Well, if you ask me, stevia isn't more popular because too many big corporations make a ton of money off sugar and sugar substitutes. There is no way they are gonna want stevia to get popular because it would probably put them out of business. A single plant provides a lot of sweetening. Diabetics can have all the sweet they want. It can be grown without a lot of fuss or chemicals. You don't need special instruments to pick or process the leaves.
The biggest negatives against stevia are that it doesn't have the same chemical reaction to yeast, so it is not a suitable substitute for sugar in baked goods that have both sugar and yeast as ingredients. Since big money is made from sugar, I doubt anyone is researching ways to utilize yeast or something similar with something other than stevia. I guess yeast manufacturers have reason to be concerned also because breads with yeast are extremely popular.
Stevia is just too good for this period in time when our health has very low priority to the almighty bleeping dollar. But for drinks like tea and coffee, I'd never go back to regular sugar. I've never liked artificial sweeteners and no amount of research has every convinced me that they are better than sugar. I still remember when it seemed everyone I knew was using that saccharin crap and encouraging everyone they knew that it was the greatest thing since water. I always thought that something that tastes that bad couldn't possibly be good for the body and only marketing (with a bit of ignorance) made that stuff popular for much too long.
But I'm a horrible diabetic because I won't buy stuff that is sugar-free, because they have artificial sweeteners. I'd rather practice moderation and have the stuff that is palatable to me. When it comes to food stuffs, I'm always going to choose the natural stuff, for the taste, and for the fact that I don't trust pharmaceuticals or big corporations much. I've been waiting a long, long time for something like stevia, so it has been worth the trial and error phase. Now if I can only grow enough plants so that I can propagate enough to never run out.
