Thought the Ice Cream Cleanse Was Too Good to be True? How About Trying the Tequila Diet?

A new study found that sugars used to make the potent potable can promote weight loss and help diabetes patients

If you'd asked me a few hours ago whether I thought tequila could help you lose weight, I'd have thought for a minute and then said, "Sure, because it makes you throw up." I'm witty that way. 

Turns out that getting sick from six one shot too many is not the sole reason the nectar from the blue agave plant can help you shed pounds. 

According to a new study conducted by Mexican researchers (you gettin' this, Alanis?), agavins, the natural sugars used to make tequila, don't raise blood sugar. This is exciting news for folks with type 2 diabetes and anyone who struggles with excess weight. 

In the lab, scientists fed mice a regular diet and added agavins to only some of the water dishes. They found that the rodents who'd drunk the fortified water "ate less overall and had lower blood glucose levels." What's more, they also generated an insulin-producing hormone called GLP-1 that also keeps the stomach full longer. 

Not to be confused with agave syrup, a heavily-marketed sweetener so high in fructose that its been vilified by many in the health sector, agavins are fructans, which means they don't have the same blood-sugar raising effects as iffy fructose-based sweeteners. 

Mercedes G. Lopez, who led the study, finds only one potential downside to pursuing the use of agavins as a sugar alternative: "[They] are not quite as sweet as their artificial counterparts," says Lopez. Not much of a drawback if you consider the health and waistline benefits. 

Now, before you run out and get rip-roaring drunk in the name of weight loss, there's one slight bummer factor that Lopez mentioned towards the end of her speech at the Biotechnology convention in Guanajuato, Mexico. "[Because in the production of tequila] agavins are converted to ethanol, agavins are not found in the finished product."