How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

Agave, the main ingredient in Tequila, has resurfaced as a health fad in recent years. Sticky and delicious agave nectar, produced from the agave plant, has been touted as a healthier sweetener because it has a slightly lower glycemic index than sugar. However, according to the American Diabetes Association, "It is okay for people with diabetes to use agave nectar as a sweetener, but they should not treat it any differently than regular sugar or corn syrup. It provides just as many calories and carbohydrates as regular sugar, honey, etc."

Agave, Appetite & Fat Tissue

Agave, like corn syrup, is high in fructose. Like corn syrup, agave bypasses our natural appetite suppressor mechanisms, which can lead to overconsumption. Additionally, the liver converts agave sugars directly into fat tissue, bypassing the normal conversion of sugars into glucose. For this reason, diabetics can consume agave without raising blood sugar levels. Increased fat production, however, is hardly a solution for diabetics.

Agave is a Highly Processed Food

Using the word nectar to refer to agave sweetener may be misleading, as it is not made entirely from the sap of the plant. A better term would be 'agave syrup.' Instead, starches in the plants bulbous root are extracted, refined and highly processed. These starches are strikingly similar to those in corn and rice used to make high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose syrup.

Nutritional Content

Unlike jaggery and molasses, the nutritional content of agave is negligible. It also lacks the fiber of natural sweeteners such as raisins, dates, and bananas. Unlike honey, agave syrup is cold and Kapha provoking. Honey, the only 'heating' sweetener, remains Ayurveda's sweetener of choice for Kapha dosha.

Want to buy a duck?

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Although promoted by health stores, modern sweeteners like agave syrup may simply sweep under the rug a sugar addiction of epidemic proportions: we consume over 150 times the amount of sugar than our ancestors only a hundred years ago.