I'm trying to stay away from artificial sweeteners. Can I use stevia instead? 
— Cheryl, Ohio

Stevia is a no-calorie sweetener extracted from the leaf of a plant grown in Paraguay and Brazil. The ingredients in stevia that make it sweet include the plant chemicals stevioside, rebaudiosides, and dulcoside A. Stevia is about 30 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar).
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially approved stevia for use as a food additive in the United States — not as a sweetener — so there was no official acceptable daily intake for this additive. However, based on safety studies in rats, a daily intake of 8 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (4 milligrams per pound of body weight) is considered safe. One packet usually contains 80 mg of stevia. So, you can safely use stevia within this dose limitation.
Rebaudioside A is a specific extract of the stevia plant that is the sweetest (about 350 times sweeter than table sugar) and has the least bitter aftertaste of the components of stevia. In December 2008, the FDA approved several rebaudioside A-based products for sale, including the sweeteners Truvia and Purevia. These products have an acceptable daily intake of up to 4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.