For example, there is no way to cross breed an arctic fish gene into a tomato through traditional breeding practices.

GMO’s are radical and unprecedented experiments and we do well to not only avoid them for our health, but to shrink the market for them for the sake of the ecosystem.

At the same time, I believe a lot of conventional sugar is derived from GMO beets. Best to go organic which excludes GMO’s.

Fruit sugar is buffered by the fiber and water content + fruit contains a myriad of essential micronutrients + the organic acids contained within; acetic, citric, malic, oxalic, etc naturally renders fruit (not fructose) lower on the glycaemic charts.

If you eat too much of ANY nutrient, the excess will be stored as fat. Even though fructose is converted to fat more efficiently than glucose, these fat stores are just as readily mobilized when the energy is needed. When it comes to weight maintenance, ones energy input should equal their energy output.

I do think fresh fruit is relatively safe, but in reasonable quantities. It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, too: when there was a fruit harvest, it was a very short period with an enormous bounty of fruit. It would make sense to gorge and fatten up, presumably because the bounty wouldn’t last long.

Nowadays, when fructose is plentiful and ubiquitous, our instinct to gorge and fatten is never turned off.

However, agave syrup is very much like HFCS, although the ratio of fructose to glucose might be (but is not necessarily) higher. It does not contain sucrose.

If your main sensitivity is to glucose, and HFCS is problematic for you, I would frankly suggest avoiding agave syrup. Its sugar profile is likely to be very, very similar to that of HFCS.

As Cynthia points out, in HFCS, we have a mixture of free glucose and fructose. These molecules don’t need to be broken down and can go directly into the bloodstream. As a diabetic, I can tell you that this is a very fast process — my measured blood sugar spikes extraordinarily when I eat foods with small amounts of HFCS (not so much with ordinary table sugar). A mixture of highly processed white flour and HFCS seems particularly potent in the form of white bread, which my blood glucose meter tells me to avoid like the plague!

What is at issue with HFCS seems to be not the fact that it contains sugars but that those sugars are so quickly processed by the body. The speed at which they enter the blood stream is problematic not just for diabetics but for everyone, since rapid fluctuations in blood sugar can lead to significant metabolic changes, increased triglicerides, worsened cardiovascular profile, fatty liver, and even be a cause of T2 diabetes (rather than the other way around).

Let me return to my original question and perhaps phrase it more clearly: does agave syrup contain a mix of free glucose and fructose like that in HFCS? Or does it contain something else that needs more processing by our bodies, like a fructose/sucrose blend? I think the latter, but I am not completely sure. Perhaps you or someone else who has commented will know for sure!

I have some agave syrup sitting in my kitchen and I’ve been a bit afraid to try it out, in part because I am not clear about whether it will act just like HFCS. I’m sure it will not be blood sugar neutral, but I’m curious as to whether I might handle it better than table sugar, for example.

“The use of mercury-contaminated caustic soda in the production of HFCS is common.”

Sugar is not vegan.

“Bone char, made from the bones of cows, is at times used to whiten sugar.”

I am looking for a sweetner that she can process. I could not tell from your post if this is a good option.

-Claiming fruits tax your liver is true. Fructose taxes your liver.

-Honey is considered natural, because the polysaccharides drawn from the plants are broken down to monosaccharides by an enzyme in the liver. Agave syrup produced CORRECTLY uses enzymes by another organism to do the same, making it natural. Also, the raw variety is NOT heated above 118F at ANY time, unless it is mislabeled. Unfortunately, mislabeling happens all the time when it comes to “raw” foods so you’re probably right here.

-Fructose causes less satiety BECAUSE of it’s lack of influence on the glycemic index. If you just wait a couple hours, and eat based off of nutrition rather than primal instincts (hunger), eating more foods because it’s higher in fructose can be avoided, assuming we have free will that is.

All sugars have negative health effects when used out of moderation, but fructose not absorbed in the small intestine moves to the large intestine, where the gut flora feed on it directly. In MODERATION, this increases gut flora number and activity, which has numerous implications. Immune system boost, improved digestion, lowered cholesterol and TRIGLYCERIDES, etc. Excessive use contributes to gas, loose stool, malabsorption in extreme cases, but not insulin resistance, contrary to popular belief.

-The glycemic index is a bit misleading. Even though the conversion is a bit slower and therefore favorable to health, fructose ingested in an equal amount to glucose provides a blood glucose rise 2/3 – 3/4 that of pure glucose itself.

Conclusion: Agave syrup is almost identical to other sugars in nutritional content and effect on blood sugar. It IS raw when manufactured correctly (admittedly rarely), and fits the standard (haha! as if there were one) for a raw and natural food, although the combination of organisms are drastically different than that of honey and would never come together ordinarily. Still, how natural is it for ANY organism to waltz into a perfectly normally functioning beehive because it’s “hungry”? Ouch.

No response necessary as I’ll not be checking for one. Finals and such.