Ohhh Sweet Honey! (honey at Cafe Bliss)
Something that my intuition and my body has always told me is now being confirmed by some of the very people who worked so hard to bring agave to the mainstream: agave is the worst “bandito” of all sweeteners!
I bought one bottle of agave about 4 years ago after seeing pictures on David Wolfe's site of a beautiful young woman pouring it down her throat, straight out of the bottle! I thought, wow, a sweetener that is so good for you that you can drink it like water!?
I tried it, I didn't like it at all. It tasted like corn syrup to me, and made me feel awful. So I went back to what I have always used and loved, honey. Over the years since then, I have had many opportunities to enjoy raw treats made with agave. While I do enjoy them in my mouth, everything after that point is a mess. Or should I say, I am a mess! Katrina + agave = basket-case. I feel edgy, anxious, hungry, grumpy, and all those unpleasant things that go along with blood sugar imbalance. So I do my best to avoid the stuff.
If you are still using agave in your household, please read the following articles and then go and pour it down the drain!
The Agave Blues by David Wolfe
This "Tequila" Sweetener is Far Worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup by Dr. Mercola
Agave Nectar, the High Fructose Health Food Fraud on Natural News
So, that brings me back to honey! I felt inspired to write a little ode to honey..... Honey is magical. Bees are magical. Flowers are magical. Eating honey makes me feel magical.
In Organic Farming and Beekeeping, it becomes a partnership between bee and honey farmer. The symbiosis is beautiful, and as a honey eater I feel tapped into a beautiful, life affirming circle. And, honey is LOCAL! We get our honey from Babe's Honey Farm, and it is beautiful, and it gives me a pleasant, gentle buzz.
And did you know that bees will produce up to 3 times the amount that they need to survive? In ethical beekeeping practices, both the bees and the honey eaters benefit.
I love visiting honey farms and listening to the hum of the bees. See if you can find a honey farm near you and start to visit whenever you need a little sweetness.
Honey is expensive (at least compared to conventional sugar) but in my mind this is a good thing. It just means we use less of it and are more careful of our consumption. When it comes to sweetener, a little mindfulness is a very good idea! It also means we are paying the honey farmer a living wage rather than paying pennies for sugar grown by people living in abject poverty in countries miles and miles away.
Of course there are other alternatives to sweeten you treats, and honey may not be the one for you. If you are working with blood-sugar issues such as diabetes or candida, you will want to be even more aware of your sweetener choices. The above articles do a good job at listing out other sweeties to choose from.
In closing, if you needed another reason to start buying organic, this might be it. Saving the Honey Bee Through Organic Farming.
I'd love to hear your experiences with agave, and what your household's sweetener of choice is!
