Lime prices got your love for tequila on the low? Well, maybe this will encourage you to imbibe a little bit more of American's first agave liquor: According to researchers in Mexico, agavins, a sweetener that can be derived from the stem of the agave plant, helps reduce weight and control blood sugar.
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That's the result coming out of a study conducted by Mercedes López of the Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados, Biotechnology and Biochemistry Irapuato, in Guanajuato, Mexico. She presented the results at the annual American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas, which started on Sunday and ends today. Mice who were fed a diet that contained agavins gained less weight and had more control over blood sugar than mice who had diets that included sugar or artificial sweeteners.
“[The agavin mice] were, most of the time, not different from the control,” López told MedPage Today.
Don't get too excited yet though. Mice studies are very-early stage studies, and there aren't any agavins in tequila or mezcal (or agave syrup for that matter), but given some time, agavins may become an alternate sweetener.
“We believe agavins have a great potential as a light sweetener,” López wrote in the study abstract. “They are sugars, highly soluble, with a low glycemic index and a neutral taste.”
More importantly, they're indigestible, basically acting like dietary fiber.
Man, if there's a future where I can have my cake, and crap it too.. well, sign me up.
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