Alternative Sugars

A very good friend suggested I write a post on alternative sugars, specifically maple sugar, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and date sugar.

I love all sweeteners, but she was asking about the health benefits, if any, of these sugars compared to white, refined sugar.

This will be a short post because there are no large studies comparing eating gobs of maple sugar and eating gobs of table sugar. However, I can answer her question.

If you’ve read my book, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, you know that everything has a benefit and a downside. The main downside of sweeteners with sugar is that they cause weight gain. This happens because eating sugar raises our blood glucose, causing levels of insulin and other fat-storing hormones to rise. How fast and how high our glucose rises is reflected in the glycemic index. Fifty grams of pure glucose raises our blood glucose higher than 50 grams of anything else. This is defined as a glycemic index of 100. Nothing else can raise our blood glucose more than eating glucose.

Refined table sugar is 100% sucrose. Sucrose is a combination of glucose and fructose. Since fructose doesn’t raise our blood glucose as much as glucose does, sucrose has a lower glycemic index than pure glucose, about 70. Honey is also a mixture of glucose and fructose, so it also has a lower glycemic index than glucose.

Other factors that lower the glycemic index of a food are the other components in a food. An apple, though sweet, has a low glycemic index. The main sugar is fructose, and apples have fiber in them, slowing the absorption of sugar.

This is what happens with the alternative sugars listed above. They all have a lower glycemic index than sucrose. Maple syrup (the boiled sap of the maple tree) and maple sugar (syrup boiled down to solid form) contain healthy non-sugar nutrients, which refined sugar lacks. Compounds in maple syrup and maple sugar also slow the absorption of the sugar, lowering their glycemic index.

So, maple syrup and maple sugar are better for you than refined table sugar. However, while the glycemic index is lower than table sugar, it is still high enough to make you gain weight if you eat enough. If you eat foods with sugar in them, you will have difficulty losing weight. If you have a weight issue, I don’t recommend table sugar, maple sugar, or maple syrup.

Coconut sugar and date sugar have the same problem as maple sugar. Their glycemic index is lower than table sugar but too high for you to lose weight. Any added sugar can ruin your weight loss plan. If you need to sweeten something, add the whole fruit or use stevia, the non-nutritive sweetener I prefer.

If you don’t have a weight issue, using these alternative sugars has some benefits over refined table sugar. Whether they are worth the higher price tag is up to you. If you have a weight issue, I would avoid these alternative sugars and all added sugar.