With the 2015 triathlon season fast approaching here in North America, I’m working overtime on my training regimen. This, of course, includes a healthy diet.
Because I have a bit of a sweet tooth, I thought I’d turn to nutrition expert Vani Hari (the “Food Babe”) for advice on sweeteners. A bit of chocolate or ice cream is a nice treat after a 50 mile bicycle training ride. I burn thousands of calories with such workouts, but I don’t want to overdo the sugar reward. Maybe I’ll do a little shopping on FoodBabe.com. Hari claims to read the labels of–and personally use–every product she sells. Surely I can’t go wrong on her own web site!
I wonder what the Babe says about agave nectar, a “natural” sweetener I’ve heard so much about?1 Made from a plant, agave seems like a good “organic” food source. Take it away, Vani:
Food Babe warns about agave nectar in this August, 2013 post. (click/enlarge)
Oh dear. I did not know that! Fructose, a naturally-occurring sugar found in fruits and vegetables, should be avoided? Sounds suspicious, but this woman claims to do her homework. In fact, she elaborates on the theme in her latest book:
“Agave nectar is unnatural and highly refined. It can make you gain weight, and it can affect your liver and your overall health. Do not swallow the marketing hype; leave this sweetener on the shelf.”–Vani Hari, The Food Babe Way, page 163.
Sounds like a thoroughly researched scientific position, doesn’t it? Well, let’s take Hari’s advice to heart and go shopping on FoodBabe.com. Here’s our shopping list:
- Chocolates
- Ice cream
- Avoid agave nectar
Away we go…
Righteously Raw Goji Chocolate Bars sold on FoodBabe.Com. Vani Hari earns a sales commission when you purchase via her web site. (click/enlarge)
I must confess, those Righteously Raw Goji chocolate bars look scrumptious!2 And Vani Hari earns a commission from every purchase,3 which helps fund the crucial role this woman fills in keeping our food supply safe. What’s not to love? Let’s pull the trigger on this one…
WHOA! Not so fast on the purchase button there, cowboy!
I’m sure the rumors we’ve heard of Food Babe selling items she says are dangerous are untrue, but let’s check the ingredients of these chocolate bars.4 This is a skeptical science blog, after all:
Righteously Raw chocolate bars are made with agave nectar. (click/enlarge)
Uh oh. Agave nectar?
But Food Babe told us that:
“Agave nectar is unnatural and highly refined. It can make you gain weight, and it can affect your liver and your overall health. Do not swallow the marketing hype; leave this sweetener on the shelf.”–Vani Hari, The Food Babe Way, page 163.
If it’s bad for you, why is she selling it? She can’t claim she didn’t know it was there. She wrote about it in another blog post:5
To their credit, Righteously Raw provides a nice writeup on their web site as to why they believe their agave is better than other agave. Sadly, they use Dr. Oz, Oprah, and Ellen Degeneres as references.4
Food Babe’s argument against agave is that it contains fructose (a naturally-occurring simple sugar found in all of the fruits she pushes in her recipes). She tells us fructose “makes a beeline” for our livers, where it supposedly puts us at risk for disease. So she doesn’t get a free pass on the agave issue, regardless of where it comes from.
Regardless, damn my eyes, agave isn’t just in the chocolate Food Babe pushes. Let’s look at her online “pantry list”,6 taking particular note of the Coconut Bliss ice creams:
Food Babe pantry list includes agave-laden Coconut Bliss ice cream. (click/enlarge)
Every single item listed on the Coconut Bliss product ingredient page contains agave syrup.7 Every item. Food Babe hates the syrup even worse than the nectar. In The Food Babe Way, she has this to say:
“Most commercially available agave is converted into fructose-rich syrup, by using genetically modified enzymes and a chemically intensive process that may include activated charcoal, resins, sulfuric and/or hydrofluoric acid, dicalite, and clarimex. Does this sound healthy to you?” –Vani Hari, The Food Babe Way, page 163.
Perhaps Food Babe will tell us her agave syrup is different from other agave syrups. But, please keep in mind: her argument against agave is that it contains the simple sugar fructose. Fructose is fructose.
This isn’t the first time Food Babe has been caught selling products with ingredients she says are dangerous. It’s become rather obvious to me she doesn’t actually read the labels of the items she sells. Her reaction to criticism has been, to say the least, suspect. In the past, she’s either completely ignored reports and continued to sell, quietly pulled items from her store without comment, or tried to shift the blame for her hypocrisy onto her innocent partners.
Only time will tell how she handles the bad news about the agave. In the interim, I hope that Righteously Raw and Coconut Bliss (Luna & Larry’s) won’t be punished because of Food Babe’s double standards and hypocrisy. There’s nothing wrong with agave, fructose, and/or the products of these two companies.
I may just buy some Righteously Raw chocolate and Coconut Bliss ice cream as tiny rewards for some of the grueling distance training I’ll be doing this racing season.
I just won’t be buying via FoodBabe.com.
Image Credits
Food Babe, Amazon, Righteously Raw, and Luna & Larry Coconut Bliss screen snapshots are used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.
References
(1) Food Babe on Agave (Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/thefoodbabe/posts/635528573148524
(2) Food Babe Shopping
http://foodbabe.com/shop/for-your-belly/
(3) Righteously Raw/Food Babe Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/keywords=Righteously%20Raw%20Bars
(4) Righteously Raw–“Why We Use Agave”
http://righteouslyrawchocolate.com/natural-sweetener-debate/
(5) Food Babe Sugar Archives
http://foodbabe.com/tag/sugar/
(6) Food Babe Pantry List
http://foodbabe.com/pantry-list/
(7) Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss All Product Ingredients
http://coconutbliss.com/info/all-products-ingredients
Bad Science Debunked 