Issue No. 049 · Sweeteners

The “healthy” syrup that scored 98

Holiday baking starts now. Here are 3 sweetener swaps, ranked by the numbers.

I love maple syrup.

For years I hid that bottle behind the milk, because a diet book told me every sweetener was the same poison and I had to quit them all.

My doctor never mentioned that sweeteners score very differently on the glycemic index.

That index ranks carbs by how fast they raise blood sugar, with pure glucose set at 100. In other words, a lower number means a gentler rise.

So with holiday baking season here, I pulled the scores for every syrup and sugar in my pantry.

A few of the “healthy” ones scored worse than plain white sugar.

GI scores are published lab averages, and your own response may differ. This is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing how you manage your blood sugar.

Brown rice syrup sounds like a health food, and it shows up in plenty of granola bars and “natural” snacks.

But that syrup is made by breaking rice starch into chains of glucose, so your body handles it almost like pure glucose. That’s why it scored 98, higher than table sugar at 65.

Pure maple syrup scored 54, because it is mostly sucrose, and half of every sucrose molecule is fructose.

My pancakes never needed rescuing from maple syrup. The granola bar I ate in the car was the bigger problem.

Check your snack labels for rice syrup.

Coconut sugar swaps cup for cup with brown sugar, so your cookie recipe stays the same and nobody at the table will notice.

It scored 54 against 65 for white sugar. Some brands claim it scores even lower, but I would not count on that.

That gap is smaller than the first one, and I want to be clear about that.

Eleven points is a small win… and small wins add up across a whole season of baking.

Agave scored the lowest of anything I checked, around 15.

That low score comes with a catch. Agave is mostly fructose, and fructose barely shows up on a glucose test because your liver handles it instead.

In other words, a low number here does not mean a free pass. Too much fructose may add to fat build-up in the liver.

Honey sits around 61 and carries far less fructose than agave, so I keep a small jar of honey and skip the agave.

And honey is sweet enough that a thin drizzle does the job.

Sometimes the lowest number is the trap.

One more thing surprised me.

In one small study, the same maple syrup scored 11 for one person and far higher for someone else. These scores are averages, and your body may not match them.

That’s why I trust my own glucose monitor over any chart, including this one.

So you do not have to quit sweet… you get to pick which sweet goes in the bowl.

Every one of these is still sugar, so a spoonful beats a cup.

★ Welcome to the revolution

Jackie