Agave, Good or Bad: More Truth About Agave Syrup

October 2nd, 2010 by Savvy Veg

Whether you’re an agave fan, or you’re leery because it’s “controversial”, and you don’t know who to believe, agave  syrup is here to stay, as a low glycemic, vegan, sometimes raw alternative to honey or other sweeteners.

Personally, I think that the agave controversy is a tempest in a teapot, drummed up by people who have a vested interest, an axe to grind, love attention, or have nothing better to do.

There are much worse things to be concerned about in the food industry than agave, believe me!

Unlike high fructose corn syrup, which is in just about everything, agave syrup is made from desert agave plants, non-gmo and organic by default. Agave isn’t contributing to the obesity epidemic, or having a serious impact on diabetics. I’m sceptical that it causes cancer in rats.

It seems unlikely that agave nectar will edge HFCS or sugar out of the market place any time soon.

The only real thing we should worry about is that agave syrup will become so popular that blue agave will become an endangered species. Don’t laugh, it could happen! Now that I’ve got that little rant out of the way, read on:

Glycemic Index & Agave: Compared to table sugar, honey, maple syrup, and date sugar, agave syrup has the lowest GI  - around 30.Insulin Release & Agave: Some agave products have fructans, a unique kind of fiber. According to a study in Mexico, a diet rich in fructans may stimulate production of the hormone GLP-1, which encourages the release of insulin.HFCS & Agave: On the other hand, because of the way it’s usually processed, agave nectar or syrup has as much or more fructose than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a leading cause of obesity in the U.S.Agave Processing: Some manufacturers use potentially harmful chemicals to process agave into syrup. A few small companies preserve nutrients in processing agave, by heating the crushed agave plant to extract and intensify the sweetness of the liquid, or by using enzymes.Raw Agave: The use of enzymes to process the agave plant produces the only “true” raw agave. Since it’s almost impossible to know whether a bottle of agave syrup labelled “raw” is actually raw, I guess you just have to take the manufacturer’s word for it.Vegan Agave: Since agave processing doesn’t involve any animal parts, it’s considered a vegan product, like brown rice syrup or maple syrup. Sugar processing commonly uses ash from animal bones for refining.Sweetness of Agave: Agave can be up to three times as sweet as table sugar, so you can use less. Agave syrup mixes easily and has a mild flavor, which makes it a favorite for adding to drinks. Unlike honey, which becomes toxic when heated, agave syrup can be safely added to hot drinks, or used in cooking.Blue Agave & Other Agave: According to XAgave, there are two types of agave plant used to make agave nectar or syrup: Agave Salmiana (White Agave Plant) and Agave Tequilana (Blue Agave Plant). White Agave has a clean sugar taste, and Blue Agave has a slightly ‘nutty’ aftertaste. Both can have the same consistency, depending upon processing.Popular Brands of Agave Syrup or Nectar: Volcanic Nectar’s Blue Agave Nectar is billed as raw, i.e. produced below 118 F, Organic and Kosher certified;  so is Wholesome Sweeteners Raw Blue Agave. Madhava is a popular brand of  light agave syrup, but doesn’t make any claims about rawness, which means they probably process agave in the usual way – i.e. with heat, and (gasp) chemicals. Grey Agave is another up and coming brand for which I couldn’t find any info.

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Drinking Fruit Juice Increases Heart Attack Risk

September 2nd, 2010 by Savvy Veg

The CARDIA study shows that all sugared drinks, including fruit juices, raise total cholesterol, the bad LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 13,  2010).

People who drink fruit juice also have much larger waist circumferences. Abdominal obesity means that a person has high insulin levels and is at markedly increased risk for heart attacks and diabetes.

Taking sugar in drinks when you are not exercising increases risk for heart attacks, diabetes and premature death. Before food can pass from the stomach into the intestines, it must be converted to a liquid soup. No solid food passes into the intestines.

When solid food enters your stomach, the pyloric sphincter at the end of the stomach closes and the stomach continuously squeezes the food until it is turned into a liquid soup. This can take up to four hours which markedly delays the rise in blood sugar. Since fruit juice is already a liquid, it passes immediately into the bloodstream to cause a high rise in blood sugar.

Here’s how high rises in blood sugar cause heart disease:

When blood sugar levels rise too high, *your pancreas releases huge amounts of insulin which *converts sugar to triglycerides (high triglycerides), which clog up your bloodstream to increase risk for clots, so *you use up huge amounts of your good HDL cholesterol (low HDL cholesterol) in carrying triglycerides and your bad LDL cholesterol from your bloodstream into your liver.

*Low HDL (good) cholesterol causes heart attacks because HDL is not available to carry cholesterol and triglycerides from your bloodstream.  *High insulin levels constrict arteries to cause heart attacks.  High blood sugar levels cause sugar to stick to the surface membranes of cells to destroy them and cause all the horrible side effects of diabetes. *High triglycerides in your liver cause a fatty liver that can lead to diabetes.

Comment from Savvy Vegetarian:

So what’s a body to do if you’re not ’sposed to drink juice? More than that, what’s the OJ industry to do? I’m not too concerned about them. What Real People can do is to drink water or herbal tea instead of OJ, and eat fresh fruit – which is a whole food containing fiber and complex carbohydrates, which means that it will digest much more slowly, and even diabetics can eat it.

Nutrition profile for a whole fresh California Valencia orange: 59 calories, 14 grams carbohydrate, sugars – not even mentioned, 3 grams fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 cholesterol, 0 fat, Vit. A 6% Daily Value, Vit. C 98% DV, Calcium 5% DV, Iron 1% DV

Nutrition profile for 8 ounces of unsweetened OJ without pulp: 112 calories, 27 grams total carbohydrate, including 21 grams sugars, 0 grams fiber, 3 grams protein, 0 cholesterol, 0 fat, , Vit. A 5% Daily Value, Vit. C 161% DV, Calcium 2% DV, Iron 1% DV

You can see for yourself the value of eating the orange instead of drinking the juice!

From Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Health & Fitness Ezine, 9.2.10

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Insulin Insensitive Diabetes, Exercise & Plant Based Diet

September 9th, 2010 by Savvy Veg

Savvy Veg Note: Dr. Mirkin – who is himself diabetic - doesn’t just recommend vigorous exercise to control blood sugar and improve insulin response.

He also states that “insulin-insensitive diabetes can usually be cured” by losing weight, avoiding red meat, avoiding refined carbs when not exercising, and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.

You can do all of the above by eating a healthy vegetarian or plant-based diet which includes a variety of fresh whole foods.

Yes! “Insulin-insensitive” means that a diabetic has plenty of insulin, but lacks the ability to respond adequately to insulin that their body produces so blood sugar levels remain higher than normal.  Twenty-two insulin-insensitive diabetic women participated in a supervised group endurance and resistance exercise program for six months (European Journal of Internal Medicine, October 2010).  The more intensely they exercised, the better their bodies responded to insulin.  Even those who did not improve their exercise capacity were able to markedly improve their body’s ability to respond to insulin.

Diabetic control and cell damage is measured with a blood test called HBA1C that measures sugar stuck on cells.  The more they exercised, the lower and better their HBA1C.  More than 90 percent of diabetics are insulin-insensitive and have a potentially curable disease.   This study shows that the harder diabetics exercise, the better their bodies respond to insulin.  Insulin-insensitive diabetes can usually be cured by *losing weight, *avoiding red meat, *avoiding refined carbohydrates when not exercising, *growing larger muscles, *losing body fat, *getting blood levels of vitamin D3 above 75 nmol/L, *eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, and *EXERCISING INTENSELY.

Caution: Intense exercise can cause heart attacks in people with blocked arteries.  Check with your doctor BEFORE beginning any intense exercise program.

Free Reports: To help get you started on a healthy vegetarian or plant-based diet, check out our free reports: Vegetarian Nutrition and 10 Tips for Going Vegetarian

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Recipe Contest, Quesadillas, Apple Recipes, Agave

October 4th, 2010 by Savvy Veg

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life, is holding a recipe contest, and Savvy Vegetarian is one of the judges.  So are Mollie Katzen and Martha Rose Shulman – we’re in good company!

Anyone may enter an original, healthy, vegan recipe. See Savor Recipe Contest Rules

Prizes: Winning entry published on Savvy Vegetarian Recipes, limited edition Savor tote bags, hardcover copies of ‘Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life’ cookbook.

Browse other recipes and vote for your favorites on the Savor Facebook Wall. Enter and Vote

Want to know how to get your kids to eat beans? Black bean quesadillas are easy to make, kids love them, and they’re packed with nutrition.This is a satisfying vegetarian recipe to serve when you’re busy or tired and the kids are hungry right now! You can have this quesadilla recipe on the table in 20 minutes! And pack the left-overs for lunch.

Apple Crisp: What kind of apples should you use?
Some people like very tart apples like Granny Smith or Macintosh, others prefer the mellow sweetness of Golden Delicious. For us, Gala apples are just right. We also like to leave the peel on, and add just a tiny bit of sugar – but each to his own apple crisp!

Apple Muffins: This mouth-watering vegan muffin recipe, with the classic cinnamon apple combination, is loved by all, a favorite at brunches, for snacks, or for a quick dessert. They freeze extremely well, if there are any left to freeze! Better make a double batch.

Apple Sauce: It’s always wise to make lots of applesauce and hide it from your family and friends, because it’s addictive. Warning: Applesauce tends to disappear before you can use it in muffins or cakes.

Whether you’re an agave fan, or you’re leery because it’s “controversial”, and you don’t know who to believe, agave syrup is here to stay, as a low glycemic, vegan, sometimes raw alternative to honey or other sweeteners.

The “agave controversy” limps on, but the only thing we need to worry about is agave syrup becoming so popular that blue agave becomes an endangered species.

Read Agave, Good or Bad? Recently Discovered Truths About Agave Syrup

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Savvy Veg Joins Blog Action Day 10.15.10 – WATER

October 8th, 2010 by Savvy Veg

We’ve got just one week left until what’s shaping up to be the biggest event ever focused on clean water online. More than 2,200 bloggers from 113 different countries have already registered, with more and more joining every day.

Blog Action Day 2010 is such an important opportunity to raise awareness about the water issue. To get the conversation about water started, 5 facts that illustrate the severity of the global water problem:

Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it’s no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that’s just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

While these facts may be grim, there is hope for real solutions as more and more people around the world are waking up to the clean water crisis. Earlier this year, the UN declared access to clean water a human right and groups like charity: water and Water.org continue to work tirelessly to bring water access to the developing world.

And now, on October 15th we all have a chance to help shed more light on water issues around the world. Take a moment to make sure to register your blog and grab an action widget, and get ready for an amazing day of blog activism.

Thanks again for all of you support,

Maria & the Blog Action Day team

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Seasoning Vegetarian & Vegan Recipes with Herbs & Spices

October 22nd, 2010 by Savvy Veg

Message for Savvy Vegetarian:

Question regarding the use of the veggie bouillon cube in vegetarian recipes: Is there some other seasoning option? Bouillon cubes are so full of salt and even the low sodium option isn’t that great for you. Thanks, Ann S.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Hi Ann, I’m so glad you asked! Seasoning vegetarian and vegan recipes with herbs and spices is one of my favorite topics.

Veggie bouillon cubes are used instead of soup stock for convenience in seasoning vegetarian or vegan recipes. You can buy aseptic packs of soup stock but you’ll run into the same problems. By the way, celery has a fair amount of natural sodium, so it’s a good salt substitute.

Mrs. Dash is a spice mix, sodium free, which is available at most groceries, and comes in half a dozen flavors. It’s useful for quickly flavoring any vegetarian recipe, or sprinkling on food at  the table. Spike is another one which comes in an unsalted version, plus Frontier Herbs makes a lot of organic unsalted herb and spice mixes.

You can also get other convenient seasoning mixes, like curries and masalas, Mediterranean herb mixes, poultry seasoning - which can be used in vegetarian recipes such as lentil loaf or vegan stuffing, pumpkin pie spice mix, chili powder, etc. You can also buy dried onion powder and garlic powder. Look for unsalted seasoning mixes and avoid any with “natural flavors” -  which could be MSG, or any other mystery ingredient. If an ingredient isn’t specified, or you can’t pronounce it, it probably isn’t something  you want to eat.

Using your favorite herbs and spices, you can make up and store your own seasoning mixes, for convenient every day use. And it’s very easy to make your own soup stock. Here’s a vegan soup stock recipe you can make in a crockpot. Freeze or fridge what you don’t use.

You can also add flavor to your vegetarian or vegan recipes with fresh or dried herbs (parsley, basil, dill, mint, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, oregano), scallions, ginger slices, minced garlic (heat in oil to mellow the flavor), curry spices like cumin, coriander, gr. fennel, paprika, gr ginger, pepper, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, green cardamom pods, lemon grass.

Other seasoning options are dried kombu (kelp), balsamic vinegar, lemon or lime juice, wine, soy sauce or Braggs liquid aminos, miso. Spices (not herbs) can be heated first, dry roasted or fried in a bit of oil, to bring out the full flavor, and remove any sharp, bitter or raw taste. Many Indian recipes call for frying or roasting herbs and spices, as in this recipe for Carrots & Peas with Cumin

The seasonings that you use in vegetarian or vegan recipes depends on what you’re cooking. For instance, tomato sauce needs seasonings that go well with tomatoes, e.g. basil, oregano, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, a bit of sugar. Some of my favorites for soups are thyme, rosemary, basil, bay leaf, kombu, Braggs liquid aminos, slices of fresh ginger. Without a variety of seasonings,  The Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe, for instance, would be very very boring!

All the best, Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian

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Senior maintains healthy weight range with diet & exercise

September 24th, 2010 by Savvy Veg

 

Message for Savvy Vegetarian: I am a 68 year old male in much better than average condition; heart healthy, active all 4 seasons. I have “fought” the weight loss battle for 44 years. It seems if I’m not losing weight, I’m gaining. I’m 5'8?, weigh 165 today, and want to weigh 150 lbs.

I weighed 189 at age 22 at the beginning of 1967, so with my diet and exercise plans, I have been reasonably successful in maintaining a healthy weight range for 44 years. My problem is I’ve only been successful at weight loss with the Atkins diet or the Scarsdale diet. I choose to eat salman, trout, sardines, a little tuna and other salt water fish.

I can willingly sacrifice other forms of flesh, but tend to gain weight when I substitute meat protein with other forms, particuarly grains, such as quinoa, which I love. I make my own bread, usually whole grains and seeds, but I have abstained from bread for a month because my body gains weight easily when I eat carbs. Help! Thank you, Bill B.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Everybody’s weight loss story is different, because every body is different. Congratulations on fighting the good weight loss fight, maintaining a healthy weight range, and staying heart healthy over the past 44 years.

I’ve read that weight loss diets almost always boomerang. Something like 95% of the time, people gain back all of the weight they’ve lost and more after a diet is over. That’s because it ends. The weight loss industry loves this!

The best weight loss tip I’ve heard is to establish a life long healthy diet and exercise program, that works for you, so you can maintain a healthy weight range, enjoy eating and enjoy life. Sounds like you’re on the right track.

One thing that occurred to me though -  is that you might want to take a look at the serving sizes of fish and grains that you’re eating, compared to the recommended serving sizes. That’s where a lot of weight watchers trip up. E.G. One slice of bread is considered a serving! (that kills me – who ever wants to eat one slice of toast or a sandwich with one slice of bread!) Fish can be high in fat, and quinoa has more fat than most grains. Whether a healthy food is actually healthy so often depends on how much you eat, and how it’s prepared.

The current hot idea in healthy eating plans is to focus your diet primarily on vegetables and fruit, with as much raw food as is comfortable, and drink lots of plain water and herbal teas. The theory is that you get the nutrition & hydration your body needs, which satisfies you & keeps you from craving refined carbs, sugar, fats, salt and other foods which are “Bad For You”.

That approach works for me in maintaining a healthy weight range –  if I don’t overdo the avocados, nuts, and coconut milk! :-). But - as you can testify – a daily and weekly exercise plan is essential for maintaining a healthy weight, no matter what healthy eating plan you follow.

Thanks for writing, Bill! All the best, Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian

Read more weight loss advice from Savvy Vegetarian

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