Page 53 - Spring2009

JUST SAY NO TO AGAVE fruit, not a candy bar labeled as a “health food.” New
Since the FDA makes no effort to enforce If you want to create something sweet, use sweet-
food-labeling laws, consumers cannot be certain eners that are known to be safer. For uncooked sweeteners
that what they are eating is what the label says dishes, unheated raw honey or dates work well. like agave
it is. New sweeteners like agave syrup were in- For cooked dishes or sweet drinks, a good or- syrup were
troduced into the market to make a profit, not ganic maple syrup, or even freshly juiced apple
to make consumers healthy. Clever marketing juice or orange juice can provide delicious and introduced
has led mane consumers to believe that the high relatively safe sweetness; dehydrated cane sugar into the
level of fructose in agave syrup makes it a safe juice or maple sugar may be used in moderation market to
and a natural sweetener. Agave syrup labels do in cookies and desserts that contain nutritious
not conform to FDA labeling requirements, thus ingredients and good fats such as butter, egg make a profit,
deepening the false illusion of an unprocessed yolks and nuts. not to make
product. As we have demonstrated here, if a However, to be healthy, we cannot eat sugar consumers
sweetener contains manufactured fructose, it is all day, no matter how natural the form. One
neither safe, nor natural, especially at levels up should limit total sweetener consumption to healthy.
to 70 percent. less than five percent of daily calories. For a diet
Agave syrup is a manmade sweetener which of 2500 calories per day, that’s less than three
has been through a complicated chemical refin- tablespoons of honey, maple syrup or dehydrated
ing process of enzymatic digestion that converts cane sugar juice, or several pieces of fruit. And
the starch and fiber into the unbound, manmade many people do best by avoiding sweeteners
chemical fructose. While high fructose agave completely.
syrup won’t spike your blood glucose levels, the The lack of standards in the health food
fructose in it may cause mineral depletion, liver world comes as depressing news; but let this news
inflammation, hardening of the arteries, insulin encourage you to consume more pure and unre-
resistance leading to diabetes, high blood pres- fined foods and sweetener sources. Good health
sure, cardiovascular disease and obesity. depends on wise food choices, and wise food
If you want something sweet, eat a piece of choices depend on constant vigilance.

THE SNACK BAR BUSINESS

A good example of the recent shift in consumer awareness about food ingredients is found in the category of snack,
diet, functional and energy bars. In 1989, in the USA and Canada, the total granola, breakfast, snack and energy bar
market was less than $60 million yearly, with twelve major brands. In 2004, according to several industry sources, the
market share was approximately $3.2 billion with twenty-five major brands. During this period, the major multinationals
acquired many of the smaller brands, and when they did so, often switched to cheaper ingredients such as HFCS.
We have clear economic evidence that consumers are reading ingredient labels and avoiding refined sweetener intake,
because the bar sector that has used more natural sweeteners has taken almost 100 percent of its market share from those
made with refined sweeteners. The successful bar brands avoid polyols (like malitol and xylitol), glycerin, HFCS, malto-
dextrin and refined sucrose. Acquiring multinationals that failed to heed the lesson on why these brands were successful
have lost market share to those that do understand this fact. The days of confusing or tricking the consumer are waning.
A similar economic shift has occurred in the European Union (EU) over genetically modified organisms, and to a lesser
extent organic ingredient sourcing. American suppliers lost hundreds of millions of dollars in market share, virtually over-
night, to suppliers who had foreseen the fact that authentic GMO-free raw material sources were not merely requested
by consumers, but demanded.
The refined sweetener category is equally problematic in the EU, as elsewhere, because consumers are increasingly
likely to read ingredient labels. Many major brands on American supermarket shelves in the early 1990s have been ac-
quired or have disappeared, because their labels looked like chemistry catalogs. Consumers are waking up to phony and
illegal avoidance labeling, often found in the American natural health food sector, with such fanciful labels as hydrolyzed
protein to avoid the term “MSG,” “evaporated cane juice” to avoid the term “sugar,” and “agave syrup” or “chicory syrup”
for hydrolyzed high fructose inulin syrup.
Source: Russ Bianchi

SPRING 2009 Wise Traditions 51