{"id":84368,"date":"2025-07-22T22:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/84368\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T22:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:55:15","slug":"the-artificial-sweetener-that-may-actually-be-good-for-you-and-it-could-even-ward-off-deadliest-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/84368\/","title":{"rendered":"The artificial sweetener that may actually be good for you… and it could even ward off deadliest cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The artificial sweetener Stevia may help prevent one of the world’s deadliest cancers, a new study suggests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers in Japan<\/a> collected samples from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a plant native to tropical and subtropical South America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plant is used to make the sugar substitute Stevia, which can be 50 to 300 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After fermenting the leaves with Lactobacillus plantarum \u2014 the same bacteria used in yogurt and fermented vegetables\u00a0\u2014 the team found fermented Stevia\u00a0proved effective at killing pancreatic cancer<\/a> cells.<\/p>\n

Compared to non-fermented Stevia, fermented varieties (FSLE) destroyed more cells of pancreatic cancer, which kills eight in 10 Americans affected within five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also left healthy cells virtually untouched and neutralized free radicals, which cause harmful inflammation throughout the body.<\/p>\n

Artificial sweeteners like Stevia have long been under fire for being linked to health issues<\/a> like strokes, heart disease and some forms of cancer.<\/p>\n

However, the science on sugar substitutes and alternatives is murky, while decades of research does show the harms of traditional sugar are much clearer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A study shows the sweetener Stevia may help stave off pancreatic cancer (stock image)<\/p>\n

The researchers said the findings could eventually turn the tide for pancreatic cancer, which is on the rise and most often only detected after it has spread throughout the body.<\/p>\n

Narandalai Danshiitsoodol, study co-author and\u00a0associate professor in the Department of Probiotic Science for Preventive Medicine at\u00a0Hiroshima University, said: ‘Globally, the incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer continue to rise, with a five-year survival rate of less than 10 percent.’<\/p>\n

In the US, approximately 67,440 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, and about 51,980 people die from it, according to the American Cancer Society.<\/p>\n

Pancreatic cancer is highly invasive and prone to metastasis, meaning it more commonly breaks away from the primary tumor and spreads throughout the body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It shows significant resistance to existing treatments, such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, thus the need for anti-cancer compounds was sought after in less conventional methods like medicinal plants.<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Stevia and fermentation comes in.<\/p>\n

In the study, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences<\/a>, researchers fermented Stevia leaf extract and compared it to unfermented extract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The technique is called microbial biotransformation, which\u00a0has emerged as a valuable technique for improving the efficacy of natural plant extracts. It involves the use of microbial enzymes – bacteria and yeast, for example – to modify bioactive compounds and enhance their potency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stevia turned out to be most potent when fermented for 72 hours, without oxygen, at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) – the body’s natural, healthy temperature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team found Stevia killed pancreatic cancer (PANC-1) cells more efficiently than the non-fermented extract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, it barely touched healthy HEK-293 (healthy) cells, even at high doses.<\/p>\n

The extract also slowed cancer cell growth and made them lose shape, preventing them from sticking together and spreading.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, fermented stevia proved to be a potent antioxidant. Cancer arises from oxidative stress, which damages cells and DNA.<\/p>\n

In lab tests the Stevia extract neutralized free radicals more effectively than non fermented varieties, eradicating 94 percent of them in one test.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The chart shows survival rates for pancreatic cancer, per the National Cancer Institute<\/p>\n

Fermentation likely created new compounds. The researchers suspect chlorogenic acid that is in the original stevia transformed into chlorogenic acid methyl ester (CAME), a more active form. The raw extract had none of this, by comparison.<\/p>\n

It’s thought that CAME shut down cancer cells by blocking their cell cycle and making them commit apoptosis, molecular steps that lead to its death.<\/p>\n

Danshiitsoodol said: ‘This microbial transformation was likely due to specific enzymes in the bacteria strain used.’<\/p>\n

The Hiroshima University team plans to study FSLE in mouse models next, which will help determine how well CAME works in a living system and identify safe, effective doses.<\/p>\n

Over time this could potentially lead to a natural and easy way to combat one of the world’s deadliest cancers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The artificial sweetener Stevia may help prevent one of the world’s deadliest cancers, a new study suggests.\u00a0 Researchers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[211,210,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-84368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114899355236824681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}