Last night I attended a fabulous class on the use of agave nectar. The foods that we sampled were delicious and full of whole grains and no white sugar. What are your thoughts on agave nectar and the benefits of inulin?
Agave nectar is like a fruit juice, and is a good substitute for refined sugar, which is harmful. Although the healthy sweet substitutes (like honey, raw or cane sugar, stevia, xylitol) are better than sugar, they should be eaten in moderation. A heavy diet of simple carbohydrates is not ideal-we should be eating twice as many vegetables as fruits or fruit products.
The final word on inulin is not in. It is naturally found in foods, and is marketed as a good pre-biotic; that is, it encourages growth of the good bacteria in the gut. It is interchangeable with and marketed with fructooligosaccharides (FOS) used as a pre-biotic. Because it is new, we don’t know a lot about it. It also appears to also feed the Klebsiella organism, a bad bacteria in the large bowel and responsible for disease/infections. Although natural, it has been extracted out and given in larger doses than any of us would take in the natural food. That makes it similar to sugar-a processed extraction of a ‘natural’ product found in sugar beets and sugar cane.
My doctor says I can get all the vitamins and minerals I need from my food. What is your opinion on this?
I used to say the same thing to my patients, back in the days before I studied healthy alternatives. It is the party line of allopathic medicine, although that is starting to change. Here's the bottom line, and I'll follow up with some info on what allopaths are now doing:
3 responses so far ↓
1 Dave, RN // Jan 22, 2010 at 12:52 pm
“full of whole grains”? There’s nothing healthy about that. See this article: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/
2 Suz // Jan 25, 2010 at 9:16 am
Coconut palm sugar makes a better alternative to sugar than agave nectar. It’s lower on the glycemic index than agave is.
3 J. K. // Jan 26, 2010 at 8:27 pm
I’ve done a lot of research on Agave and one women and her husband had done an interesting self administered test of the different types of Agave nector. Her husband is diabetic and so they tested, with his blood tests, the different classes of Agave from the more processed lighter type, to the least processed darker version. They found more of a spike in sugar with the more processed lighter kind than the darker, more raw, kind. It’s just one person’s experience. I personally like using Agave for baking, it’s wonderful in my whole wheat bread, however it’s still as calorie ridden as sugar and that should be considered.
I’m selling a new drink product on the market that uses a dried form of Xylitol and Stevia Reb-A. It tastes great and the kids love it and because the super fruits in it are freeze dried and then blasted in the water bottle (therefore the vitamins are not pastureized), they are very potent. The best thing I love about it is it has twice now completely wiped out my sore throats. That was unexpected but I found out that Stevia is known for that.
I’ve found Stevia is great with fruits and making smoothies and I love it in the drink I sell, but I still haven’t loved it in any baking I do or with Chocolate.
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