Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Back in early April of 2015, during a visit to my Endocrinologist, I mentioned to my doctor that I eliminated most carbs from my diet. I still eat bread, but I use Nature's Own Whole Wheat loaf. I also eliminated rice and traditional pasta from my diet and began to eat more vegetables to help control my diabetes. She asked me if I used sugar and I told her I only use Splenda sweetener in my coffee. She recommended I switch out Splenda with a natural Stevia product. Ideally she recommended a liquid Stevia, but figuring out the cost and I am a heavy coffee drinker, the liquid stevia would cost much more than Splenda. Later that evening I browsed through Amazon to see what they had to offer me and I came across this product. At first, I thought it was extremely pricey for a pound of this powdered Stevia, but the description stated I believe a 300:1 sweetness ratio. When I finally received it in the mail, I certainly believed the 300:1 because a half teaspoon of this in my coffee made it unbearably sweet. I had to toss out that cup of coffee and try again. I was so surprised at how miniscule of an amount was needed to make a cup of coffee sweet that I filled up a clean unused salt shaker with this product and just two gentle taps from the salt shaker made my coffee perfectly sweetened. Well that was April. Today as I write this, it’s July 30 2015 and I still have more than 2/3 of the bag left. WOW. I have used this product for both Coffee and Quinoa and Almond Pancakes, Hot and Cold Teas and many other things around the house and I am so impressed at how little I have to use. I paid forty-six dollars at the time for the 500g bag, and in that time I used 1/3 of the bag over a period of 3 1/2 months bring my total cost to fifteen dollars of use. BJs Club store brand of Splenda would have cost me 45 dollars by now to cover those same months. Nevertheless, this product is natural and better for me. Today I had my A1C tested and it is 5.8 down from 6.5, and down from 8.7 one year ago. Healthier eating and using this product has improved my diabetes so much that I highly recommend it to any other diabetics. Yes, there is a aftertaste when used in hot liquids like hot tea or coffee, but I found myself getting used to it after a while. I rather deal with a small aftertaste than eliminating many of my favorite foods. This product is truly the best sweetener I have ever used and it has earn a permanent spot on my wish list to reorder. However, I still have 2/3 of a bag left :) :) :) Just use a salt or peppershaker as your Stevia dispenser instead of opening the big bag every time you need to sweeten a beverage. UPDATE 5/27/2016 *********** I finally filled my copper salt shaker (stevia dispenser today) with what I had been left from the first original 500g bag of stevia. My first order was placed on April 14, 2015 and I expect to use up the last of it probably by the end of the first week of June 2016. I estimate the bag will have lasted me for 13 1/2 months. My recent doctor visit still has my A1C at 5.9. As I said before, this sugar substitute is the most cost effective sweetener I have ever used. I originally paid forty-six dollars for the 500g bag, divided now by 13.5 months. My monthly cost came out to USD 3.41 dollars per month or 0.88 cents per week. Not bad eh? I have another helpful suggestion for people on the move. Use a small travel sized salt shaker with cap and fill it with this concentrated stevia. Small salt shakers can be found here on Amazon or cheaper at your local dollar store. Order your favorite beverage without sugar/unsweetened when dining out. I often ask for an unsweetened ice tea at restaurants and diners. Then I sweeten the tea with a small travel sized salt shaker filled with this stevia concentrate.