Julia Anderson Miller reaches for her bottle of agave several times a day.
She puts the honeylike syrup — which comes from Mexico’s famed agave plant — in her morning coffee. She uses it when baking coconut macaroons, pumpkin pie and banana bread.
“When I trained for half-marathons I used it on my oatmeal before long runs,” said the Liberty resident. “It just tastes better than sugar.”
For centuries, tequila was the most popular use for the agave’s sweet, sticky juice. But in recent years, agave has become a popular natural food sweetener. It is twice as sweet as regular sugar, but has half the calories. Agave also registers low on the glycemic index, which means it creates only a moderate rise in blood glucose levels.
That’s good news for people with diabetes or those trying to lose weight, says Brent Larson, a doctor and owner of Physician for Living Diet, a medical weight-loss clinic in Salt Lake City. “Agave is sweeter than sugar, so it allows you to use less and take in fewer calories. Fewer calories usually mean smaller waistlines.”
When cooking, agave can be used as a substitute for white granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup or corn syrup. When a recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, cooks can use 1/2 cup of agave instead. (See recipes that accompany this story.)
Agave has a long history of use for medicinal purposes. The Aztecs used it to clean wounds and as a balm for skin infections. And for centuries, it has been distilled to make tequila. But as the health benefits of agave nectar have become more widely known, it has gone mainstream.
There are several brands of agave sold at local grocery stores and big-box warehouses. These brands are made from either the blue agave plant or the white agave and range in color from light to dark. There also is a brand made in Utah, called Xagave, made with a blend of blue agave and white agave nectars.
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Even though it is a natural sweetener that is low in calories, agave should be consumed in moderation, warns Lee Schussman, a family physician at the Intermountain Health Care Clinic in Ogden. Whether it’s table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, honey, molasses or agave, “sugars can be harmful to one’s health,” he said. “They promote obesity, diabetes and atherosclerotic heart disease. Their dietary intakes should always be minimized.”
Sondra Shannon, of Salt Lake City, claims agave has helped her control a recurring infection that has troubled her during her third pregnancy.
“When my symptoms flare up, I have to avoid sweeteners altogether,” said the wife and mother of two. “However, when my symptoms mellow and I can handle sweets again, I prefer agave as it does not aggravate my condition at all.”
Shannon also likes the taste.
“We had an agave apple pie for Thanksgiving,” she said. “I can sincerely say it was the best apple pie I ever had.”
Jennifer Burns is the cooking host on Fox 13’s “Live at 11” and author of the Cooking Delight cookbook.
