If true, this is discouraging -- Agave Nectar, the hoax....

[alfreda89]

**Sigh** Sometimes, I just use small amounts of sugar. I wonder what "organic" or "raw" agave nectar is, then?

Beware of the Agave Nectar Health Food Hype

From the article:

Agave “nectar” or agave “syrup” is nothing more than a laboratory-generated super-condensed fructose syrup, devoid of virtually all nutrient value, offering you metabolic misfortune.

Unfortunately, masterful marketing has resulted in the astronomical popularity of agave syrup among people who believe they are doing their health a favor by avoiding refined sugars like high fructose corn syrup, and dangerous artificial sweeteners.

And if you’re diabetic, you’ve been especially targeted and told this is simply the best thing for you since locally grown organic lettuce, that it’s “diabetic friendly,” has a “low glycemic index” and doesn’t spike your blood sugar.

While agave syrup does have a low-glycemic index, so does antifreeze -- that doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Agave syrup has the highest fructose content of any commercial sweetener -- ranging from 70 to 97 percent, depending on the brand, which is FAR HIGHER than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which averages 55 percent.

This makes agave actually WORSE than HFCS.

http://tinyurl.com/yfyv8v4

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

So the majority of the biochemistry in the article is more or less correct - though the whole "fructose is the worst thing ever!" bit is more than a little overblown, there are a lot of dumb mistakes in the chemistry, and those combined with the rather hysterical tone leave me skeptical about the information regarding the agave industry. Well, and some things are just silly. For instance, the majority of fructose in honey is in monosaccharide form, so claiming otherwise is just incorrect. And the idea that agave is horrible and awful because it's not a whole food, but honey is pure is, well, religion rather than science. (I'm not saying there aren't plenty of reasons to prefer whole foods - but honey is a refined sugar, even if it's been refined by the bees.) A lot of the discussion of the different grades of agave nectar could be applied as well to maple syrup.

I'm kind of grimly amused by the "Oh, no, fructose is evil!" thing that's going around at the moment - in part because what, five years ago? it was just the opposite. Yes, the new study is very good. Yes, I'm personally deeply suspicious of concentrated fructose* as a food additive. But this particular bit has been bouncing back and forth for the last few decades, and one single study does resolve the issue either way, despite the media hype.

The whole glycemic index bit, with regard to fructose, is kind of a joke. Fructose won't raise your GI because GI counts glucose release into the bloodstream, not fructose, but that's almost a matter of playing with definitions. However, fructose feeds into glycolosis just like glucose, and in fact it bypasses the most highly regulated step of glycolosis, so your body has less control over the rate of uptake. (Which is one of the reasons an awful lot of biochemists - and me, though I'm being a neurobiologist rather than a biochemist at the moment - are pretty suspicious of fructose. However, there is lab data both supporting and refuting that fear.)

* But then, I rarely eat refined foods, and few sweets, and if my body isn't under unusual strain, my metabolism regulates itself fairly well - then again, that's with a couple of hours of training a day. (And when I'm training really a lot... I still eat well, but I don't avoid sugars, or particularly worry about them. It's *hard* to get enough calories when you're training that much.)

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

The things that I find the most dangerous are not necessarily what frighten others. I'm extremely careful of corn, especially as HFCS, but have added fresh corn on the cob and corn tortillas back into my diet. But pasta, white potatoes, white bread (except sourdough) and date sugar can put me to sleep -- literally -- even when driving a car. I can't even eat Lara bars anymore -- they trigger the falling asleep driving biz. So I'm a tad paranoid about sugars.

I even put whole grains under crisps and cobblers I eat, to slow down the processing. So I will cook with this stuff, since I have some, but I don't plan to add back any sugar into my diet. I've reached the point where even eating a portion of one of my favorite desserts (like flourless chocolate tortes and such) will make me ill. But some food folk think that excessive sugar can trigger arthritis -- or excessive dairy/meat. And my arthritis has been much better since I cut almost all sugar and all dairy and most meat out of my diet. So I don't plan to add it back in. Wish I could eat chocolate chip cookies to my heart's content, tho.... ;^)

[tylik.livejournal.com]

This is actually one of the reasons I find the scare articles to be pretty annoying - because so much depends on the individual and their body. It is important that people know that agave syrup is largely fructose. (I actually don't have a lot of contact with advertising - are people generally unaware of this?) Whether fructose is a terrible thing or not is a much more complicated story. Yesterday I was talking to a new guy at the zendo, who can only tolerate fructose - and can't have agave syrup because it's not pure enough fructose. (And if he has even a small quantity of other sugars, he'll pass out. I would *love* to see his enzymes...) I *do* think that the current prevalence of fructose as a food additive may well be at least one factor in a great number of metabolic problems for many people. Though everyone has their favorite culprits - my very favorite is lack of sleep.

For me it's all about exercise and pain control. If I can stay active, everything works better. If I'm not in too much pain, my metabolism is fairly well behaved. To a certain extent being active can compensate for other things, but there are limits, and I tend to push them. (Well, it's also all about keeping an eye on my allergies, and eating the food my body likes - which is pretty much vegan, with the occasional duck egg, or bit of fish if I'm on the coast. But that part's easy.)

Hm. I wouldn't be particularly surprised to find that there's a link between arthritis and sugar - at least, there seem to be links between poorer sugar control and inflammation generally.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Yes -- I think HFCS is a huge problem for a lot of people. But I agree that sleep deprivation is a HUGE factor in current US health. People don't understand that you need six hours of rest just for your brain to remain healthy. And if you only sleep 6 hours, the rest of your body cannot rest, cannot heal -- cannot process and metabolize properly. People with sleep apnea often lose weight once they are getting enough oxygen at night.

People need to learn how to turn off the TV & computer -- and get some sleep! (If they have a reversed sleeping schedule from illness like me, they have my sympathy. I'm struggling for better sleep right now!)