Heated discussion recently erupted on an East Bay sustainability online group about the green and healthy reputation of agave syrup, and I was inspired to do a little research of my own. Agave syrup, also called agave nectar, is a sweetener produced by processing the sap of the agave plant into a refined fructose syrup. It is favored by vegans because it is not an animal product. Lots of people in Oakland love agave syrup—it's found especially often in the vegan baked goods served at the crunchier class of cafe.
What's agave syrup?
Agave syrup is a sweetener made from the agave plant. The core of the plant is pressed to expel juice, and this juice is filtered and heated and/or treated with enzymes. This process, which was patented in 1998, causes the polysaccharides to become hydrolyzed. Hydrolysis of sugars is commonly used to change one kind of sugar to another—for instance, to break down sucrose (common sugar) into fructose and glucose.
Agave syrup producers claim that agave syrup is healthier than other sweeteners, mainly because of its low glycemic index. The glycemic index is a system that estimates how quickly a food converts to blood glucose. High glycemic index foods convert to blood glucose very rapidly, which can create an unhealthy cycle of high and low blood sugar that is especially dangerous for people with diabetes.
What's the controversy?
Advocates of the Weston A. Price diet, led by Sally Fallon, claim that agave syrup or agave nectar is dangerous. They assert that the agave plant contains toxic saponins that destroy blood cells and can even cause miscarriages in pregnant women. They state that in any case most agave syrup is not really made from agave sap, but from the starchy root, and that it is converted to a high fructose syrup by the same process that is used to make high fructose corn syrup—which to people following the Weston A. Price diet is like saying it's made of arsenic. The Weston A. Price diet advocates a high meat and dairy intake and lots of fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, and avoiding sugars and refined flour altogether whenever possible.
Fallon's main informant, Russ Bianchi, claims that agave syrup and high fructose corn syrup are made by the same process. He claims that according to the FDA's regulations, agave syrup must be labeled "hydrolyzed inulin syrup."
I was especially interested in the footnote about the toxic saponins. But when I followed the link that Fallon provided to support her claim, I found only a paragraph that stated that saponins are found in many plants, including clover and hay, and that they're harmless to mammals generally but in extremely high doses can cause gastric distress. Saponins, of course, are building blocks of soap, and you probably know not to eat soap. But there's no evidence that saponins remain in agave syrup in high enough quantities to do harm.
I wondered what other claims in the article weren't supported by the evidence Fallon provided.
Fallon and Bianchi were invited to comment on the discussion. Fallon had little else to say and deferred to Bianchi. Bianchi aggressively reiterated his claims, adding that agave is illegal and banned in food and beverage products sold in the US (a claim that would be news to tequila sellers, I imagine). I searched the FDA website for a ban on agave products, and found two instances of agave sweetener being turned away at the border—the reason given was that it had been contaminated with pesticide residue, not because there was anything illegal about agave syrup.
Bianchi also added that the glycemic index is "a fraud" and that agave syrup has been known to cause spontaneous abortions. I looked for these known cases and found nothing aside from rumors and speculation.
Is agave syrup bad for you?
Well, it's probably not a health food. It does have a lower glycemic index than high fructose corn syrup or sugar, but this only makes it less bad, not a nutritious supplement. Is it worth the high prices natural food producers charge for it? Maybe, if you like it enough that you want to pay for it, or if you're vegan and see it as the only viable alternative. And if the high prices keep you from using it as much as you would use sugar, you might improve your nutrition. But this uproar over agave syrup seems to me to be mostly manufactured panic. Don't boycott your crunchy vegan baked goods yet, Oakland.
Green or not?
Agaves are grown on huge plantations in Mexico. By and large agave is not yet being genetically modified to the degree that corn has been. It is well-suited to the desert conditions, and it doesn't need to be irrigated the way a field of corn does. When grown organically, it provides food and shelter for native wildlife, including the bats that feed off the nectar of its flowers—animals that are probably disrupted and possibly even killed when the agave are harvested.
Freighting the syrup to Oakland is energy-intensive. The deserts where agaves thrive are fragile ecosystems—in some ways it's better that nothing more invasive is being grown there, and in some ways that land might be better left alone. Since agave is pest-resistant and thrives in poor soil, every agave plantation should be organic, but some growers are using pesticides anyway. These pesticides threaten not just human consumers but the fragile ecosystems of which they are a part.
Myself, I prefer honey produced by some of Oakland's many backyard beekeepers—it may not be vegan, but it provides a net benefit to the environment by pollinating local plants.
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