Is maple syrup a healthy sweetener? | Nourishable Raw Episode 12

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Hosting, Research, Writing & Post-Production by Lara Hyde, PhD

Music & Video Production by Robbie Hyde

The information in this video is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this video is for general information purposes only.

As a Canadian, maple syrup runs in my blood. There are a bunch of claims that maple syrup is a healthy, natural sweetener, but what exactly does that mean? Let’s science it.
First we can look at the nutrient contents of maple syrup compared to sucrose, or your typical refined white table sugar. For an equivalent serving size, maple syrup is lower in calories and sugar and contains some beneficial minerals like calcium, zinc and manganese. But the amounts are pretty low, and it is best to get these nutrients from whole foods.
There’s been a fair bit of research into some of the other antioxidant nutrients in maple syrup. These antioxidants aren’t essential for life, but they can help reduce oxidative stress in the body. Think of oxidative stress as rust - overtime, oxidative stress or rusting in the body contributes to the development of many chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and accelerates the aging process. Diets that are high in antioxidant nutrients, like beta-carotene that makes carrots orange, reduces oxidative stress.
Chemical analysis has shown that maple syrup has a bunch of different antioxidant compounds in it. Test tube studies have shown that maple syrup decreases the reactions that lead to oxidative stress. It turns out there’s actually more of these antioxidants in the lower grades of maple syrup - these are the darker coloured syrups that are harvested later in the season.
So that seems like a good thing! Pour on the maple syrup, reduce my oxidative stress! But here’s the thing - you’d probably have to consume TONNES of maple syrup to actually get enough antioxidants to have any benefit. One serving of maple syrup has only a fraction of the antioxidant capacity of one serving of walnuts. So far maple syrup research has been in test tubes and cells in a dish, which is pretty different than a human! We have no idea how much of these beneficial nutrients we can absorb and where they would go in our body.
Plus, maple syrup is still mostly sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends consuming no more than 10% of your daily calories as added sugar. For a standard 2000kcal diet that would be 50g of table sugar, or the equivalent of a quarter cup of maple syrup.
Putting this all together, we can ask two questions. First, should you add maple syrup to your diet for health purposes? Nope, too much added sugar. Question two - is it healthier to replace white sugar with maple syrup? Maybe a little bit. Though it hasn’t really been studied, the current science suggests that the benefits would be marginal to non-existent at healthy levels of added sugar consumption. Although maple syrup contains some beneficial nutrients, they don’t offset the impacts of the sugar. There is some research going on with maple syrup extracts, that essentially isolate just the antioxidants remove the sugar, which seems like a more feasible approach to me.
So what do we do with this information? If you like the flavour of maple syrup, then use it in place of white sugar where applicable. Just make sure to stay under that added sugar max most of the time. Personally, I use maple syrup when I eat pancakes or bake a cake on special occasions, and every once in a while I’ll use a tiny bit when roasting veggies or in a delicious bourbon cocktail. But it doesn’t play a prominent role in my dietary pattern. That’s what science tastes like.

References

Images: Shutterstock

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I barely ever use sweetener, since doing the Whole 30 Program. When I do, I use pure maple syrup, honey, or stevia/monk fruit. Like I said, rarely, and when I do use any of that, it’s not much, because my taste buds have changed.

rebekahwilson

"You'd have to consume tons of maple syrup"
Bring it on

(I want to cry, I love maple syrup)

n.c.

But the fact that maple syrup has no chemicals but sugar has like sulphur

navneetkaur

You said maple syrup practically flows in your blood at the beginning and changed your mind at the end saying it doesn't play a prominent roll in your diet....AND YOU'R A DOCTOR, RU?

expertssay

Speaking of sweet stuff, can you do an episode on the healthiest ways to get a chocolate fix?

oro

I love the natural Woody sweet flavour of real maple syrup and I like it raw

lilth

Hi i would like to make a pound cake hat sweetner should i use the other day i used a quarter cup of swerve sweetner but it still taste to sweet what will you recomend for me to replace sugar i find substitute sugars so sweet can you let me know what i could use instead

angeliclight-hh

Hi i would like to make a cake can i use yogourt or applesauce tosweeten the cake instead of artificial sugars maple syrup is good but sweet dates are sweet so whats the best thing to do to avoid highsugar steviamonkfruit erthritol not interested please give me advice to make my cake that is not toosweet thank you

angeliclight-hh

I exercise 5 times a week (intense exercising), I started to include maple syrup on my diet to gain healthy weight and to build some muscle. Do you think maple syrup is a good choice for someone who intend to gain some healthy weight? Like 3 to 4 maple syrup tbs per a day

DSI

So I guess it’s the same thing when I use white table, sugar, versus maple syrup? I’m so confused, because so many people seem to think that maple syrup is so much healthier than regular sugar.

healthhollow

thanks i am not trying the syrup anymore

diegoramos

There are so many mixed messages ober artificial sweeteners and their effect on insulin. But what does the research day? E.g. will sucralose break a fast and impact health negatively?

littlevoice_

But white sugar goes through a process using chemicals. Maple syrup is natural. I avoid white sugar like the plague. I dont use molasses either, still not natural.

reikidreams