warmly
jb

Joanna

It’s not that agave is “out”- we used some in our cookbooks when something just had to have some sweetener (like a real food brownie)- it’s just that it’s not a “free lunch”, “use all you like it’s a health food”. Small amounts of any sweetener are OK for MOST people (there are exceptions). I was merely commenting on the fact that many people have bought into the marketing of this syrup and have wrongly come to believe that it is fine to use as much as you like because it’s “healthy”. It’s not going to kill you, but it’s not much better than HFCS… use with discretion.

warmly
jb

i don’t worry about the natural fructose in real foods- i worry about fructose extracted from its source, concentrated, and added back to other foods that never had it in ridiculous amounts.

warmly
jb

warmly
jb

very interesting article, but i’m unconvinced. The standard response of the food industry to any criticism has always been to deflect by saying “in moderation… part of a healthy diet…. no proof our ingredient BY ITSELF does x, y, z..”. On the final page he says “Agave syrup is fructose syrup”. So we’re in agreement on that, at least! His argument seems to be that you have to consume a lot of fructose to have a negative impact. I’m not so sure of that.

it’s not all that much different from the argument the corn refiners association made in their PR campaign for HFCS..

anyway, as i said, i don’t think using small amounts of it from time to time is the worst thing- we used some in our cookbooks, since no one (including me) seems willing to give up ALL sweets FOREVER… but i still think it’s HFCS in disguise and wouldn’t consider it a great food by any means..

warmly
jb

Of course, these guys have an interest in saying agave is great, but how does their research measure up to what you found?

http://www.coconutbliss.com/assets/Agave_Syrup_9.4.09.pdf

This post was mentioned on Twitter by mtDSoft: New Blog Post on JonnyBowdenBlog.com you can find it here http://jonnybowdenblog.com/the-truth-about-agave-nectar-it%e2%80%99s-all-hype/...

and Tim, thanks a lot for your two cents! much appreciated.

All high glycemic carbs are NOT created equal by a long shot. For example, pure domino sugar or Wonder white bread is about as high as you can go on the glycemic scale, but sweet potatoes- not quite as high but still moderately high- isn’t even in the same ballpark when it comes to nutrition. I understand the need for a high glycemic carb with a postworkout shake especially for varsity or professional athletes doing two workouts a day where quick recovery is important, but for the life of me i can’t possibly see why adding pure powdered glucose makes sense. Sweet potato yes. PUre sugar? I can’t see it.

You might also browse around the website of my friend Charles Poliquin. I tend to defer to him on issues of sports nutrition, as he’s trained more olympic teams, professional athletes and bodybuilders than anyone i know and he’s pretty smart. But that’s my off-the-cuff opinion.

hope that helps

warmly
jb

warmly
jb

I workout (mostly olympic lifts) 3-5 days a week and play basketball for 2 hours once a week. Bodybuilders and personal trainers recommend consuming a high-glycemic carbohydrate with a post workout shake to replace glycogen levels in the muscles as well as to stop catabolisis (sp?) For years i’ve been adding a product that is pure powdered glucose to my shakes and I was wondering if you thought that was a safe/smart move. My diet is about 90% paleo (per your recommendations) and even in the paleo books they recommend eating a sweet potato instead. are all high glycemic carbs created equal? what are your thoughts?

warmly
jb

i haven’t seen the exact product you’re talking about but my conceptual problem is that no matter how great the basic plant is, to make the syrup/sweetener, something still has to be extracted and that syrup is still going to wind up being high fructose, unless i’m missing something. Now understand- i do NOT think using some sweeteners to make some foods more palatable is the worst thing in the world. My point was only that this is not a “free pass” food. And again though i don’t know this particular product- which SOUNDS a lot better than the commercial ones- my gut feeling is to agree with Tim who responded earlier. I kind of think his .o2 cents was pretty right on. Does this mean you should never ever use it and fear it like the plague? Not at all. Just understand what it is and use accordingly. which means not all the time and not in huge amounts.

warmly
jb

By all means, use that nice raw agave for Jonny’s brownie recipe, but don’t confuse it for a health food. My $.02

Stevia is terrific but i personally can’t stand the taste

warmly
jb