In the study, titled Agavins as Potential Novel Sweeteners for Obese and Diabetic People, Lpez added agavins towards the water of mice who have been fed a standard diet, weighing them and monitoring blood sugar levels every week. The majority of the mice given the agavin-supplemented water had lower blood sugar levels, ate less, and dropped a few pounds compared with other mice whose water was supplemented with glucose, sucrose, fructose, agave syrup, and aspartame.
How Are Agavins Different from Other Sugars?
Unlike other types of fructose, Agavins are zixiutang fructans, that are long-chain fructoses the body cant use, so they are not absorbed into the bloodstream to raise blood sugar. And despite the similarity in the name, agavins should not be confused with agave nectar or agave syrup, natural sweeteners which are ever more popular sugar substitutes. In these products the fructans are divided into fructose, which does raise blood sugar and add calories.
Lpez continues to be studying fructans for a while, and it has published previous studies showing they have protective prebiotic effects within the digestive system and bring about weight reduction in obese mice.
A 2012 study by another team of researchers published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition found that fructans boosted quantity of a beneficial probiotics lactobacillus and bifidus. And like 2 day diet lingzhi various kinds of fiber, agavins also 'abnormal' amounts of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood.
However the news isnt great; a 2011 literature overview of human studies from the relationship between fructans (not agavins specifically) and blood sugar levels found that of 13 randomized studies of fructans, only three documented positive results. It remains to be seen whether as Lpez argues agavins are dissimilar to other fructans within their action.