The best darn sweetner!

My favorite sweetener these days is Agave Nectar. I thought everyone had heard of it but apparently that is not the case, so I have to share it. A girlfriend was telling me that she saw her ND and he wants her to take her kids off of all dairy, wheat and sugar. They are suppose to be doing a cleanse and re-introducing things that are hard to digest after their system has had a break. Anyhoo, so she was really concerned how she was going to feed the kids plan soy milk, plain oats etc without any sugar. I mentioned Agave and she had never heard of it. She went out and got some that day and she loves it and the kids love it. My kids will eat it on crackers if they get a chance. It is a little like honey, but taste slightly lighter. You can put it in your lemonade, your oatmeal, you tea. The best part of agave is that it has a lower glycemic index than honey or sugar.
A little about glycemic index:
This is a relatively new concept which can be important from a metabolic standpoint, especially to diabetics, along with athletes and grossly overweight individuals. The index is an indicator as to how much your blood sugar increases in 2-3 hours after specific food consumption. Most if not all carbohydrates are normally metabolized into the simple carbohydrate glucose, which in the glycemic index concept is arbitrarily assigned a value of 100. As a result, the higher a glycemic index food number is, the faster it raises your blood sugar level. Foods or ingredients with glycemic index numbers close to or above 100 present some significant health issues to diabetics, and in general, sweeteners of all kinds should be avoided by diabetics. Nonetheless, for those diabetics who choose to consume certain amounts of carbohydrates, Agave Nectar, it should be noted has a lower glycemic index than honey. Agave Nectar was found to have a glycemic index of 32. In contrast, honey has a reported glycemic index of 58, due to its higher ratio of glucose to fructose, as compared to the ratio of glucose to fructose in Agave Nectar.
So, try the Agave, it is really tasty and you can put it in/on almost anything that you would use sugar or honey and it is a little bit better for you.