Agave Syrup--Alert

Food Nutrition
1

Here’s info to make an informed decision about agave syrup before you buy this expensive & much hyped sweetener that claims to be diabetes friendly.

Agave syrup is not a raw food, despite some label statements that it is. It’s a processed product.

Agave is highly refined fructose & far from an ideal sweetener for diabetics or non-diabetics. Agave is 70%-90% refined fructose (the remainder is glucose), compared to high fructose corn syrup in soda that’s around 55% refined fructose. Both are processed in a similar way using genetically modified enzymes & agave is more concentrated.

So, is agave a low glycemic food? Yes, in that it reportedly doesn’t cause immediate BG spikes. But, & this is a big but, refined fructose is an unhealthy substance that is associated with many health problems. Fructose in fruit contains naturally occuring enzymes, vitamins, fiber & minerals that facilitate it being assimilated by our bodies.

An aside, as a Type 1 I prefer having carbs hit faster than slower. I don’t want surprises hours later. Research conducted to determine GI values used non-diabetic subjects, so the value of GI for Type 1s is questionable.

Refined fructose decreases the sensitivity of insulin receptors, obviously a big problem for diabetics. The prevalence of highly refined corn syrup (fructose) in processed foods & soft drinks has been linked to the increase in T2 diabetes.

Fructose causes an increase in blood levels of lactic acid & also increases uric acid.

Research strongly suggests that refined fructose is more harmful than glucose. Unlike glucose which is metabolized by every cell, refined fructose is processed by the liver.

Fructose interferes with cooper metabolism. Cooper deficiency leads to heart conditions, anemia & prevents collagen formation, among a host of other problems.

Agave being promoted as a health food, or a good alternative to sugar, is pure marketing hype. Smoke & mirrors.

Caveat emptor.

2

Good to know :slight_smile:

3

Companies are making a fortune selling agave junk. They’ve done a great job marketing it, unfortunately. People are becoming a bit more savvy about refined high fructose corn syrup, but now they’re being duped to spend a ton for a small bottle of agave which is just as bad. Better off using plain glucose.

4

I haven’t seen Food Inc., but I will. Thanks for the recommendation.

5

Gerri,

What are your opinions on honey vs. agave? I use (very little) agave occasionally as a sweetener instead of honey and according to the labels they are about the same in concentrated sugar, so wondering if you have an opinion on that.

Thanks for the info!

6

Honey is better than agave, if your BG tolerates it. I use unfiltered raw honey to treat lows because it works fast for me & tastes yummy. One of the many problems with agave is something that’s 70-90% fructose & 30-10% glucose doesn’t exist in nature. Perhaps that’s why refined fructose ends up being metabolized by the liver & not our cells.

7

Here’s more info from 10/09 the next time you see an ad touting agave as the next great thing for diabetics. Read labels, folks.

Glycemic Research Institute issues warning on Agave Syrup

The Medical Advisory Board of the Glycemic Research Institute (GRI) made a decision to halt all future clinical trials involving Agave as a result of the latest round of GRI Human In Vivo Clinical Trials, in which the diabetic subjects experienced severe and dangerous side effects related to the oral ingestion of the sweetener agave…

click here read the full alert - or - http://www.glycemic.com/AgaveReport.htm

8

Thanks for this info Gerri:) very helpful.

9

I just rented Food Inc. over the weekend. I highly recommend it, too.

10

Hi Gerri,

Thanks for passing this warning on. In reading further the warning was not issued on all agave, just the Volcanic Nectar brand. I agree with you about not wanting surprises after eating anything so I regularly use this process when I introduce a new food into my diet:

  1. fasting - check my blood sugar
  2. eat 1 serving of the target food
  3. test my blood sugar every 30 minutes for 2 hours after eating it.

I’ve had great success with Agave. I also like the taste, something most other sweetners don’t provide. Honey is also good but I’ve got to use that in a more limited way.

11

Judith,

I didn’t know powdered whey came in a form as a sweetener. Interesting–thanks! I’d like to try it. I’m only familiar with whey as a protein powder. I use unflavored whey isolate powder & it’s not sweet.

You & I & our adventures in baking. I’ll send you the most scrumptious low carb chocolate torte recipe. You’ll love it. Ton of calories, but so rich that you can’t eat much anyway.

12

Hi Jeff,

Good way to know how new food effects you. We’ve got to be our own science experiments.

Agave may not increase your BG (assuming that’s what you’re referring to about great success), but it’s not healthy regardless of the brand because it’s fructose. The refined highly concentrated fructose in agave raises triglycerides, reduces the sensitivity of insulin receptors & has other negative effects. Honey certainly isn’t healthy for diabetics either & the taste limits its use.

Another issue with sweeteners like agave that aren’t metabolized properly is that they increase the craving for more sweets. Much research on this. It becomes a vicious cycle for people who are trying to kick sugar addiction. The brain sends sweet signals from taste, the cells are primed for glucose & they don’t get glucose. More complex than that, of course, but that’s basically what happens.

We’ve been sold snake oil that agave is some natural sugar alternative. Marketing bs. Say something enough times, hype it with ads & sadly people believe it as fact. As diabetics we have enough health concerns without adding agave fructose to them.

13

Thank you, Gerri! Get info.

14

Article from the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/agave-this-sweetener-is-f_b_537936.html
The author also suggests avoiding Stevia as an alternative sweetener.

15

Hi Gerri: I was suspicious of agave nectar after reading the number of carbs on the label. Thanks for getting this info out there, it’s very important.

And hey, I want that low carb chocolate torte recipe, too, please!

16

Hi Melitta,

Low glycemic index–yea, right:) Eating white sugar is a healthier choice.

Extremely rich & dense. It’s not very sweet, but I like bittersweet chocolate flavor. I use FiberFit liquid Splenda from netrition.com, or no carb powdered stevia. A little goes a long way on both. Baking with stevia can be a little tricky because some of the sweetness cooks out when heated. Granular Splenda adds quite a few carbs.

If you want a crust, mix about 1.5-2 cups of almond flour with 4-5 TBS of melted butter. Press into pie plate. I put thinly sliced almonds on top after it’s baked to dress it up.

Recipe is from Linda’s Low Carb Menus & Recipes.

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE TORTE

6 ounces (6 squares) unsweetened Baker’s chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda (I use 2 TBS liquid Splenda or no carb stevia powder.)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped cream for topping if you really want to guild the lily!

Melt the chocolate & butter together. Whisk until completely smooth. Whisk in sweetener, cocoa, eggs, cream and vanilla. Whisk until well blended. Pour the chocolate mixture into a 9" pie plate.

Bake at 350º degrees for 15 minutes or until the torte has puffed around the edges & the center is almost firm to the touch. Cool completely. Chill well before serving. Serve with whipped cream.

Makes 8-10 servings

With granular Splenda:
Per 1/8 recipe: 330 Calories; 30g Fat; 5g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 10g Net Carbs
Per 1/10 recipe: 264 Calories; 24g Fat; 4g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 8g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per 1/8 recipe: 318 Calories; 30g Fat; 5g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 7g Net Carbs
Per 1/10 recipe: 254 Calories; 24g Fat; 4g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 6g Net Carbs

17

Joseph Mercola is highly critical of artificial sweeteners and wrote a book on the subject (http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Deception-Splenda-NutraSweet-Hazardous/…). In my opinion he presents only one side of the subject, is perhaps a bit of an alarmist, but I don’t disagree with him and I have to commend him, he does his research. That being said, he is also very critical of agave, but he does give a thumbs up to Stevia

"Rather, I recommend other options such as stevia products. You can also use xylitol in small amounts or glucose which is sold as dextrose , …:

You need to read him in more detail to understand his support of glucose/dextrose, but basically, humans metabolize glucose in modest quantities “normally.” The same thing cannot be said for fructose.

18

Agave is highly processed. A lot more than sap being extracted from the agave plant. Far from a raw food. It’s chemically treated fructose.

From naturalnews.com:

" They are indeed made the same way (as refined high fructose corn syrup) , using a highly chemical process with genetically modified enzymes. They are also using caustic acids, clarifiers, filtration chemicals and so forth in the conversion of agave starches into highly refined fructose inulin that is even higher in fructose content than high fructose corn syrup", says Mr. Bianchi. Inulin is a chain of chemically refined fibers and sugars linked together, and, this bears repeating, high fructose inulin has more concentrated sugar than high fructose corn syrup!

19

I was looking at a D book, minding my own business, and a woman who said she was a nurse approached me and started promoting agave nectar as an awesome alternative for PWD. I stuttered for a moment and then said, “We’ll stick with the fake stuff, thanks.” I think she was surprised.

20

Hold on thar cowboy. Before we go and get things all confused with chemical mumbo jumbo. Inulin is the name of a broad class of polysaccharides found in many plants. For the most part, these are fibers, and when eaten, they are not absorbed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inulin). Note that raw inulin, as opposed to fructose, is not insulemic and does not raise triglycerides. If processed, inulin (like other raw ingredients) can be transformed into something new and dangerous. But realize that inulin occurs naturally in jerusalem artichokes, plums, agave, raisins, chicory root and wheat. It is used in Now and Sweetleaf brands stevia as a filler.

I think it is misleading to imply that inulin as a polysaccharides, simply because it is made up of fructose and glucose segments, you cannot conclude it is comparable to concentrated HFCS. One could make the same statement about cellulose or chitin, all totally indigestible but also polysaccharides.