Agave: Use sweetners sparingly

 

After watching "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" I started wondering about how safe Agave really is. The professor in the video talked about the dangers of high fructose levels. He said in nature sweet things are packaged with fiber that reduces the effects of the fructose in the body.

Agave can have a lot of fructose, around 90 percent (Sugar is 50 percent fructose, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is 55 percent). The problem with taking in a lot of fructose is that your body must convert it to glucose in the liver, but if you have too much, it gets stored as fat. Fructose is correlated with increased blood triglyceride levels, heart disease, and insulin resistance. This isn't really a concern when you're eating fruit, a natural source of fructose (along with other vitamins and minerals). It's when synthetically made fructose is ingested in such concentrated levels that the problems arise.  http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/agave-fructose-corn-syrup.html

Whole fruits generally contain a much smaller amount of fructose compared to sucrose and glucose.  In addition, fruits contain vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber, and other nutrients.  Our bodies are designed to digest a complete “package” of nutrition that appears in whole, fresh, ripe fruits.  Could nature be wrong?  For example, it’s always better to eat fruits whole or blend them rather than juice them.  When you juice fruits you remove the fiber which helps to slow down the absorption of the sugars. Concentrated sweeteners also contain no fiber and have much greater concentrations of simple sugars than are found in fresh fruit or even juices...

If you are making a “raw” recipe and it does require a concentrated sweetener, I have some recommendations for some better options to use instead of agave:  (Listed in order of preference.)

1.     Use ripe fresh fruits.  Ripe fruits contain nutrients, fiber and water, a complete package, as nature intended.  I find that ripe and organic fruits are usually sweetest.

2.     Use fresh whole stevia leaves.  Stevia is an herb that actually tastes sweet but contains no sugar.  This herb can be very hard to find fresh, so I personally grow my own.  If fresh leaves are not available, get the whole dried leaves or the whole leaf powder.  Avoid the white stevia powder and the stevia liquid drops as they have been highly processed.

3.     Use dried fruits.  If you need a “syrup” consistency, just soak the dried fruits in some water and blend them up with the same soak water.  Dates, figs, and prunes are some of the sweetest dried fruits that tend to work well in recipes.  Try wet Barhi dates blended with a little water for an amazing maple syrup substitute.   Please note: Since there are no raw labeling standards, some dried fruit may be dried at higher than 118 degrees, and thus, not really raw.  If you want to ensure you are eating really raw dried fruit, it is best do dehydrate it yourself.

4.     Raw Honey is a concentrated sweetener, and although not recommended, in my opinion it is better than agave syrup because it is a whole food and occurs naturally in nature.  Of course, honey is not vegan and that may be a concern for some.   I recommend purchasing local honey from a beekeeper.  

Other “concentrated sweeteners” that are often seen in raw food recipes include:

1)     Maple Syrup which is not raw and heat processed. If it is not organic, it may also contain formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals.

2)     Sucanat or evaporated cane juice is pure dried sugar cane juice.  Unfortunetly this is processed at a temperature above 118 degrees and therefore can’t be considered raw.

3)     Yacon Syrup is a syrup from the root of the yacon plant in South America.  It is once again, a concentrated sweetener processed at a temperature of up to 140 degrees farenheight.

The moral of this article: Eat whole fresh fruits and vegetables, they are always best.  Always question processed and concentrated foods that are not found in nature, even if “raw”. http://www.living-foods.com/articles/agave.html

Here are two great articles that I am quoting from that talk about fructose and its effects on our bodies:

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/agave-fructose-corn-syrup.html
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/agave.html