Agave Nectar is a type of sweetener and an alternative to refined sugar. Specifically it is made from fructose (meaning it comes from fruit) giving it a better reputation than other sugar you might put in your tea or in your baking.
However the reality is that unfortunately agave nectar is not much better for you than regular refined sugar. Here we will look at why.
Agave Nectar versus Refined Sugar
Refined sugar is pure sucrose meaning that it has been processed to the point where it literally is ‘just sugar’. Meanwhile agave nectar is mostly fructose which comes from whole fruits. While this gives it slightly more nutritional value, the majority of the goodness of the fruit is still lost, and it still creates the spike in blood sugar and increase in calories that gives sugar its bad name.
When you eat fructose in fruit, this will come with added fibre, vitamins and minerals all of which will help to slow down the absorption ensuring you get a steady release throughout the day. However when you consume it in the form of agave nectar the sugar is still readily available to be absorbed right into the bloodstream where it can cause all kinds of damage. Just like refined sugar, eating too much can cause an increased chance of liver disease, insulin resistance, LDL cholesterol (the bad kind), obesity and more. And what makes all this worse is that unlike refined sugar, fructose doesn’t trigger the release of insulin meaning that you’ll increase the amount of sugar in your blood even more before it gets eliminated.
Unfortunately many of the other sweeteners out there aren’t much better, and those that don’t include sugar can cause an insulin spike when you don’t really need one causing tiredness and sugar cravings. Sadly there’s no easy answer and if you really want to improve your health and lose weight, you should really focus on just combating that sweet tooth and controlling your cravings so that you don’t need those desserts in the first place.