Recommendations for Sweeteners

Hey everyone-

A friend turned me on to amaranth- a high protein natural super-food grain.  She mixes popped amaranth with cocoa powder and some agave syrup to make really delicious protein bars.  I am concerned, though, with using agave syrup.  Has anyone tried this and had problems?  Would honey be a better alternative?  Is there a product that is syrup like without all the sugar?

Also, an update:

Surgery 5 months ago.  74 pounds down.  My GP did my first round of post-surgical blood work to check my cholesterol, and I am no longer pre-diabetic, pre-hypertensive, and my "shockingly" high cholesterol is now totally normal.  I have also been told that I no longer have sleep apnea either!  The down side is that I have hypothyroidism that is not related to surgery (my GP and I have been monitoring it for about 2 years and it is finally slow enough for medication). I have 45 pounds to go to my goal, and I am losing between 1-3 pounds a week (although some weeks I lose more and some weeks I don't lose any). So yea, things are going really well!

Thanks for any and all tips about the syrup!

I guess I never got too concerned about sweeteners. I've used agave but mostly I use either Splenda or Truvia. When I use too much Truvia it does upset my stomach, but Splenda works better than Equal. I would just keep an eye on the carbs with whatever sugar or sweetener you decide to use.

Congratulations on your weight loss and comorbidities success. You're doinggreat! 

--gina

Carbs is carbs and sugar is sugar.  Agave is sugar and amaranth is a grain.  If you stop losing this would be the first suspect.

Just like any other weight loss effort the last pounds are the hardest.  Adding this won't help you reach that goal.  Bounceback is real and happens to almost everyone so 10% under goal is better.

It actually sounds fine either way to me. Since I buy OTC protein bars I'm a lot less picky. I'm not sure once it is digested that it makes any difference but just on the face of it I would rather use the honeywhich seems a little more natural to me (speaking from ignorance here) that what is probably a distilled syrup.

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism 2 years in. So would you say you were pre-hypothyroid, if you weren't at levels needing medication. My endo put me on meds as soon as I they saw my TSH levels were high. Just curious.

Pete