Comments on: Is All Natural Maple Syryup Really Healthier Than The Artificial Syrup? I Compared Nutrition Labels U Decide.

By: The Unknown Chef

The Unknown Chef — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:17:07 +0000

Being a former chef and having did some food science courses, the main difference is that the type of sugars, glucose based as aposed to the sucrose based, like with honey.
Like honey, real true Maple Syrup is a simple sugar and therefore does not react the same way as a compound based sugar like cane, beet and corn based sugar products, for those counting calories or diabetic, which I am one, the simple sugar do not raise the insulin level the same why as the others.
Most artifical maple syrups have no real syrup or a trace amount, it is mostly flavours.

By: marie

marie — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:40:21 +0000

The natural syrup gos a lot further than that gloppy stuff. You have to pour and pour the other stuff. Real syrup is thinner and has more flavor. I think the reason it has more sugar, would be lack of additives.

By: Arianna

Arianna — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:46:22 +0000

Well, “sugars” is a very broad term. Basically, maple syrup is made by tapping the sap of a tree and boiling it down to a thick syrup. By boiling down the sap, they are eliminating the water and reducing it to just the sugars present in the tree and enough water to keep it liquid. It’s like if you took apple juice and boiled it down – you’d be left with very high fruit-sugar syrup, though it would probably taste kind of nasty.
I imagine the artificial stuff has less sugar because it’s just sweetener added to water, and more sodium because most processed foods have a tonne of sodium, whereas some boiled sap from a tree would necessarily only have trace amounts.
Unless you’re diabetic or worried about blood sugar levels, I wouldn’t let the amount of sugar in natural maple syrup put you off of it in favour of the artificial stuff. I’m pretty sure the unprocessed, naturally occurring sugars in the maple syrup are healthier and more easily metabolized.

By: ?

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:30:32 +0000

Your point illustrates exactly why those nutritional labels aren’t the full story. The sugars in the natural maple syrup aren’t the same as the sugars in the artificial.
In general, you should always chose foods that have the fewest ingredients and have been minimally processed.
In case you didn’t know, High Fructose Corn Syrup is chemically derived from GMO corn. You should avoid it like the plague.