January 28, 2010

Agave Nectar -- Not Such a Sweet Deal



We're constantly looking for ways to make our lives more healthy, and when we started using Agave Nectar in place of organic sugar in our tea, we presumed this was the better choice. But I just came across this telling article at Re-Nest which purports that Agave Nectar may not be all it's cracked up to be. Of course, the author points out that there is conflicting evidence both for and against Agave Nectar, and the bottom line is, we don't know who or what to believe... which seems to be becoming an all too frequent, frustrating situation regarding the safety of the vast majority of foods (and their packaging -- ie: BPA in cans) on the market. It seems that nothing may be taken at face value anymore, and even though we found our Agave Nectar on the shelf at Whole Foods, it should be suspect.

Here's an excerpt from the article on Agave Nectar as quoted at Re-Nest:

Agave syrup is a manmade sweetener which has been through a complicated chemical refining process of enzymatic digestion that converts the starch and fiber into the unbound, manmade chemical fructose. While high fructose agave syrup won’t spike your blood glucose levels [as HFCS is reported to do], the fructose in it may cause mineral depletion, liver inflammation, hardening of the arteries, insulin resistance leading to diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

This brings me once again to the basic fact that pure sugar in moderation is better than any other substitute on the market.

2 comments:

Mrs. Money said...

Ugh- that sucks :( I like the taste of agave. I think I'll still skip it now.

Jill said...

We were big fans of agave too until I read an article six months or so ago. We use honey or just a bit of raw sugar instead now. Thank you for passing on this information.