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- iHaveNet.com: Health
Environmental Nutrition
Q. What is agave nectar, and can it help me control my blood sugar?
A. Agave nectar (or syrup), made from a succulent that grows in Mexico, is in hot demand.
Your local natural food store probably features agave in bottles, as well as in foods. Agave marketers claim that it's the perfect natural sweetener for diabetics. But is there any truth to the advertising hype? To fully appreciate agave nectar, let's get back to its roots.
Agave nectar, like its cousin tequila, is made from the sap of the heart of agave plants. Many manufacturers produce agave nectar using organic standards. To make the nectar, juice is collected from the core of the agave plant, which is then filtered and heated in order to break down the carbohydrates into sugars. The finished product is a sweet, syrup-like liquid. Critics claim that agave isn't as "natural" as it is often portrayed to be. Indeed, agave nectar is considered a processed sweetener that is less processed than high fructose corn syrup, but more processed than honey. The main sweetener in agave nectar is fructose (the same sugar found in fruit), because raw agave juice is rich in inulin, a complex form of fructose. Agave nectar has about the same number of calories as table sugar (16 calories per teaspoon), but it's sweeter, thus less is needed.
Light agave nectars are mild in flavor and can be used for sweetening beverages, fruits and baked goods; dark nectar has a stronger, caramel-like flavor and is better suited as a topping for pancakes or waffles. If you're substituting agave nectar for sugar in a recipe, cut down the amount of agave by about one-fourth and reduce the liquid in the recipe by about one-fourth as well. If you'd like to give agave nectar a try, drizzle a small amount over fruits in a cobbler, stir it into plain nonfat yogurt, blend it into a fruit smoothie, or pour it over buckwheat waffles.
A 2006 review of the scientific literature on agave nectar published by the
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Health - Is Agave Nectar Better for You than Ordinary Sugar?