Originally Posted By: Dyusik
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A tip for the sweet toothed diabetics (stereotype, but true for many), agave is a good substitute. It is sweeter than sugar or honey per calorie, but it is also 6+ times lower glycemic index, it won't spike you out like table sugar, so the crash is less likely.
Table sugar is sucrose, which is half glucose and half fructose. The glucose half will provoke insulin release.
Starch digests to 100% glucose, so eating a significant amount of starch provokes a greater insulin release than a similar amount of sugar. I think this is why quick-digesting starch causes blood sugar crashes -- too much insulin causing too much glucose removal from the blood.
Agave syrup is mostly fructose, so it barely provokes insulin. But that does not make it healthy. If it did then HFCS would also be a healthy sweetener.
Fructose cannot be used by muscle to replenish glycogen stores, it can only be processed by the liver to store as liver glycogen. So frequently eating a lot of fructose can easily overload the liver's glycogen storage capacity, causing the liver to convert it to fat that can be safely stored.