia is a plant, literally an herb. The fresh leaves, when chewed, has a sweetish taste to it from some other chemical compound other than "sugar". If you're drinking hot stuff, you can drop whole fresh leaves into the hot liquid to steep and that should draw out some of the sweet flavor.

Get a bunch of leaves, dry them and grind them into a powder and you've got a sweetening agent that can be spooned out and mixed into things.

Not terrible for you like aspartame might be or with some dodgy gastro-intestinal effects of xylitol.

Sources: I worked at a grocery store that catered to the hippyish crowd for a long time and my spouse does small scale farm work at home and tried growing stevia for funsies.

That's the thing from breaking bad which rich people consume on the daily.

No soda is healthy for you. Stevia extract (steviol glycosides) is just a zero calorie sweetener. It looks like sugar to your taste buds but you don't break it down so it doesn't give you any energy. I can't remember any specifics but I think stevia is less bad than other sweeteners like sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame k, etc. Those have some nasty side effects.

All I know is I put that shit in my coffee and I love it.

I got enough problems without worrying about whether or not it's any worse for me than inhaling car exhaust while going for a walk.

It’s my favorite 0 calorie sweetener. But some people don’t like the taste i guess.

its zero calorie but also tastes disgusting so.

Everyone has given great answers so far but I wanted to point out that since stevia tastes kinda bad, most stevia extracts I can find are actually mostly erythritol (another low cal sweetener) with a small portion of stevia. I find their marketing to be quite close to a lie, but in any case, both products are as safe as any transformed food you're gonna find, so fine with moderation. It can be argued to be better than sugar except if you wanna count the sugar taking habit, which both encourage.

stevia tastes like shit I love my sucralose (splenda)

That shit sucks.