Comments on: Sweetener Comparisons: Honey, Agave, Molasses, Sugar, Maple Syrup

By: roni

roni — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:25:20 +0000

Sorry Gary, I don’t. These days I stick to honey and molasses. That’s about it for me.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:38:20 +0000

Roni, Thank you for the very informative article on sweeteners, and especially the comparison chart. I’ve read a little about the biological sugar called trehalose, but I don’t know how it could be used in cooking. Do you have any ideas?

By: roni

roni — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:11:58 +0000

Honestly, I haven't researched but I have recently fallen in love with Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Coconut Sugar

By: Julie Feldman

Julie Feldman — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:27:43 +0000

What are your thoughts on sucanat?

By: Seth

Seth — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:12:47 +0000

This data can easily mislead someone to the wrong conclusion. Sugar is only lower in calories than the other four sweeteners when measured by a standard volume (1/2 cup). But according to this data, when compared by WEIGHT, sugar has 27% MORE calories per gram than honey, 33% more kcal/g than molasses, 48% more kcal/g than maple syrup and 35% more kcal/g than agave nectar.
Sugar also has the highest glycemic load per gram.
Really the key question is which sweetener achieves the desired sweetness level with the least amount of calories? And of course, which one does our body agree with the most?
In my opinion, honey wins.

By: Jana

Jana — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:14:16 +0000

Great info! I’ll be adding a link to this on my blog, on my recent post regarding the fructose content of various sweeteners. Fructose is starting to be suspected of being a major player in many health issues.

link to ohthatstasty.com

By: Albi

Albi — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 01:00:17 +0000

At the moment its stevia. But im researching around and turns out the cheap ol coconut sugar ( im fr south east asia – malaysia) has a lower gi of 35 vs maple syrup 55. And are mainly sucrose vs agave which although hv lower gi is mainly single sugar fructose. Fructose are only processed to be stored as liver glycogen – its great post cardio but in term of muscular replenishment we need glucose. Date syrup high gi but its great as post workout. Athough i enjoy stevia , its fairly new and theres nothing to establish its safety in long term or heavy consumption. So im planning to vary my sweeterner. I think people should look at their local option ( pomegranate molasses in mid eastern, palm sugar/ coconut sugar, date, fruits like honey jackfruit boiled down— south east asia again) to sweeten up their life. Decrease carbon emission and friendlier to your economu.

By: Ellen B. Hazzard

Ellen B. Hazzard — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 07:49:08 +0000

This is regarding raw sugar or any other mildly processed sugar. I had a friend, an MD, who served on The National Sugar Board a number of years ago. He toured all the sugar processing plants all over the world and the one constant that he always commented on was how many ppm’s of rat shit are allowed in raw sugar vs. processed white sugar. Thank you i will ingest my rat shit quotient in some other way and definitely NOT in raw sugar. Gave it up years ago for this very reason. Hmmmmmmmm!!!!!!! We eat at our own peril. Honey harbors bacteria. Maple syrup is the cleanest because it is boiled and boiled and boiled, so is clean AND pure. A bit pricey, but if you want your sweet sources to be clean, maple syrup is the way to go.

By: Harriet Sugar Miller

Harriet Sugar Miller — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:19:38 +0000

Roni,
What sources do you trust for GI/GL values? I’m finding different values from different sources. Thanks.

By: Steve L

Steve L — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:17:49 +0000

I use a mixture of honey, maple syrup, brown sugar and splenda depending on what I’m baking. I am deathly alergic to aspartame(nutra sweet/amino sweet) but have a type 1 diabetic son. Thankfully, for us both splenda came out and we both can have that.

I haven’t used sweeteners on the table in decades. Grew up putting the spoons of white sugar on my cereal in the morning… now can’t stand it like that.

One of the things I have noticed since moving away from white sugar is a difference in the glycemic spike in my son’s BG levels after he eats my baking. The brown sugar and other sugars definitely raise his levels, but there isn’t so much of a “spike” as a “hump” in his levels.

Great information on here.

By: Theresa Howell

Theresa Howell — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:49:02 +0000

I have not used this yet but will be soon. I don’t need any more cavities.
http://www.xylitol.org

By: Pete Julienne

Pete Julienne — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:59:01 +0000

Hey Roni,

This is a great article. I just discovered mixing Molasses and Honey this morning. I came across your website and you said exactly how I feel. What a great validation! I have completely stopped eating any processed foods. I have not eaten any less and lost about 20 lbs and for the first time feel great in a long time.

You blog is a wonderful source of information. Keep it up!

By: Jin

Jin — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:39:37 +0000

Thank you so much for your info. It’s exactly what I’m looking for!

By: Lane

Lane — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:08:17 +0000

When factoring in cost + health benefits,black-strap is the way to go.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Mon, 28 May 2012 12:54:17 +0000

Mary, I’m an out-of-stater, but love maple syrup. Just made maple bacon ice cream with coconut milk/cream using only maple syrup to sweeten. So great. But I like that grade B will offer more flavor. Thanks for tip, I never understood the difference. Next project, honey lavender, then black strap molasses ginger for the holiday season. I’ve also tried to use molasses more for its calcium – thinking just molasses coconut ice cream might be just the nutritious end of meal treat I’m looking for!

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:36:52 +0000

I live in Vermont where the best Maple Syrup in in the world is made. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup which is why it’s so expensive. However it does offer many of same benefits as honey for the same reasons. If you have allergies it can really help. As to the strength of the flavor Roni mentioned, I can only assume she has only tried the darker grades. Many people like the flavor so they use the dark or lower grades of maple to enhance this flavor, however if you just want the sweetness without a lot of maple flavor I would recommend the Grade A fancy. It has a very mild flavor with all of the sweetness and it costs the same amount. Most people from out of state get grade B because they are used to artificial maples that have a strong flavor, but real Vermonters only use grade B in cooking. Personally I use the fancy on everything. Of course I can go to any convenience store, grocery store, or even my local insurance office to get this so it’s a good option for me.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:08:12 +0000

I feel that people are generally ignorant of the real dangers of sugar. Sugar encourages metabolic disorders and chronic disease. Also, cancer grows and feeds from sugar (including fructose), over fats or proteins.

I hope people will watch “The Bitter Truth” presented by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology.

Here is a short, easy-to-read article on how cancer uses sugar.
link to drmirkin.blogspot.com

By: Liz W

Liz W — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:55:03 +0000

i’m trying to reduce our intake of processed sugars. i’m also trying to reduce my use of things like equal in tea. i tried agave, and that stuff wasn’t dissolving in my iced tea! it was a bummer. i’ve tried and liked stevia (sweetleaf, which is less processed), but it’s expensive, and i really like my iced tea. been using a lot of honey in baked goods lately, though, and it’s been a mild sweetness. we’ve also been buy bananas just to let them over-ripe to use them in baking. once they’re brown, we just freeze them till we’re ready for them. it’s been working. we also waste less food that way.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:24:59 +0000

Hey Roni! Thank you so much for answering my question about agave nectar, and so completely too! Wow, you did a lot of work on it. I will look back and reference this post a lot, I’m sure. It’s funny, because the day you posted this I had just gone out for the first time to buy molasses, because I wanted to make your molasses cookies. I haven’t made them yet, but I’m comforted knowing that molasses is now in my arsenal. Now that I see how much more nutritious it is than other sweeteners, I’m excited to start adding it into some things.

Since I posted this question some time ago, I have looked into at least the calorie content of agave compared to honey, and I noticed that it was about the same. Since then I’ve been working on using up the agave that I have, but I’m not sure I’ll buy any more. It seems like a fad more than anything. Syrup is syrup after all, right? It’s gonna be sweet, and with sweet comes calories. That’s what’s so cool about the molasses; it has calories, but it also has some great micronutrients too. Thanks for doing this detailed review!

By: Thea @ I'm a Drama Mama

Thea @ I'm a Drama Mama — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 02:18:50 +0000

I’ve been so afraid to make the switch from white sugar, especially in my coffee. I’m just afraid that my coffee will taste like whatever else I put in it.

I’m almost out of white sugar so when I went to the grocery, I bought turbinado raw cane sugar. I have no idea what that meant, LOL! There were so many options when it came to granulated things.

One of these days, I need to try adding honey to my coffee. What’s the worst that could happen, right? If I don’t like it, I’ll make another cup of coffee!

By: FoodontheTable

FoodontheTable — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:37:55 +0000

Great idea to compare these different sweeteners. Personally I’m partial to honey.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:38:10 +0000

My in-laws use stevia, and I like that it doesn’t have the long lasting sweet taste that sugar does, but has no after taste. It does take some getting used to. I got on the agave bandwagon and then rarely used it. I didn’t like how the recipes I made turned out. I’d rather just use sugar and limit how much I eat of it. That said, I suck at limited how much I eat sugar but frankly I’d rather eat sugar than chemical sweeteners any day.
Thanks for the post! I knew there was a lot of great stuff in molasses, and I really think that it is under used today. We only seem to use it around the holidays in ginger cookies and pecan pie. I am going to have to figure out how to use it in other recipes that aren’t quite so sweet and fattening.

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:36:39 +0000

Oh That is a great link. Thank you

By: wendy

wendy — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:14:40 +0000

I use Honey over Maple Sugar because it is cheaper. We have a beekeeper friend who we get our honey from. I also have some sucanat. I do buy white sugar…my husband is a big sweet tea drinker and prefers white sugar in it (1 cup per pitcher – yicks – I know!).

By: roni

roni — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:59:16 +0000

Julie – This may help. Great sub chart… link to naturodoc.com