Compared to other sugar substitutes and artificial sweeteners, agave nectar is relatively high in calories. In fact, it contains just about as many calories as a single serving of sugar. This may cause you to wonder why there is so much hype surrounding agave nectar. The truth is that while many other sugar substitutes and artificial sweeteners promise low calories or even no calories, many of them actually cause you to gain weight over time. They end up tricking your body into thinking that you're not full when you use them during a meal. Agave nectar is different, though. In order to see why, you have to understand how the caloric content of agave nectar affects your body.

Calories in Agave Nectar

A single serving of agave nectar contains about 60 calories. While it's not good to overload your meal with agave nectar, the calories present in a single serving can actually be beneficial to your health. That's because when you use agave nectar with a meal, you will feel fuller as a result of the calories. A single serving also contains about 16 grams of carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are what give you a boost of energy when you use agave nectar. This represents about five percent of all the carbohydrates you need in a given day, based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Glycemic Index of Agave Nectar

One of the biggest benefits of using agave nectar over other sweeteners is that it has a very low glycemic index. The glycemic index of a sweetener represents how quickly (or slowly) your body breaks down the carbs present in the sweetener. If it breaks them down quickly and delivers them to your bloodstream quickly, it has a high glycemic index. If it breaks them down slowly and delivers them to your bloodstream slowly, it has a low glycemic index. Agave nectar has a low glycemic index. This means you get your energy slowly and don't experience a sugar rush all at once.

Using Agave Nectar to Your Advantage

The real reason you need to know the nutritional info for agave nectar is to see how it could affect your diet. In order to see how agave nectar affects your health, use Fitday to track your caloric and nutritional intake. By doing this, you can see whether the calories and carbohydrates present in agave nectar affect your health. This is the only way to see if the benefits of the calories in it help or hurt your health. Try it to see if agave nectar might be right for you.