Agave instead of honey

Do You Know the Benefits of Walking? Will We Ever See an End to Alzheimer’agave instead of honey? This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive WebMD archives content after 2 years to ensure our readers can easily find the most timely content.

You’ve seen agave syrup in your grocery store or in products sweetened with its nectar. 5 times sweeter than sugar and comes from the same plant that’s used to make tequila. Should you reach for it instead of sugar, honey, or maple syrup? What if you’re working on losing weight or have diabetes? The answer may be more about your personal taste than about health.

If you were hoping that you could use as much agave as you like, that’s unfortunately not the case. The agave plant grows from the southwestern U. It’s the same plant used to make tequila. Most agave sweeteners come from the blue agave plant.

You don’t get its raw nectar. Much like high-fructose corn syrup, it’s highly processed before you can add it to your tea, top your pancakes with it, or get it in an energy drink, bar, or other product. Agave has about 60 calories per tablespoon, compared to 40 calories for the same amount of table sugar. So to save on calories, you’d need to use less, which should be possible, since agave is sweeter.

Agave and Diabetes Have you heard that agave is a better sweetener for people with diabetes? The American Diabetes Association lists agave as a sweetener to limit, along with regular table sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and all other sugars. Liz Applegate, director of sports nutrition at the University of California, Davis, agrees. Applegate’s advice: It’s better to choose naturally sweetened items that have some nutritional benefit, like fruit or even a little bit of honey, which is a mite richer in antioxidants than sugar is. If you want to switch from one sweetener to another, Applegate suggests instead looking at the overall amount of added sugars already in your day. Some of them are in foods you might not expect. Check food labels, write down everything you eat for a week, and see how much sugar you’re already getting.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting sweeteners to no more than 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men per day, on average. That includes all sources, whether it’s agave, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or anything else. Liz Applegate, PhD, director of sports nutrition, University of California, Davis. Southern Living Slim Down South Cookbook, Oxmoor House, 2013. Journal of Medicinal Food, published online July 10, 2014. Journal of the American Diet Association, January 2009. Current Opinion in Lipidology, June 2013.

Privacy Policy and understand that I may opt out of WebMD subscriptions at any time. WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Enter the characters you see below Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. Agave syrup earned a reputation as a healthier sweetener, and vegan recipes often call for it instead of honey, but it should be used sparingly.

Bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and food photographer who focuses on vegan and gluten-free cooking. Agave syrup comes from the extracted juice of agave plant’s spiky leaves. It’s heated to transform the abundant starchy inulin into fructose, then concentrated to thicken it to a syrupy consistency. It costs quite a bit more than sugar, but it’s also considerably sweeter, so a little goes a long way. Agave syrup can be used as a replacement for corn syrup in many candy recipes, such as vegan caramels and toffee.

It works well when just a touch of sweetness is needed, such as in dressings and cold beverages, including sweetened iced tea. You can also use agave as syrup on its own to top foods such as oatmeal, pancakes, or waffles. For an easy flavored syrup for use in teas, coffee, and more, add a whole vanilla bean to a bottle of light agave and let it rest for a month. Using agave syrup in place of sugar or another sweetener in a salad dressing or beverage is pretty straightforward: simply stir it in according to taste. Look for agave syrup in natural foods stores or in the natural foods sections of most grocery stores. You may also find it with the sugar and other sweeteners such as brown rice syrup and coconut palm sugar. Agave syrup is also widely available online.