Bad Good Program Touch Touch' title='Bad Good Program Touch Touch' />I know, I know, I know. This is a really tough subject to talk about. But we have to. But we have to get past that discomfort and put aside our differences as mamas. Luke Plunkett. Luke Plunkett is a Contributing Editor based in Canberra, Australia. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs. Each state must maintain a Registry of all Certfied Nursing Assistants CNAs. This registry contains information on whether an individual has a current CNA certificate. A touchpoint can be defined as any way a consumer can interact with a business, whether it be persontoperson, through a website, an app or any form of communication. Heres the thing Good people do bad things sometimes. Its possible that good hackers, the ones we celebrate for stopping malware, also create malware, perhaps. Agave Nectar Good or Bad Is agave nectar good Is agave nectar bad Believe it or not, I thought Id written a definitive post on this topic. As it turns out, I hadnt. Earlier this week a reader emailed me, seeking an answer to the classic question Agave nectar good or bad She pointed out that shed done a search for agave nectar on this site and only turned up two entries. In one, Id said to avoid it. In another, I mentioned that Id used agave nectar while experimenting with kombucha and didnt enjoy the results. So, she concluded Why, if agave nectar is a natural sweetener, should it not be used What about it is badIve been preferring it to honey and maple syrup on my waffles, pancakes, and yogurt. I realized then that I needed to post a definitive guide to agave nectar, answering the question once and for all. This is it. Agave Nectar Good or Bad The short answer to that readers question is simple almost all commercially available agave nectar is not a natural sweetener. Plus, agave nectar has more concentrated fructose in it than high fructose corn syrup. Now, lets get into the details. Agave Nectar Is Not A Natural Sweetener. Once upon a time, I picked up a jar of Organic Raw Blue Agave Nectar at my grocery store. Purple4/v4/3e/b0/2d/3eb02d49-0a80-6616-1f7f-d63619b90609/mzl.yaagctta.png/400x400bb-85.jpg' alt='Bad Good Program Touch Touch' title='Bad Good Program Touch Touch' />It was the first time Id ever seen the stuff in real life, and the label looked promising. After all, words like organic, raw, and all natural should mean something. Sadly, agave nectar is neither truly raw, nor is it all natural. Based on the labeling, I could picture native peoples creating their own agave nectar from the wild agave plants. Surely, this was a traditional food, eaten for thousands of years. Sadly, it is not. Native Mexican peoples do make a sort of sweetener out of the agave plant. Bad Good Program Touch Touch In Concert' title='Bad Good Program Touch Touch In Concert' />Its called miel de agave, and its made by boiling the agave sap for a couple of hours. Think of it as the Mexican version of authentic Canadian maple syrup. But this is not what most so called agave nectar is. According to one popular agave nectar manufacturer, Agave nectar is a newly created sweetener, having been developed in the 1. Bad Good Program Touch Touch TouchIn a recent article now posted on the Weston A. Price foundations website, Ramiel Nagel and Sally Fallon Morell write,Agave nectar is not made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from the starch of the giant pineapple like, root bulb. The principal constituent of the agave root is starch, similar to the starch in corn or rice, and a complex carbohydrate called inulin, which is made up of chains of fructose molecules. Technically a highly indigestible fiber, inulin, which does not taste sweet, comprises about half of the carbohydrate content of agave. The process by which agave glucose and inulin are converted into nectar is similar to the process by which corn starch is converted into HFCS. Purple/v4/df/9d/da/df9dda08-caf9-cb44-8a77-28d658e32ad7/screen568x568.jpeg' alt='Bad Good Program Touch Touch Me Lord' title='Bad Good Program Touch Touch Me Lord' />The agave starch is subject to an enzymatic and chemical process that converts the starch into a fructose rich syrupanywhere from 7. Compare that to the typical fructose content of high fructose corn syrup 5. In a different article, Rami Nagel quotes Russ Bianchi, managing director and CEO of Adept Solutions, Inc., a globally recognized food and beverage development company, on the similarities between agave nectar and high fructose corn syrup They are indeed made the same way, using a highly chemical process with genetically modified enzymes. They are also using caustic acids, clarifiers, filtration chemicals and so forth in the conversion of agave starches into highly refined fructose inulin that is even higher in fructose content than high fructose corn syrup. So there you have it. Agave nectar is not traditional, is highly refined, and actually has more concentrated fructose than high fructose corn syrup. It is not a natural sweetener. Thus far, the evidence definitely points toward the conclusion Agave Nectar Bad. But, you ardent agave nectar enthusiasts say, agave nectar has a low glycemic index. Im a diabetic, and its the only sweetener I can useWhats wrong with fructose First, we need to clarify something. Concentrated fructose is not found in fruit, or anywhere else in nature. When the sugar occurs in nature, it is often called levulose and is accompanied by naturally occurring enzymes, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and fruit pectin. Iss Pro Evolution 2 Pc. Concentrated fructose, on the other hand, is a man made sugar created by the refining process. To clarify Saying fructose is levulose is like saying that margarine is the same as butter. Refined fructose lacks amino acids, vitamins, minerals, pectin, and fiber. As a result, the body doesnt recognize refined fructose. Levulose, on the other hand, is fructose naturally occurring in fruits, and is not isolated but bound to other naturally occurring sugars. Unlike man made fructose, levulose contains enzymes, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and fruit pectin. Refined fructose is processed in the body through the liver, rather than digested in the intestine. Levulose is digested in the intestine. I want you to pay special attention to those last two sentences, for they are a huge key that will help unlock the mystery of why fructose is bad for you. Because fructose is digested in your liver, it is immediately turned into triglycerides or stored body fat. Since it doesnt get converted to blood glucose like other sugars, it doesnt raise or crash your blood sugar levels. Hence the claim that it is safe for diabetics. But it isnt. Thats because fructose inhibits leptin levels the hormone your body uses to tell you that youre full. In other words, fructose makes you want to eat more. Besides contributing to weight gain, it also makes you gain the most dangerous kind of fat. This has been verified in numerous studies. The most definitive one was released just this past year in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The full study is available online, but for the sake of space Im including Stephans of Whole Health Source fame summary here The investigators divided 3. They were told not to eat any other sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 2. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets about 2. Thats the average, so there are people who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with fructose. After ten weeks, both groups had gained about three pounds. But they didnt gain it in the same place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat, which increased by 1. Visceral fat is the most dangerous type its associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder see the end of the post for more information and references. You can bet their livers were fattening up too. The good news doesnt end there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals increased by 7. If you look at table 4, its clear that the fructose group experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didnt. Practically every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over the course of the 9 weeks. Its incredible. Back to our original question Agave Nectar Good or Bad The conclusion is clear. Agave nectar is bad for you.