Deb:
Response to your question "is agave worse for you". I think it can be if you go over board with it. I do not believe that it is worse for you if that is the only form of sugar you are using in moderation. If you are weeding out processed and fake sugar, you are weeding out tons of processed foods that have this hidden sugar. So your overall sugar intake is decreasing. Agave syrup is higher in fructose (usually 70-80%) then table sugar/sucrose and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) (about 50/50 glucose/fructose). I know foods higher in fructose are said to be linked to obesity and liver damage. Sorry, I am not buying it when it comes to Agave. The amount of fructose people get from eating foods w HFCS in it has got to be more than someone eating the way you or I do. Fructose is sweeter than glucose and other sugars, so you don't need to use as much. Plus agave is more expensive, so unless you are rich, you are like me, you don't make a lot of sweets or baked goods and use it in moderation. And it would seem that naturally the nutritional quality of your food will increase with having this sugar-selective diet and the amount of calorie-dense foods will decrease bc you will be eating more 'real' food (which would help fight obesity tremendously).
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There is actually good science supporting the link between fructose consumption and liver damage. When glucose is ingested, it is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream. This is blood sugar - we talk about this in relation to diabetes, insulin, metabolism, and the glycemic index. Sucrose (table sugar) breaks down fairly quickly into glucose, but fructose is processed very differently. It's actually broken down in the liver. So consuming too much fructose leads to liver damage/failure the way over-consumption of glucose leads to diabetes. If you're into eating right and you prepare your own foods, than either sweetener will do.
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