The juice is then filtered to create light and dark varieties. The hearts are shredded, pulped, then “subjected to high pressure steam in order to make it easier to extract the juice. One way is to collect the hearts from several different species of agave by cutting off their leaves. Most agave nectar is not made from the sap of the agave plant, but from its large root bulb.Īccording to several sources, there are two ways in which the commercial agave nectar is manufactured. The bulb root, or heart of the agave plant, looks like a very large pineapple and is called the piña.Īlthough manufacturers have claimed that the nectar is taken directly from the succulent leaves straight into the bottle, apparently that is not the truth. One thing they have in common is a large root base with long pointy leaves coming out of it. There are hundreds of species of agave, each having their own features. It was widely embraced by the vegan community, and the raw food community heralded the raw version of agave nectar.Īgave is a succulent plant, similar to aloe, which grows primarily in Mexico. It also became the sweetener of choice for many health food products such as ice cream, bottled drinks, ketchup, granola, muffins, cookies, energy bars and chocolate. Marketed as a low glycemic alternative to refined sugar, bottles of the sweet syrup commercially produced in Mexico began showing up on store shelves in the U.S. I have done a lot of my own reading and research, relied on my scientific knowledge and instinct, and have done a lot of soul searching before publicly giving an educated answer to the question of whether or not agave is a healthy choice.Īgave was first introduced into the health food world in the mid-1990’s and quickly became the darling of the natural sweetener kingdom. Whatever you decide, please know that I do not now, nor have I ever, condoned the daily use of any natural sweetener containing sugars. Since the publication of my book in 2009, I have changed my stance on agave, and I want to give you the facts so that you can make your own decision about whether or not to consume it. But new information has arisen in the last few years concerning agave, which is why I am writing this article.
In my book Plan-D: The Amazing Anti-Diet, I wrote about the health benefits of raw blue agave nectar and listed it, among other natural sweeteners, as a healthy choice for occasional use. From emails to message board postings and questions at nearly every one of my public lectures, people want to know what my thoughts are concerning agave. Over the past few years I’ve been hit with a barrage of inquiries pertaining to agave.
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