Effect of stevia sweetener consumption as non-caloric sweetening on body weight gain and biochemical’s parameters in overweight female rats

Recently, non nutritive sweeteners that can substitute for sucrose (high in calorie) cause increased the prevalence of overweight children and adults. Non-caloric or low caloric sweeteners as tools for making healthful food choices have been introduced to satisfy consumer demand. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of stevia sweetener as a substitute sucrose at different doses(25, 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg b. wt/day) for twelve weeks on the weight management and on several hematological and biochemical parameters of female rats. The results showed significant improvement and ameliorated reduction in final bodyweight, body weights gain (%) (BWG) and feed efficiency ratio(FER) in the stevia sweetener groups compared with the control. Stevia sweetener at 500 mg/kg b.wt/day helps in weight loss of rats, decrement in the total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-densitylipoprotein concentration, increment in the high-density lipoprotein and no significant differences in mean serum alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase(ALP), or acid phosphatase (ACP) levels as compared to the control rats, which may be considered as therapeutic beneficial. Also, this dose may be considered as a safe dose for people with diabetes,especially the many individuals who need to lose weight to help control their blood glucose levels.