Tweets from Weston A Price Conference 2011 (#wapfconf)

Thought some of you would enjoy reading these tidbits from the conference last weekend. For those of you who don't use Twitter, remember that it's short status updates of 140 characters or less, including links, usually, so there's a fair bit of shorthand used. The Tweets are displayed as the person's username, prefaced by the @ symbol, then their name. Mine, for example, is @geegeegee Gigi. People use "hashtags" to give you a way to search for related Tweets. The hashtag for this conference is #wapfconf, which is why each Tweet contains that in it.

Tweets from Weston A Price Conference 2011 (#wapfconf)

@geegeegee Gigi: IN DALLAS TAXI ZOOMING TOWARD THE #WAPFCONF!!!

@NourishedMama Jenny McGruther: Stephanie Seneff: be sure to eat plenty of dietary cholesterol, it's essential in all cellular functions avoid carbohydrates. #Wapfconf

@NourishingCook Kim Knoch: Soaking in a bath of epsom salts - great to get magnesium sulfate that may be deficient in our foods. #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: Fantastic talk by Stephanie Seneff, PhD about the crucial role of cholesterol sulfate in the body #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: #wapfconf lunch: grass-fed chili, tortilla chips fried in lard, coconut wraps with sour cream, guacamole, & chicken. http://twitpic.com/7d6h3x

@geegeegee Gigi: Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking Presentation!! #wapfconf

@chriskresser Chris Kresser: Duh. Better late than never, I guess.http://1.usa.gov/vI7DTM

@HlthyHappyEater Kelly Battaglia: Fallon: That's why God gave us vegetables ... as a vehicle for more butter. #WAPFconf

@geegeegee Gigi: #wapfconf BRAIN. FULL!! Bedtime now! All praise be unto the Marriott Bed! :-)

@NourishMD Dr. Sue & Angelle: Ever get confused by mainstream media message saying being a vegetarian or vegan is most healthy way to go? Check...http://fb.me/Kd5u6EX7

@PVNutritherapy Craig Fear: You don't see this everyday. #wapfconfhttp://fb.me/1p9mIjLDy (ed.: This was at breakfast!)

@WardehHarmon Wardeh Harmon: Bianci: aspartame breaks down in the body to mostly formaldehyde (embalming fluid). #wapfconf

@farmfoodblog Jill Nienhiser: Agave is the single biggest criminal fraud in the health food industry. Russ Bianchi at #wapfconf: (ed.: Worse than Con-Ola?!? I dunno...)

@farmfoodblog Jill Nienhiser: Agave twice as bad HFCS. Russ Bianchi at #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: Ha!! @farmfoodblog: Corn is to nutrition what porn is to fine art. Bianchi at #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: Agreed!! WHAT?!? RT @KitchenKop: WHAT?! @farmfoodblog: Blackstrap molasses is fairly carcinogenic. Bianchi @ #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: NICE! RT@TotalLifestyle: There are 800 pounds of pastured butter being used at this conference!! Love!! #wapfconf

@scdkat Kathryn Garson: Lol @deniseminger has everyone laughing along while debunking the china study #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: #wapfconf lunch: liverwurst, cheese, fruit, pork broth with veggies, cheesecake w date/almond crust. http://twitpic.com/7dju5p

@farmfoodblog Jill Nienhiser: It's hard to convince people your vegan diet is healthy when u look like u crawled out of a low budget zombie film. Minger #wapfconf

@wellfedhome Brenda Scott: Breast cancer is associated with plant oils in the China Study, particularly soybean oil, corn oil and cottonseed oil. #wapfconf

@wellfedhome Brenda Scott: "Animal protein is not associated with Western Diseases in any of the China Study data." -Minger #wapfconf

@EatNourishing Eat Nourishing: The china Study does not show clear association between cholesterol and heart disease. - from peer reviews of the book #wapfconf

@KitchenKop KitchenKop: WOW! Out of everything analyzed in China Study, wheat flour had the strongest assoc. with heart disease. RT@wellfedhome #WAPFConf

@wellfedhome Brenda Scott: He (Campbell) didn't share that most of his rats who "didn't get cancer" DIED before they had a chance to get cancer! #wapfconf Denise...

@geegeegee Gigi: It was shocking! @scdkat: Wow, @deniseminger just asked who has been a vegetarian, more than half the room put up a hand #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: Ha! Commenter's coworker went veg after seeing Forks Over Knives, now goes to vending for poptarts 3xday because he's starving! #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: China Study *actual data* shows breast cancer correlated with plant protein & veg oils. Veg is worst you can do! #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: WRT previous tweet, wheat protein was very highest correlation with cancers. #wapfconf Denise Minger

@WardehHarmon Wardeh Harmon: Banquet menu. #wapfconf http://instagr.am/p/T5T5-/

@WardehHarmon Wardeh Harmon: PBS show to do a series on WAPF! #wapfconf

@KitchenKop KitchenKop: Michael Schmidt @ #wapfconf "Our message must break down barriers to open the dialogue, we can reach them!"

@NourishingCook Kim Knoch: Joe Mercola at #wapfconf the top 10 drug companies in fortune 500 make more than the other 490 companies combined

@realfoodhealth RealFoodWholeHealth: 90% of food budget by Americans spent on processed food, packaged in BPA. 57 GALLONS soda consumed each year per person #mercola #wapfconf

@RealFoodDevotee Monica Ford: 4 times more likely to die of legally prescribed drugs than a car wreck. #wapfconf #mercola #fb

@NourishingCook Kim Knoch: Mercola at #wapfconf - what is the #1 thing u can do to get healthy? Drink pure water (not soda)

@geegeegee Gigi: The apron I bought at the #wapfconf!! HA!! http://twitpic.com/7dp9fs

@cheeseslave CHEESESLAVE: Man boobs = moobs = soy boys #wapfconf

@NourishMD Dr. Sue & Angelle: Last year, Cochrane published the following bombshell conclusion: "Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in... http://fb.me/1rBvUBcII (ed.: “The review showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies.”)

@farmfoodblog Jill Nienhiser: I've learned so much I don't know anything anymore. Matt Stone @180degreehealth #wapfconf

@KitchenKop KitchenKop: Matt Stone: best predictor of future weight gain is dieting. #wapfconf

@WardehHarmon Wardeh Harmon: Stone: Myth: restrict calories to lose weight. It doesn't work in the long term. #wapfconf

@NourishingCook Kim Knoch: RT @realfoodhealth: mcbride: plants r there to cleanse us not nourish us. a #vegan diet is a fasting diet, u might as well starve #wapfconf

@NourishingCook Kim Knoch: Mark McAfee #wapfconf - Raw milk - the weapon of mass nutrition

@WardehHarmon Wardeh Harmon: 0 deaths from raw milk in the last 37 years. 17 dead from pasteurized milk. #rawmilk #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: Yum! Why, oh why, did I skip this?!? RT@WardehHarmon: Sunday dinner. #wapfconf http://instagr.am/p/UGZoq/

@geegeegee Gigi: Okay. All packed & showered & alarm set for 6am. Say a lil prayer that the gallon jug of maple syrup stays intact in my luggage!! #wapfconf

@geegeegee Gigi: Looking at the families in McD's & thinking about the adorable #wapfconf children singing "Don't Believe the Junk Food Man!"

@ChaffinOrchards Chris Kerston: Amish Farmer Amos Miller just made a joke about google - Only at # wapfconf

@wellfedhome Brenda Scott: In the 1960s there were 640,000 dairy farms in the US. Now there are 3,000. #WAPFconf

@wellfedhome Brenda Scott: 3% of the dairy farms produce the majority of the milk in the US. #WAPFconf

@HlthyHappyEater Kelly Battaglia: Human health and biological farming practices are inextricably linked. -Jerry Brunetti #wapfconf

@HlthyHappyEater Kelly Battaglia: People are overwhelmingly deficient in dairy fat vitamins. Eat butter, whole fat milk, cream from grass-fed cows. -Jerry Brunetti #wapfconf

@evolutionarypsy Emily Deans, M.D.; History of solvent exposure increases risk of Parkinson's 6-fold in twin study http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.22629/abstract

@NicholeSawatzky: Fun stuff regarding the #wapfconf social media activityhttp://www.holistickid.com/top-10-tweets-of-wise-traditions-2011/

Taking Stock

Bone broths - otherwise known as stocks - are one of the most nutritious and healing substances on the planet, not to mention *delicious* and the foundation of most cuisine. My wonderful cousin provided me with some packages of meaty soup bones from her brother (also my wonderful cousin, natch!) and I made stock from them. The journey of this particular batch of stock seemed noteworthy, so I've written about it.

- One day, I took the soup bone package out of the freezer and put the wrapped package on a plate in the fridge to thaw slowly and safely.

- A couple (few?) days later, I got out the thawed bones & rinsed them off. I oiled the roasting pan with coconut oil, threw in the soup bones and a couple of onions, quartered, and roasted them in the oven for about 30m or so, flipping them over halfway through. I dumped all into a stock pot, covered with water, added a few herbs (thyme, rosemary, ??), and a couple of good splashes of raw apple cider vinegar, and let it all simmer overnight. The vinegar is important to help the stock leach the good minerals from the bones and make them available to your body.

- The next morning, I turned it off & let it cool. Later that day, I strained it through a colander & pulled out the meat pieces and set them aside (in a container in the fridge). I strained the stock through a mesh strainer & put the bowl into the fridge for the fat to congeal. The bones went to the very happy dogs!

- The next day (or so, LOL) I fished the congealed fat off the top, and decanted the stock into pint jars. Labelled, and back into the fridge they went. (I saved the fat & added it to the dogs' food that night.)

- Another day, I put 1 1/2 pints of stock into a pot, added the reserved meat, some salt, and called it soup. However, the meat was way too dry to eat, so I ended up just drinking the stock, and put the meat back into the fridge.

- Another day, I put the meat, broken up into little pieces, into the rice cooker. I added a very small onion, chopped; 3/4 cup short grain brown rice; 2 cups beef broth; 1/4 cup water. Threw in some salt & herbs, and set it to cooking. When it was done, I thawed a couple cups of frozen peas under running water, put them in a bowl, and dumped the rice on top. To this mix I added a few T butter. We had a little bit of this left over, so into the fridge it went.

- Today, I took the little bit of leftover rice, meat, & peas, and put them in a pot with another jar (pint) of the original stock, hotted it up, added ample salt and a couple T of butter, and called it soup. This time, the soup was good!

- I still have two pints of beef stock in the fridge for future use. A long way from just one package of soup bones!

What a Load of Garbage!

Anyone who has never been to, or simply driven past,  a "dump" or landfill, should really do so. I can't imagine how anyone could see, and more importantly *smell* one could not be inspired to cut back on their garbage production. I drive by one several times a week when I take the dogs to their favorite park for a romp. I usually have the windows down for the dogs, and the smell is indescribable. Seeing all those bulldozers shoving mountains of garbage around is astounding.

So I started thinking about the many ways we can cut back on our garbage production, and realized that this is directly related to my current thought processes about our food intake. The biggest thing you can do to cut down on your garbage output, is cut down on your garbage INput. If you cut out processed and packaged food, you are no longer putting all those packages into the garbage, and thence into the landfill. *Epiphany*.

Of course recycling is important, and a great way to reduce your landfill contribution. But cutting out processed food also reduces the amount you are recycling. When we did the McCombs Plan last fall, I actually got rid of a couple of our recycle bins, because we just weren't using glass jars and bottles to put in them. No jarred foods, no beer, no wine, almost no liquor. No olives, molasses, preserves, or syrups. The only cans we had to recycle were "fizzy water" cans, but that is mostly true always. We just don't eat much out of cans.

The one thing that did increase was our water bottle recycling. I know we should refill stainless steel bottles with filtered water, and we'll get there, but for now bottled water is our biggest (identified) anti-green habit. For now it keeps us drinking our water. For the McCombs Plan, I'm supposed to drink 6 1/2 liter bottles a day, so I put 6 bottles on the fridge door each morning, and at the end of the day I can easily see how close I've come to that goal. That size bottle is easy to hold, carry, & drink. For some reason it's easier for me to drink two 1/2 liter bottles than one liter bottle.

Our local recycling resources don't accept green glass, but we collect it anyway, and take it to another city to be recycled. A bit extreme, but as much wine as we (used to?) drink, we produce a fair bit of green glass, so it just feels like the right thing to do.

It bears repeating:
The biggest thing you can do to cut down on your garbage output, is cut down on your garbage INput.
So cut out all that processed food, and contribute to not only your own health, but that of the environment as well.

Mission. Slowly Forming.

I'm sensing a new mission in life slowly forming. I'm no gourmet cook, but I have friends who are amazed that I cook at all, because they don't. I feel like I could teach them some basic skills to feed themselves and their families better. And I'm reading more and learning more all the time about Traditional Food, and wanting to spread that "gospel". So I'm thinking about how to do those things.

The very first thing I *must* do is find a class, or someone to teach me, basic knife skills. My knife skills stink. I know Sur La Table has them, but that's a day trip, and not too cheap. And they seem to be always full/waitlisted. But perhaps I could get a local chef friend, or my aunt the chef, or even my brother to come over and teach a class for me & some friends.

At a Celtic Spirituality workshop this summer, I created the attached "Cook's Prayer". It sort of sums up my approach to food these days:

-----
Cook's Prayer
Bless me in the preparation of food for myself and my family.
Thank you for your bounty. Thank you for the knife that prepares it.
Let the preparation and eating of your bounty reflect the way you nurture our souls.
Bless the healing of our bodies through the bounty of your earth.
-----
 
Food isn't merely sustenance, or pleasure, or comfort, although it is definitely those things as well, but it is primarily health-giving, life-giving, and healing. When processed non-foods are eaten, they are not merely filling or neutral, they are actively harming the body. It never, ever, boils down to simple calories. What you put in your mouth is either giving you health and healing, or it is harming you. Period.

As time goes on, I'll be cogitating about what I need to do and how to go about doing it. I'm sure you'll "hear" about it here!

The McCombs Plan

So today (Tuesday, 8/18/09) is Day Six of a sixteen week Plan that Husband and I have embarked upon: The McCombs Plan. The photo is of the supplements (just for ME) that the plan uses. With Husband's schedule, he's just following the eating part of the plan as best he can, the supplements would be impossible for him to keep up with.

The Plan has four elements: 1. Supplements, 2. Drink Water, 3. Sweat, 4. Eating Plan.

The goal of the plan is to kill off fungal candida overgrowth, re-establish proper intestinal flora balance, and discover and eliminate what foods you are sensitive to. We all have candida, it's part of the normal intestinal flora, but with our modern diet and overuse or misuse of antibiotics, it grows out of control, causing a multitude of problems.

1. The supplements help to kill fungal candida, flush it out of the body, and re-establish proper flora. You take a detox supplement for the entire 16 weeks. This is primarily megadoses of Vitamin C, along with some other immune boosting herbs like echinacea. You take a candida-killing supplement for the first 8 weeks. After 6 weeks you add in an acidophilus supplement. There is no point to adding the probiotics before then, as the candida is too strong still and will overpower it.

2. Drinking water (1 quart per 50lbs of body weight) also helps to flush it out. We all know this is good for us. I actually already drank about this much water every day, so it's just a matter of accounting for me.

3. Sweating also helps to flush the toxins (that you are killing off) out of your body. You are to do this 6 times a week. This, to me, is the strangest part of the plan. I mean, it makes perfect sense once you read the explanation, but when I first heard about it, I wondered what on earth it was about. You see, exercise sweating doesn't count, it has to be in a bathtub or sauna. Hunh? More about this in a minute.

4. The eating plan limits what the candida feeds on, and as it's also an elimination diet, it helps you figure out what YOU react to. The first 8 weeks are the most restrictive, but it's *quite* a reasonable diet. You may eat: All meats except pork. All vegetables, including starchy ones. All fruits except oranges. Eggs. Brown rice (any form). Coffee, Tea. Olive oil. Coconut oil. (If you are not hip to coconut oil, read up on it, it's a remarkably health-giving substance!) Not a bad diet at all! It's sort of what I "claim" to eat anyway, but this is forcing me to put my money where my mouth is, as it were. After 8 weeks, you add back classes of food, one at a time. This way you are able to isolate your reactions and see what exactly you are reacting to.

So anyway. They send you a checklist to keep track of your supplements, water consumption, and sweating. I have mine on the fridge, and have been doing really well so far. On Day 2, I had a brain fart and had an iced latte at Starbuck's, but have not fallen off the diet wagon other than that. I've taken all my supplements and drunk all my water each day. The one thing I have not done is the sweating. On Day 2, I did my 30 minute bath, but as I have yet to figure out how to incorporate this into my daily routine, I have not been doing the sweats. Uh oh. See, here's the deal with the sweating, quoted from the book that accompanies the plan:

The major detoxification organs of the body are the liver, lungs, GI tract, and skin. Fungal Candida increases the toxicity of the entire body and thus overloads the detoxification system. Therefore it becomes essential to detoxify the body through its largest detoxification organ - the skin. ... Please Note: If you fail to follow the sweating protocol, your body will experience what may look like a cold, sore throat, etc., due to its attempts to detoxify the body through already overloaded systems.

... the sweating that results from [exercise] is not the same as the sweating that occurs during a dry sauna or a hot bath. The sweating that results from a hot bath or sauna involves conducting heat from outside the body to the core of the body, and toxins stored deeper within the body are released. Only sweating that is induced with a sauna or a hot bath will work to efficiently and effectively detoxyfy your body on this plan. If you avoid this step, you will likely develop a sore throat and cold symptoms.

I keep looking at my checklist and saying, "Oh my goodness, I have GOT to do that sweating!" but not doing it. Guess what? Last night, I realized my sinuses were filling up. And I woke up this morning with a sinus headache. It's by no means the worst I've ever had, but it's a great reminder of why the sweating must be done!

I have wasted my "bath" time making this entry, but I am on my way to the gym, where there is a sauna, so I will investigate that for the first time.

So there is my life for the next 15 weeks... Wish me luck! ;-)

*Update*: I took the plunge and did ten minutes in the sauna at the gym. It was fairly pleasant. The time went pretty fast because there was another gal in there to chat with. Interesting: I had sweat running down my leg from my operated knee. My other knee just had a few drops on it. I noticed this one day at physical therapy, too; that my working knee was sweating, but I chalked it up to isolating that leg in the exercises. This is different, my whole body was sweating, but more from operated area. I'm totally, totally fascinated by this!

Notes from the Road

[[Written on the airplane]]

Driving to Austin this morning, I saw bluebonnets starting to emerge, lovely! It's been a very dry winter though, so my personal prediction is that they will not be very lush this year. I'm no horticulturist, so perhaps they will prove me wrong!

The drought was abundantly evident in the many tanks I drove by that were nothing more than muddy depressions in the ground. A tank, for any yankee or citified southern readers I might have, is a man-made pond for the livestock to drink from and cool off in.

I absolutely love the Austin airport. It's so easy to get to, into, and through! There was one weird inconvenience today: they had signs that directed me on a bizarre goose chase around the parking lot, at the end of which I ended up parking pretty much where I always park. I have no idea what that was about.

They have a shuttle bus, but I always choose to walk. I just sat for an hour and a half, and am about to sit for a couple of hours on the plane, so I welcome the opportunity to stretch my legs in between. I was glad that my parka for Chicago fit into my suitcase so that I didn't have to wear it in the Texas heat!

There was no line at Security, breezed right through. Note to self: hiking boots aren't the *best* choice for pulling off for security...

An earlier flight had cancelled, so the half-full flight I'd signed up for was suddenly full. So, no first class seat for me, but a seat is a seat & I got one, and I'm on my way to the Windy City!

As we were waiting on the jetbridge to board, a cute young boy turned around and started chatting with me and a chick standing near us. Turns out he is a percussion major at UT & is headed to Chicago to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He won second place in an international competition last year, so he must be pretty rockin!

The chick said she was headed up with a friend who will be playing in a charity fundraiser poker tournament, so that's pretty cool, too.

The captain on this flight turns out to be female, which is still rare, although I'm sure it's getting less so all the time.

I was not worried that I only have a little left to go on the one book I brought along, because I always enjoy the in-flight magazine, and since I haven't flown in a while, it would be a new one to me. Well. This issue is 100% dedicated to basketball. Articles about players, their clothes, gadgets, favorite restaurants and hotels. Even reviews of CDs that basketball players have guest starred on. So, I flipped through it in about 5 minutes and was done with that! Boring. The good news is that when I head home on Monday, it will be a new month, so there will be a new issue for me to read.

I could kick myself for not bringing along a baggie of almonds! I bought a bag of sunflower seeds in the airport, and they are pretty awful. Yay for rancid vegetable oils. Next time you open a bag of potato or tortilla chips, take a whiff of it before you start chowing. That smell? Rancid vegetable oil. I wish some brave company would step out boldly and make potato chips cooked in lard or beef tallow! Animal fats don't go rancid, folks. Not at anything *like* the rate that veg oils do. Anyway. Today's rant!

We have landed in Chicago, but have stopped short of the gate. I'm sure if adventures warrant, I'll post about them soon!

Homemade "Gatorade"

So, I've read a couple of places that a beverage with a little bit of sugar in it actually hydrates your tissues better than plain water. One book recommends creating a "hydrating beverage" by putting a teaspoon of maple syrup in 8 oz water, or 2 oz fruit juice to 6 oz water. My own version is to take a half-liter bottle of water, drink a couple ounces of it, add juice to top up, and shake to mix.

Recently Husband got to drinking Gatorade and of course found it to be more refreshing than water alone. But it contains glycerol ester of wood rosin and an awful lot of refined sugar. I think the main thing that makes Gatorade what it is is a small sodium content, to help replace what you sweat out during exercise. So, I calculated how much salt was needed to make my "hydrating beverage" above comparable in sodium content, and it's 1/8 tsp, or a good-sized pinch.

So, I suppose the recipe would go like this:

14 ounces spring or filtered water
2 ounces fruit juice (I'm particulary fond of a blueberry blend)
1/8 tsp celtic sea salt (this has natural minerals in addition to the sodium)

Mix and be refreshed!

Almond Power Bars

I found a photo, description, and link to this recipe on my new favorite blog/website, The Nourishing Gourmet. She posts recipes and tips for making delicious foods made with traditional, natural ingredients. Her philosophy is based on the Nourishing Traditions book, and she's really living it and spreading the word. I'm grateful for the help, as I want to live into this philosophy as much as I can, but the book is a bit daunting.

She found the recipe itself on the website Elena's Pantry, and Elena, in turn, modified it from Melissa Diane Smith’s recipe for Amaretto Protein Bars in her book Going Against the Grain.

So! Without further ado, here is my own version:

2 cups almonds (raw)
½ cup flax meal (flax seeds ground in a blender)
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
½ cup unsalted almond butter (roasted tastes better)
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup coconut oil
2 to 4 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Place almonds, flax meal, shredded coconut, almond butter and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly, about 10 seconds.
In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat. [I actually just put the jar into hot water until I could pour out what I needed] Remove coconut oil from stove, stir honey and vanilla into oil. Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste.
Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish.
Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens.
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate chips over very low heat, stirring continuously.
Spread melted chocolate over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate hardens.
Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve.
Makes 20 bars

[Tuesday Update: We each had one or two of these today midday, and did not need to eat lunch. They are DELICIOUS, not too sweet, and very satisfying. Awesome!! Next time I will add dried cherries to the bars... yum! John had the idea to put pistachios in, that would be good, too. The post at Elena's Pantry has a macadamia version too... So yummy and fun! Easy too, once you have the ingredients on hand. I've been eating flaxmeal with my yogurt, so I had to buy roasted almond butter, coconut, and coconut oil. Now that I have them on hand, super easy to make more!]

One more Update: I did make it with the dried cherries, and added a bit of almond extract too. I also found the agave nectar called for in the original recipe and used 2 Tablespoons of that in place of the honey. These additions made these a bit sweeter than the last batch, but also tasty! I'm not sure about the agave nectar, things I've read say it's "low-glycemic", and it's a more neutral sweet than the flavor of honey or maple syrup. I may try maple syrup next time. Oh, one thing I noticed about the agave nectar, I tasted a drop of it by itself, and I think it tastes of marshmallows. Weird!

IMPORTANT FURTHER UPDATE: (2/13/10) Use the honey, or maybe maple syrup, but not the agave nectar. I have since found out that agave nectar has more of the processed sort of fructose (versus the good stuff in fresh fruit) than the evil High Fructose Corn Syrup. Stay FAR FAR AWAY from it.