Agave Nectar: healthy or not?
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Thanks to "Finding Your Limit" blog
The Kitchn‘s post today about Agave Nectar as a potentially unhealthy food caught my eye. We use it in our oatmeal every morning and I squeeze it on toast. We have been using it for years thinking it was a good alternative to honey or maple syrup.
So, I was surprised to read this about it on The Kitchn:
When agave nectar burst onto the health food market, many people were excited about it as a substitute for refined sugar. But a growing body of research indicates that agave nectar — which is not, in fact, a nectar and is processed in much the same way as high-fructose corn syrup — might be as unhealthy as HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is purported to be.
Many readers wrote in disgusted, but some readers commented that the “research” wasn’t actually research at all, but one author’s one-sided (and possibly misinformed) report about agave.
The owner of Madhava Agave Nectar, Craig Gerbore, responds to each of the complaints in a lengthy interview. But, this summed it up for me, “Our agave nectar is certainly and clearly not made the same way as corn syrup. There is no starch in our agave. There are no chemicals, no refinement beyond the evaporation of water. And, there are no GMO’s whatsoever. The agave salmiana has never been subject to this and the enzyme is a natural, non GM organic, vegan enzyme.”
Agave is basically processed natural fructose–no GMOs or chemicals but of no nutritional value. It’s low on the glycemic index so if you have a diabetic child it may be a better option than the others. Raw honey is not processed at all–and it has great nutritional value (the propylis in it is actually really good for you–that’s from bee pollen), Maple Syrup retains some vitamins and minerals and is not highly processed (it’s just boiled down tree sap–water is boiled off, nothing else done) either–get organic of course so no chemicals. We choose raw honey and maple syrup over agave as we trust food that’s been around thousands of years that has never shown bad effects on health–and we can buy local products of both of these (agave isn’t made in NY State). With agave…you just don’t know. And fructose…is, well, fructose. If you read about fructose you won’t be wowed by what it does for the body. It’s probably no better or worse than organic sugar but maybe not ideal for every day–just a thought.