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PSA

ritaxis: (hat)
Thursday, April 24th, 2014 07:52 pm
Agave nectar is NOT healthier than sugar. If you don't have any special metabolic issues with sugars in general, they are the same, except that agave nectar production threatens the desert and the livelihoods of the people who traditionally use agave for other things (sugar is also environmentally problematic and generally involves super-exploitation of workers at various places along the production trail, but the two sweeteners are differently problematic).

If you are diabetic, pre-diabetic, or watching carbohydrates because of other metabolic issues like hyperlipidemia, agave nectar is worse.

So all those recipes out there proclaiming they are a "new, healthier" version because they have agave nectar instead of sugar? Lying liars.

edit: this is provoked by me trying to find a carrot cake recipe with garbanzo flour in it because (1) I'm running out of whole wheat flour and (2)I like garbanzo flour and I want to discover everything possible to eat with it. I know, a cake is still a cake, so it is not magically relieved of problems, but it's a cake with some of my favorite things in it and I am making it for an Occasion where other people will be there so I won't be tempted to Eat it All in one evening.
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culinary note to self

ritaxis: (Default)
Sunday, May 30th, 2010 09:39 am
Experiments with the "ghirardelli grand fudge cake" recipe from the can of Ghirardelli (naturally) ground chocolate and cocoa reveal that replacing part of the flour with garbanzo flour is okay, replacing all the flour with garbanzo flour is okay, replacing the flour with almost any combination of flour, garbanzo flour, and almond meal is okay, but replacing all the flour with almond meal results in loose clarified butter pooling up between the gfinished cake and the parchment paper lining of the pan. It also comes out cloyingly rich and gooey. Theough the gooey might be solved with a longer baking time.

But reducing the sugar from 1-3/4 cups to 1-5/8 or so is just about right. I wonder if reducing the butter similarly would allow the all-almond meal version to come out better?

Purpose of this: it's stream of consciousness cooking: free association from "how do I get sweet stuff with less simple carbohydrates? Oh, reduce the other simple carbohydrates in the mixture!" At some point I'll be trying a replacement of the white sugar with agave syrup, if I can find a verification of its relative lower glycemic load from a non-industry source: otherwise it's too expensive, and entails too many changes, to bother with.

I know some of you folks have been exploring carbohydrate manipulation in your own ways. Mostly I think I've read people talking about just going for low-to-no carbohydrate diets. I'm not really interested in that, partly because I've read something about prolonged carbohydrate restriction and low serotonin levels, and partly because my modified low-glycemic regime works well for me when I'm not grieving and freaking out. Anyway, has anybody out there seen a discussion of agave syrup and its glycemic load (or even its glycemic index which is less interesting to me because we don't eat indexes) -- that wasn't on a page advertising agave products?
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