Summary
On the surface, Agave syrup sounds like a natural sugar derived from cactus. In actuality, it's a highly-processed, highly refined sugar syrup that has a high concentration of fructose. Basically, it's "High Fructose Agave Syrup"--with all the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's just derived from a different source.
Glucose is good. Every cell in your body runs on it, and your liver can store an unlimited supply as glycogen.
Fructose is bad. A third of it metabolizes into fat. And that's the good news. It's metabolized the same as alchohol (except that it doesn't affect the brain), so it can produce the liver problems associated with alcoholism. And it generates free fatty acids that appear to be implicated in insulin resistance.
Fructose doesn't signal your brain that you've had enough. In fact, it makes you hungrier.
Table sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose, with zero nutrients. Honey is 53% fructose, but it has lots of nutrients. Fruit has lots of fructose, but it also has lots of fiber.
Glucose and fiber both signal your brain that you've had enough, so those forms of fructose are the only forms you ever want to ingest. Ever. (Sugar is questionable. But it's not the downright killer that straight fructose is.)
High fructose corn syrup and agave syrup are 80% to 90% fructose. Those concentrations make you hungrier, so you eat more, they make you fat, and they cause disease.
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