What should I consider when eating products that contain agave?

When eating products with agave, keep in mind that agave contains high levels of fructose, which can lead to insulin resistance. Watch rheumatologist Natalie Azar, MD, discuss these warnings for agave, and why diabetics need to be extra cautious.

Transcript

00:00

Agave actually is labeled as having a relatively low glycemic index. But it doesn't actually help the diabetic patient.

00:09

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00:15

Lately there's been a lot of discussion in medical news about something called the metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of insulin

00:22

resistance, elevated triglycerides, increased visceral fat or increased waist circumference, and high blood

00:30

pressure. And what we're finding out is that agave actually contains quite a lot of a sugar called fructose,

00:36

which is not really handled by the body the way we would think it would be handled in terms of secreting insulin and using the fructose as sugar.

00:43

What we're finding is that large quantities of fructose can actually lead to something called insulin resistance,

00:49

which is that the body's cells aren't really able to use insulin to take the sugar and use sugar for energy.

00:57

And additionally, the fructose is directly converted into triglycerides, raising your triglyceride level and also increasing the amount of fat

01:05

in this abdominal area, the visceral fat, which is a risk factor for heart disease. So generally speaking, we do advise, particularly

01:12

diabetic patients, to look for foods that have a low glycemic index, which means that eating that food will not cause a significant bump

01:22

in your blood sugar. Agave actually is labeled as having a relatively low glycemic index.

01:28

But it doesn't actually help the diabetic patient because the sugars are not handled properly,

01:34

and that can certainly lead to insulin resistance and elevated triglycerides. What we're recommending for people is to try to keep the percentage of fructose and glucose

01:43

to roughly 50/50. Agave can have up to 90% fructose, really as high

01:49

and even higher than some high-fructose corn syrup contains. [AUDIO LOGO]