Fans of the natural, calorie-free sweetener stevia might be surprised to find out that Truvia, one of its most popular representatives, doesnt just sweeten your coffee — its also great at killing fruit flies. A study published today in PLOS ONE demonstrates that if you put fruit flies in a jar containing food laced with Truvia, theyll die in about 6 days. But before you start throwing all your stevia away, consider this: the ingredient that kills flies isnt the stevia extract itself, but erythritol — Truvias main component, and a sugar alcohol thats actually harmless to humans. This information comes to us thanks to Simon Kashock-Marenda, a ninth-grader from Philadelphia who was actually in the sixth-grade at the time of the discovery.
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