As I make my way through our local health food store I seem to always stop in the natural sweetener aisle to see if a new product arrived on the market. Usually what I find is it’s all the same from my last visit. What you will find is agave, maple syrup, sugar and honey.
Agave seems to be getting all the buzz and many consumers have replaced their usual sweetener with agave nectar. Agave nectar is derived from agave nectar plant and has become popular because of its low glycemic index.
A study in the January issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reported that agave is not as wonderful as we may think. Researchers who evaluated the total antioxidant content of 12 different natural sweeteners were surprised by the low antioxidant level found in agave when compared with other sweeteners. The ingredients of agave consisted of refined corn syrup, sugar and contained the least level of antioxidants of the sweeteners compared.
The sweeteners with the highest level of antioxidants- dark and black strap molasses, maple syrup, brown sugar and honey. Honey was the overall winner!