How sweet it … isn’t?
Agave nectar has become a popular sweetener among vegetarians and health-conscious consumers, but nutritionist and registered dietitian Jeff Novick questions whether it is any more benign than the dreaded high-fructose corn syrup in a post titled “Agave: Health Food, Health Fad or Health Fraud?”
It’s a guest blog on a blog run by Jack Norris, a nutritionist and registered dietitian and the president of Vegan Outreach.
The agave post got me thinking about the subject of nutrition. While animal issues are the reason for my vegetarianism, rather than health concerns, it is good for the animals for vegetarians to stay as healthy as possible – to avoid perpetuating the stereotype of the sickly vegetarian. (Toward that end, it’s also a good idea to avoid falling for the equally false stereotype of the vegetarian diet as automatically healthful).
In addition to the blog, Norris has an excellent Web site focused on nutrition at www.veganhealth.org. Another dietitian who provides reliable, readable information is Virginia Messina at her blog The Vegan Dietitian and Web site Vegetarian Diets: A Dietitian’s Guide.
