Agave: Is it a healthy alternative to sugar?

Agave. All natural, organic, raw... you’ve seen the labels. You’ve been marketed into thinking agave nectar is farmed by humble Mexicans trying to get the good stuff out to the world, and that it’s a healthy substitute for sugar and syrup. We are led astray, thinking we are eating the sap from the agave plant. Traditionally, in Mexico, the plant is tapped for its sap, the sap is boiled for a couple hours to extract some of the water, and the you are left with something similar to maple syrup they call miel de agave (honey of agave). This is what the agave nectar manufacturers want us to believe and have done a good job so far in pushing this idea.

The stuff on the store shelves, is quite a different product than the traditional miel de agave. It’s actually made from the bulb root of the agave plant, which looks akin to a pineapple. The main component of this root is starch, very much like corn or rice, and inulin, which is an indigestible fiber. This root, is dug up and processed in a similar fashion as corn is, when turning it into high fructose corn syrup. They throw in some enzymes and some chemicals to break down the starch and inulin of the bulb, into its smaller chemical parts, namely fructose and glucose. The worst part is that when the processing is done, the end result of the syrup is roughly 70% fructose.

At 55% fructose in sodas, high fructose corn syrup is 15% less fructose than agave nectar. Everyone knows fructose is bad right? That’s why people shy away from high fructose corn syrup and trend towards artificial sweeteners or stevia. But why is fructose bad? Fructose is in fruit. That’s how it got its name. Fructose = fruit sugar. The problem is that while fruit has loads of other vitamins and minerals, fructose in sodas or processed foods is just empty calories. The fact that it’s void of any nutritional value should be enough of a reason to avoid fructose as a sweetener.

When you eat fruit, you get a healthy dose of Vitamin C along with your fructose. Vit. C helps the liver process the fructose more efficiently and reduces the risk of fatty liver disease. Fructose can be detrimental to health when calories consumed are in excess. Sodas and such add extra calories without the fiber, or nutrients of fruit, or the filling feeling of real food, so extra calories are very easy to consume with HFCS.

Agave has even more fructose, and similar to HFCS, adds calories without fiber, nutrients or filling properties, and can therefore easily cause excess calorie intake, increasing risks for obesity and other health issues that come along with it. Stevia, is extremely low calorie, can be grown at home and used sparingly while your taste buds adjust to eating less sweets.