Kiddie Salsa

Victoria

April 14, 2011 at 9:25 am

Please check out an excerpt below from an article regarding Agave syrup.

Also something to consider as far as teaching your children lessons. The beautiful agave plant grows for about 7-10 years spending all its energy and life force to create it’s sap or nectar in order to reproduce when harvesting agave we then take that from it, it can no longer produce more and we have effectively destroyed it’s reason for living.

Just some things to think about but read up about agave, it might not be as healthy as you think it is…

The Myth of Agave as a “Healthy” Sugar Substitute

- Agave syrup is neither a natural food nor organic. Fully chemically processed sap from the agave plant is known as hydrolyzed high fructose inulin syrup. According to Dr. Ingrid Kohlstadt, a fellow of the American College of Nutrition and an associate faculty member at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health:

“[Agave is] almost all fructose, highly processed sugar with great marketing.”

- Agave syrup is not low calorie. Agave syrup is about 16 calories per teaspoon, the same as table sugar.

- Agave syrup may not have a low glycemic index. Depending upon where the agave comes from and the amount of heat used to proc­ess it, your agave syrup can be anywhere from 55 percent to 90 percent fructose! (And it’s likely you won’t be able to tell from the product label.)

This range of fructose content hardly makes agave syrup a logical choice if you’re hoping to avoid the high levels of fructose in HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). And if you’re diabetic, you should know that the alleged benefit of agave for diabetics is purely speculative. Very few agave studies have been docu­mented, and most involved rats. There have been no clinical studies done on its safety for diabetics. Since most agave syrup has such a high percentage of fructose, your blood sugar will likely spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS, and you would also run the risk of raising your triglyceride levels. It’s also important to understand that whereas the glucose in other sugars are converted to blood glucose, fructose is a relatively unregulated source of fuel that your liver converts to fat and cholesterol.

A significant danger here is that fructose does not stimulate your insulin secretion, nor enhance leptin production, which is thought to be involved in appetite regulation. (This was detailed in one of the most thorough scientific analyses published to date on this topic.) . Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat, as well as your body weight, dietary fructose can also contribute to increased food intake and weight gain. Therefore, if you need to lose weight, fructose is one type of sugar you’ll definitely want to avoid, no matter what the source is.

Tabitha

April 12, 2011 at 2:27 pm

YAY! I’ve been waiting for this recipe for a long time I knew it would come sooner or later !

Mindy

April 12, 2011 at 11:19 am

I agree! I’d love to know what type of knife Chloe uses!! My kids use “pumpkin carving knives” for apples and peppers, but they don’t work well for things like tomatoes and cilantro. Please share!
Thanks!!!

Darcy

April 12, 2011 at 7:18 am

What kind of knife does she use? I would like to get one for my son – he loves to help too!

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  Elizabeth

  April 12, 2011 at 7:44 am

  Reply

  Pampered Chef makes a really good one that runs around $4.