This is the appeal of agave nectar--it's primary sweetener is fructose, which doesn't spike insulin like sucrose (table sugar). The downside is that fructose in high concentrations screws up your liver, which has to process fructose the same way it processes alcohol, except without the buzz.
The Sugar Busters diet is chock full of fructose for that reason. Controlling insulin controls the hormonal push to fat storage, so eating things sweetened with fructose seems to make sense to that end. Of course, these things never work out like we'd like them to, and this is the case with fructose.
You may be thinking, "Hey, isn't fructose found in fruit?" And if you are, you're thinking correctly. Small doses of fructose with the accompanying enzymes found in the fruit are fine. Drinking it by the quart like some people do in diet soda is another thing all together. Diet soda? That doesn't have agave nectar, does it?
No. It has high fructose corn syrup, which is about 55% fructose. Agave nectar is about 90% fructose. So stop using it!
I recommend some good maple syrup as a substitute for baking. The almond flour biscuits we have at Casa De Verde are a fine example of that substitution working perfectly.
Ok...I use a lil squirt of agave nectar in the one or two cups of tea I drink everyday. Maple syrup in tea is gross. So...is a max of 2 tsp of agave nectar better or worse than sugar? Better or worse than artificial sweetener?
ReplyDeleteI use it in my daily oatmeal but now I am trying stevia in the raw. Is there anything wrong with stevia as a sweetner/sugar substitute?
ReplyDeleteAshley--a lil' squirt is probably fine here and there, but if I had to pick one, I'd probably just go with table sugar.
ReplyDeleteErnesto--the research on stevia suggests it may make you more sensitive to insulin, which is a good thing. Many don't like the taste, but there are quite a few brands out there to play with. Let us know if you find something you like...