Agave syrup - how healthy is it really?

The Fresh Network
May 07, 2010
As of now we're no longer selling agave syrup - here's why
Since you're reading this, chances are you consume as little refined
sugar as possible – if you even consume it at all. But what about
agave syrup (also known as agave nectar)? That's completely different…
isn't it? If you're anything like the average raw food fan you'll be
regularly adding agave to your recipes in the belief that it's a
natural (and therefore healthy) sweetener. You'll be buying and eating
foods that contain agave without thinking for a moment that these
foods may be as bad for you as the processed foods you used to eat in
their place. You may even believe that agave has "beneficial
properties".
When raw agave came on the market six years ago, it sounded like the
answer to every sugar-loving raw foodist's prayers. It is mainly
fructose, which is both much sweeter than glucose, and much lower on
the Glycaemic Index. So here at last was a sweetener that was sugary
enough to satisfy the sweetest of tooths, yet that would not cause
those undesirable blood sugar spikes. Better still it had the
delicious consistency of a runny, easily pourable syrup that worked
like a dream in a huge range of recipes – and yet it was completely
natural! It sounded almost too good to be true – and there was a
reason for that.
Having looked into agave, we now believe it is very far from the
health food it's so often marketed as. It is, in our opinion, a
synthetic, chemically refined sugar with the ability to seriously harm
health if consumed regularly and long term.
In fact, all things considered, in our opinion agave is no better than
regular refined sugar. We'll go a step further – we're no longer even
convinced that the lower-quality brands are any better than high-
fructose corn syrup. We realize what a shocking statement that is, but
we believe that if you read this article to the end and then do some
research of your own on this topic, you will be similarly unconvinced.
And since we wouldn't sell regular sugar, we can't continue to sell
agave.
First, let's clear up the issue of the name. Agave syrup is most
commonly known as agave nectar. In this article we stick to the former
name as we believe that thinking of agave as a syrup gives a much more
accurate picture of what it is than the term "nectar", which conjures
up an image of it flowing straight out of the plant and into the jar.
The pictures and descriptions on many product labels only serve to
mislead the consumer into believing that agave is an unrefined, wholly
natural substance.
In reality, agave syrup is a relatively new product, having been
developed only during the 1990s. It is derived principally from
inulin, a polysaccharide (or starch) found in the Mexican agave plant.
The inulin is converted into concentrated, refined fructose (a
monosaccharide, or simple sugar) through a process called
hydrolyzation.
As such, an even more accurate name for this product would be "high-
fructose agave syrup" – or even "hydrolyzed high-fructose agave
syrup". Not quite so appetizing when we call it what it is, is it?
Regular agave is heat-processed and its production can involve a long
list of manmade chemicals. There are persistent rumours in the raw
market that it is not possible to achieve either the texture or the
taste of agave syrup without processing it at heats well above the
"raw" threshold.
But this is not necessarily true, as there is an alternative method
which produces agave syrup at low heats. It uses enzymes derived from
the mould Aspergillus niger to hydrolyze the inulin into fructose.
We have found no proof that any of the agave on the market that is
being sold as raw is anything but. However, we can't 100% vouch for
raw agave syrup's "rawness" either, as we haven't looked into this
particular issue in any depth and nor do we plan to, as we now believe
that agave is so far from healthy that whether or not it is raw is
beside the point.
Most of the agave syrup on sale in the US and Europe is imported from
Mexico. You might assume that there are strict controls in place to
ensure that any imported goods are what they claim on the label before
allowing them to go on sale as not only food products, but also health
food products. So you may be shocked to hear that a decade ago, the
"certified organic agave nectar" of one large US importer was
discovered to be laced with a cheaper concentrated sweetener – none
other than high-fructose corn syrup.
There is no guarantee that this isn't going on in parts of the agave
industry today, but let's leave that concern aside and assume that all
the agave being sold today is indeed exactly what it says on the tin –
because if it is, that alone is reason enough to stop consuming it. To
illustrate why, let's take a moment to compare it to high-fructose
corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is as reviled as a junky, processed, health-
harming sweetener as agave is celebrated as a high-quality, natural,
healthy one, so surely they must be two very different things?
You'd think so, but in reality there are some strong similarities.
They are both processed and concentrated sweeteners and they are also
similar in chemical terms. The HFCS used in soft drinks averages 55%
fructose and 45% glucose – exactly the same ratio as the lower-
fructose agave on the market. For comparison, refined white sugar is
50% fructose and 50% glucose. Agave can have much higher percentages
of fructose – anything up to the 90s. But so can HFCS! The form of
HFCS commonly used in packaged diet foods is 90% fructose.
Much of the raw agave nectar we have come across clocks in at the 85%
fructose mark. Maybe you think of fructose as "fruit sugar" and
therefore think it is a "good" sugar. We've been there, thought that.
But the fructose in fruit and the fructose in agave, HFCS and other
processed sweeteners are two entirely different things.
Fructose is only good for us if consumed in moderate quantities and
bound up with fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients – i.e. the
way it appears in nature, and the way we consume fructose when we eat
whole fruits. Refined fructose can have a number of extremely harmful
effects in the body, though people vary greatly in how much they can
consume before these effects - which are often hidden for many years -
start to manifest. Specifically, it has been linked with insulin
resistance, diabetes, obesity, accelerated aging, high blood pressure,
hardening of the arteries and liver inflammation.
First, most of the fructose in fruit is in the form of L-fructose or
levulose. The fructose in HFCS is a different form – D-fructose – only
tiny amounts of which occur in fruit. D-fructose is not converted to
blood glucose in any quantity, so it does not elevate blood glucose
levels. This is what has earned agave its classification as a low-GI
and therefore diabetic-friendly sweetener.
But the fact that refined fructose is not converted into glucose is
very far from being a good thing. Instead, it is primarily converted
into triglycerides and body fat – which is why fructose raises blood
triglyceride levels much higher than glucose does. In fact, a study
published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
found that obese subjects who drank fructose-sweetened drinks with
meals for a day had triglyceride levels almost 200% higher than obese
subjects who drank glucose-sweetened drinks during the same period.
Chronic high triglyceride levels translate into insulin resistance (a
precursor for type-2 diabetes), inflammation and hardening of the
arteries. In fact, many scientists believe triglycerides are a more
important marker for heart disease than cholesterol.
Excessive fructose consumption has also been linked with obesity. It
doesn't induce the same level of satisfaction as glucose because it
doesn't trigger appetite inhibitors in the same way, and studies have
shown that both animals and people consume more of foods that are
sweetened with fructose than of those sweetened with glucose.
And there's more... If you're eating raw or high raw, one of the
reasons may be the well-known rejuvenative effects of this diet. We're
sure you already know that consuming too much refined sugar
accelerates aging. Well, as we've already demonstrated, agave syrup is
a refined sugar. But because of its sky-high fructose content, when it
comes to aging, agave may be even worse than refined white sugar. It
has been scientifically established that fructose creates 8-10 times
the advanced glycation end products (AGEs) as glucose. This is a huge
topic, but in very simple terms, AGEs are compounds that age the
tissues of the body, both inside and out.
Raw agave is certainly a food that will cause a high level of AGE
formation – once again because of that 85% refined free fructose
content. As an aside, the extent to which the fructose in whole fruits
does the same is still under debate. However, many scientists studying
fructose and AGE formation concur that fruit is not a food we need to
avoid, if only because the fructose in fruit is so much less
concentrated than in refined sweeteners. It is also the natural L-
fructose, bound with fibre and nutrients, which will limit any
negative effects.
Yet another problem with refined free fructose is its impact on the
liver. Glucose goes directly into the bloodstream so that our tissues
and organs can use it as energy, with only around a third passing
through the liver, but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver.
The livers of laboratory animals fed large amounts of fructose develop
fatty deposits and cirrhosis, and excessive fructose consumption is
believed to contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease in humans.
It doesn't end there. A number of studies have demonstrated that high
fructose consumption can cause elevations in blood levels of uric
acid. Elevated uric acid has been linked with heart disease, and it
has also been shown to raise blood pressure, cause kidney damage and
interfere with insulin responses. In some people, uric acid
accumulates in joints and causes gout. Widely considered a Victorian
disease and most commonly associated with high intake of animal
protein, gout has in fact been increasing in prevalence in the US ever
since the introduction of HFCS 40 years ago.
In summary, agave syrup is not a natural food but a processed,
concentrated sweetener containing a high amount of fructose. Excess
fructose has been strongly linked with a number of extremely harmful
health effects.
That said, it's what you do most of the time that determines your
health, so if you choose to consume a little agave every now and again
it's really not worth worrying about. To ensure no one misunderstands
what we mean by that, we would say just the same about regular sugar.
In our opinion, a wise approach to agave is to view these two in the
same category.
In fact, these days we would personally sooner consume a sweet treat
containing organic raw cane sugar than we would one containing agave
(all other things being equal) as we believe it to be the lesser of
the two evils. We certainly would not recommend that anyone consume
agave any more often than they would regular sugar. For you that may
be never, it may a few times a year, it may be once or twice a month,
it may be more frequently.
The main take-home message is that if you have been liberally adding
agave to your smoothies and other recipes (or consuming packaged foods
containing it) most days in the mistaken belief it is a health food,
try not to be alarmed by what you've read here, but if you goal is
optimal health, do consider stopping.
Here are some brief pointers:
1. To be sure that agave is only an infrequent indulgence for you and
your family – if you choose to consume it at all – we suggest
banishing it from the repertoire of sweeteners you use in your
kitchen. So go ahead and have the raw dessert that's shouting your
name next time you're eating at your favourite raw restaurant without
worrying about what's in it – but get rid of that bottle from your
kitchen cupboard and replace it with some healthier alternatives.
2. Many experts say the healthiest sweetener of all is the herb
stevia. However, stevia cannot be legally sold in the UK or EU. If you
are in the US, where it is available, and can get this to work for
you, that's fantastic. But many people find its bitter overtones a
deal-breaker, and as it comes in liquid or powder form it can also be
problematic in recipes that call for a syrup-like sweetener.
3. In our opinion the best choice is date "syrup". You simply soak the
quantity of dates you require for 15 minutes to soften them, discard
the water, and then blend them until smooth. This forms a thick, syrup-
like substance that replaces agave very well in many raw recipes.
4. Organic raw honey is another option which will work well in some
recipes.
Dates are around 30% fructose and honey starts at around 40%. By
comparison, HFCS and the lowest fructose brands of agave are 55% – and
again, raw agave tends to be around 85%. Even more importantly, the
fructose in dates and honey also acts very differently in the body
because it is the natural form, bound with vitamins, minerals,
phytonutrients and fibre – not the refined, unbound form. In short,
unlike agave syrup, dates and honey truly are natural, unprocessed
whole foods. That said, although these are much healthier choices than
agave and can safely be used every day, they should still be consumed
only in small quantities.