Agave, it’s not just for tequila anymore!

So, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and with my very much Irish surname I should be preparing for the annual festival of my heritage that starts with corned beef and cabbage and concludes with imbibing copious amounts of Jameson and Guinness. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but while I will partake in the standard fare of the day (btw, ever notice how Irish cuisine is only a blender shy of becoming baby food?) and will consume my obligatory Guinness, there will be no over indulgence this year.

Actually it has been quite a few years since I’ve really celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in the manner in which we have all become accustomed. After my thirtieth birthday I swore off alcohol for a full year and to this day only have the occasional beer or glass of wine. Additionally, when you consider the last thing a diabetic should be doing is consuming mass quantities of a substance that is primarily sugar I’ll pass, thank you very much.

While I don’t miss going out to drink, the one thing that I have been struggling with is the need to swear off desserts. For as long as I can remember I have had a raging sweet tooth. Now that I have my blood sugars in control the last thing I am interested in doing is jeopardizing the progress I have made in the past four months. Still I have been craving the cookies that my wife would regularly make me something fierce, but now, thanks to her extensive research, I will crave no more.

Since she is the baker in the family she has had her role diminished in rather short order since the “Thanksgiving Revelation” – my fun term for the day I was diagnosed. In the time since she has been researching alternative sweeteners and different recipes that use them in hopes of finding something that will curb my cravings and avoid a doomsday scenario where I take a Krispy Kreme at gun point.

At long last her diligence has paid off and the succulence that is Agave nectar has entered our lives. Agave nectar is a juice expressed from the core of the agave that is filtered, heated to hydrolyze the carbohydrates into sugar and finally concentrated into syrup that is thinner than honey. Since Agave nectar is primarily fructose, which doesn’t require insulin to break it down when consumed, it has a lower glycemic load and is therefore tolerated better by diabetics.

After checking out a few other sugar substitutes, she decided that Agave nectar was a good, natural option that we should try first. As with most things we purchase we checked Amazon and even picked up the cookbook Baking with Agave Nectar to get some recipes we could test out. While some of the recipes in the cookbook have some interesting ingredients (black bean brownies anyone?) the batch of oatmeal raisin cookies she made were awesome.

At first I was concerned I was so happy with them because I have had just one cookie since I became aware of my condition. However, after having some of the cookies the next day I was still very happy with them. Not only are they made with a sweetener that shouldn’t spike my blood sugar, they are also made with whole grain flour and flax seed meal to make them a lot better than your standard Toll House. The only thing I wished the cookbook had was a breakdown of the nutritional information and the serving size.

Regardless, I couldn’t be happier with the discovery and am very thankful to my wife for caring enough to do this for me. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices in changing my diet, which were obviously needed, but it is still difficult to stick to something long term if you constantly feel like there is a void. Now that my cravings can be satisfied with relatively healthy dessert options I am a happy man. And maybe next year I’ll substitute the Jameson for some Jose Cuervo and start a new St. Patrick’s Day tradition of my own!