Glycemic Index Rating, Pros and Cons

Coconut sugar is a natural sweetener derived from the sap of the coconut palm tree. The sap is dried and made into granules or sugar blocks for culinary use. It is often marketed as a healthier alternative to table sugar and with additional benefits.

To determine whether coconut sugar makes sense for you, it’s important to look at factors like glycemic index, processing, and nutrition.

This article examines whether coconut sugar is a suitable sugar substitute, including its nutritional makeup and the pros and cons of its use.

Coconut Sugar: Its Place on the Glycemic Index

The glycemic index (GI) is a scale used to evaluate the effect of carbohydrate-containing foods on your blood sugar levels. It ranks them on a scale from 1 to 100; higher values ​​indicate a faster increase in blood sugar. Using the GI is especially appropriate for people who have diabetes or are monitoring blood sugar trends, but it can also be beneficial for overall health and wellness.

Coconut sugar has a lower GI compared to regular sugar. This means it has a slower effect on blood sugar levels, which may benefit people who need to manage their blood sugar.

Coconut sugar is generally around 35 on the GI scale, while table sugar is between 60 and 65. While it’s not a huge difference, coconut sugar has a slightly less dramatic effect on your blood sugar levels than table sugar.

Is Coconut Sugar a Good Sugar Replacement?

Coconut sugar is often marketed as a healthier alternative to refined sugar and has some potential advantages. However, it is important to consider a variety of factors and not view any sugar substitute as a one-size-fits-all solution.

Benefits

The main benefit of coconut sugar is that it is similar to table sugar and can be used in the same ways to sweeten recipes and drinks. Compared to table sugar, coconut sugar has a slightly lower glycemic index and contains small amounts of several micronutrients, which it retains during processing.

Side effects

Coconut sugar is still sugar. It is not intended to be consumed regularly or in large quantities; It’s meant to help boost the sweetness of certain recipes. Coconut and refined sugars are so similar that they can be used in the same ways in the kitchen with a simple 1-for-1 swap.

If you eat too much sugar, you consume a significant amount of calories that contain no fiber, fat, protein, and only minimal amounts of certain vitamins and minerals. Consuming coconut sugar (or any sugar) in large amounts can increase your risk of inflammation, unintentional weight gain, and related diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Regardless of where it comes from, health experts recommend getting no more than 20% of your total daily calories from added sugar, including coconut sugar.

Nutritional Values: Single Coconut Sugar Serving

Compared to table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, which provide calories with no nutritional benefit, coconut sugar offers a variety of nutrients as well as energy.

A 2 teaspoon or 8 gram (g) serving of coconut sugar has the following nutritional composition:

• Calories: 30
• Total fat: 0g
• Sodium: 0 milligrams (mg)
• Total carbohydrates: 8g
• Total sugar: 7 g
• Protein: 0g

Although not always listed on the nutrition facts label, studies have found that coconut sugar provides trace amounts of potassium, calcium, zinc, vitamin C, magnesium, iron and some antioxidants.

That doesn’t mean coconut sugar is a good source of these micronutrients, though. You’d have to eat a lot of coconut sugar to get a useful amount, which comes with lots of extra calories.

While coconut sugar contains more nutrients than table sugar, you’re much better off getting vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from whole food sources like fruits and vegetables.

Sap Extraction and Coconut Sugar Making

How to make coconut sugar? It is obtained not from coconut, but from the sap of the coconut palm tree. The process of making coconut candy consists of two main steps.

First, you need to make a cut in the palm tree flower that will allow the liquid sap to flow. The sap is collected in containers and then exposed to high heat. This evaporates the sap and any remaining liquid.

Then the dried, crystallized solids are divided into granules that can be used like table sugar. The final product is flesh-colored and has a caramel-like taste.

Coconut Sugar Alternatives

If you’re looking for sugar alternatives but don’t want to stick with coconut sugar, there are other options available for cooking and baking, including:

• Brown sugar: Brown sugar is simply white sugar and molasses but has a similar color and texture to coconut sugar.
• crude turbinado: turbinado The candy is made from cane sugar but retains some of the molasses from its processing and offers a caramel-like taste.
• honey or agave: If you don’t need solid granules, honey or agave nectar can work well to sweeten recipes and drinks.
• maple syrup: Maple syrup, another liquid option, brings its unique smoky maple flavor.
• Sukanat: This comes from cane sugar but is less processed than cane sugar, resulting in a brown color similar to coconut sugar and a caramel-like taste.
• palm sugar: This is a far cry from table sugar because it is made from dried ground dates. But this is a minimally processed option and dates are naturally sweet. It works well in certain baked recipes; Just remember that it doesn’t melt like sugar.
• stevia: This sugar, derived from the stevia plant, is sweeter than coconut sugar and works best in sweetening beverages and baking.

There is no single best sugar alternative or sweetening option. Choose the one that best suits your needs and preferences.

Summary

There is a lot of marketing hype for coconut sugar and other sweetening ingredients. While coconut sugar is less processed, has a lower glycemic index, and has a slightly better micronutrient profile than table sugar, that doesn’t make it a “health food.” Added sugar is still added sugar, and coconut sugar should still be used in moderation in your kitchen.