Comments on: Tuesday eats: the deal with agave (plus, the sweetener you should be using)

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:49:24 +0000

I’ve just stumbled across your site after excitedly bringing home organic coconut sugar…. oh dear. Ive read things about agave not being the miracle sweetner before but recently got re-sucked into buying it.

Im off to throw the agave out….might keep the coconut sugar though for the odd asian recipe….

By: Nadia

Nadia — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:21:43 +0000

Hi Sarah,

I’ve been methodically reading through your wonderful site since I stumbled upon it a few weeks ago after being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. For many years I haven’t eaten wheat, dairy or sugar. When I do wish to bake something delicious or have a treat, I use Xylitol. Reading through your ‘i quit sugar’ posts, I came across dextrose. However, I still don’t quite have my head around it and wonder if you could write a bit more about it – I understand that it doesn’t contain fructose, which is a good thing, but is it suitable for someone who doesn’t eat sugar? If I bought some and baked a (wheat free, dairy free ) cake with it, would it effect me in the same way that sugar does (migraine) or is it different? And if it is a good substitute for people who don’t eat sugar, can you explain why? I’d love to hear this in your words..

Many thanks,
Nadia.

By: Sweet like sugar* | The Wellness Warrior

Sweet like sugar* | The Wellness Warrior — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:29:41 +0000

[...] trap. In actual fact, Agave could be doing more damage that high fructose corn syrup. Sarah Wilson wrote a great article about the agave syrup con here. Positive affirmation for the day: I can go [...]

By: private Fickkontakte

private Fickkontakte — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:21:26 +0000

great home-page i adore that thus i include only bookmarked it to help this favourites my pal use a wonderful time, want you the greatest due to this nice web site meets from ben

By: Pamela Hardy

Pamela Hardy — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:01:12 +0000

Sean Kelly–have you thought that perhaps it have been the xylitol in the Natvia that was causing the stomach cramps? I suffer with IBS and can tolerate Stevia quite well. I haven’t tried Natvia because I eat very little sweetener. I purchased the little bottle Nirvana Stevia years ago and still havent run out of it. I realise people react differently to various substances and I appreciate your blog. When I get some Natvia for baking (for my husband–who has a very sweet tooth) I will purchase it in a minimal amount until I see how he tolerates it. Thanks guys for the imput. It’s all very interesting. . .

By: jake

jake — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:37:04 +0000

With cramping, bloating, and loose bowel movements, perhaps Sean, you are just have a sensitive to natvia. I think it is reckless to consider a product unsafe to the public due to a sensitivity. For example, I’m allergic to processed chocolate; would it be foolish to insist that candy bars or fudge be banned or come with a warning label or call it toxic.I am aware of my adverse reaction to chocolate so I simply don’t consume it.

By: Sean Kelly

Sean Kelly — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:50:15 +0000

About a year I started going to a cafe serving organic everything. Best breakfast ever. I also started putting Natvia in the coffee as a sweetener. Was really happy until over that year I also mysteriously developed what semed like irritable bowel syndrome. Visits to doctors had merunning allsorts of tests to ascertain or eliminate the problem. No luck. Nothing came up on the tests. No ciliac, lactose, fructose or any of the modern intolerance’s. Refusing to stop eating at the cafe – I ran my own experiment. One by one I had the same meal with one of the “ingredients” missing. Still no respite from the symtoms of stomach cramps and diarrhea.
Then one day I realised the remaining ingredient not yet substituted was the Natvia. So I put sugar in the coffee as I do elswhere. No symptoms that day. Did the same the next time and again, no symptoms. Pulled up my iPad and google’d “stevia stomach cramps” – stevis is the active ingredient in the Natvia product.

5 pages of Google results of folks describing the same symptons I had suffered for over a year.

Moral of the story. Any “alternative” product, medicine or folk story needs to be rigorously tested and the “side effects” need to be clearly spelt out and published. There’s a reason why modern medicine does this. My doctor reads those articles. The better informed he is, the less time and money is wasted looking for a cure to what is clearly in my instance – consumption of a toxic product.

By: samantha

samantha — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:06:54 +0000

You are definitely right there Fiona, Natvia is amazing stuff. Tried it about 3 weeks ago and wouldnt go back to either sugar or any of the artificial nasties. It tastes great with my coffee, cereals and great with baking as well. check out their site with some great recipes: http://www.natvia.com.au/natvia-sweetener/recipes-2

By: Fiona

Fiona — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:19:18 +0000

Thanks for this post!
I was surprised that there was no mention of stevia based sweeteners here.
Stevia is 100% natural, low in calories, low GI (perfect for people with diabetes) and some of the stevia derived sweeteners on the market taste great (not all of them do).
My pick is Natvia (available at Coles, health food stores etc.) – it tastes beautifully and naturally sweet (no bitterness). Nothing artificial and made by an Australian company to boot!

By: Emm

Emm — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:58:24 +0000

wow, thanks for that! There has been something inside me that always makes me pull my hand back when reaching for a bottle at the health food store. Yes it does seem like a fad, and I’m really really glad I read this before buying into it! Cheers