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    Home ยป Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    All About Maple Syrup

    Last Modified: Feb 8, 2023 by Paleo Leaper ยท This post may contain affiliate links ยท Leave a Comment

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    Maple syrup is often mentioned in the same breath as honey as a โ€œnatural sweetener,โ€ implying that itโ€™s a better choice than refined sugar. People who understand that โ€œnaturalโ€ doesnโ€™t mean โ€œgoodโ€ get more specific: itโ€™s nutrient-dense than table sugar and rich in antioxidants, which sugar doesnโ€™t contain.

    The killjoy truth here is that โ€œnaturalโ€ sugar is sugar like any other sugar: fructose doesnโ€™t magically become healthy because itโ€™s โ€œnatural.โ€ The best approach to any kind of sugar is to eat it in small amounts as an occasional treat, not as a regular part of your diet.

    Itโ€™s true that maple syrup has more nutrients than refined cane sugar (not a terribly high bar to clear) and that it has some antioxidants, but these both come in relatively small amounts relative to its sugar content, and thereโ€™s nothing in maple syrup that you canโ€™t also get from other sources. If youโ€™re looking for a Paleo-friendly sweetener, maple syrup is far from your worst choice, and thereโ€™s nothing wrong with it in appropriate amounts, but donโ€™t confuse it for a healthy staple.

    Maple Syrup: Nutrients and Antioxidants

    Maple syrup starts its life as sap from maple trees; then itโ€™s concentrated into a sweet syrup by boiling it and letting the water evaporate. Because itโ€™s relatively โ€œunprocessedโ€ and โ€œnatural,โ€ itโ€™s often claimed to have a higher nutrient content than table sugar โ€“ which is true, but less impressive when you look at the actual numbers.

    1 tablespoon (20 grams) of maple syrup has 52 calories, almost all of which comes from sugar (around 12 grams of sugar).

    Hereโ€™s a comparative sugar content to put โ€œ12 gramsโ€ in context:

    Sweetener:Table sugar (white or brown)Maple syrupHoneyDates
    Grams of sugar per 1 tbsp:121217(per 1 date): 16

    Maple syrup has a lower glycemic index than table sugar, but that doesnโ€™t actually mean much in context: glycemic index isnโ€™t a very useful way of determining whether a food is healthy or not, and it doesnโ€™t matter much if youโ€™re eating the food as part of a mixed meal. Since you probably (hopefully!) arenโ€™t sitting around guzzling tablespoons of maple syrup straight from the bottle, donโ€™t sweat the glycemic index.

    In terms of micronutrients, 1 tablespoon containsโ€ฆ

    • 1% of the Daily Value of calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and copper.
    • 6% of the Daily Value of zinc.
    • 33% of the Daily Value of manganese.

    The manganese is a nice-to-have in the context of Paleo because there arenโ€™t a huge number of other Paleo-friendly sources. You can get it from other sources including beef liver, nuts, mussels, and spinach, but maple syrup is a nice additional source if you like it. Other than the manganese, though, thereโ€™s not much here that you couldnโ€™t get somewhere else: it might be technically โ€œmore nutrient-denseโ€ than sugar, but itโ€™s not going to win any nutrition contests any time soon.

    Like most other plant foods, maple syrup also contains a huge variety of phenols with antioxidant activity, but itโ€™s not clear what effects most of these chemicals actually have in humans in whole-foods doses (as opposed to being squirted on cells from a test tube or used as an antimicrobial in a concentrated extract โ€“ these uses donโ€™t prove that maple syrup as poured on your pancakes has any anti-cancer or antimicrobial benefits in humans).

    The bottom line: itโ€™s better than table sugar, but not by all that much, and itโ€™s far from the most nutrient-dense thing you could be eating. As a treat, thereโ€™s nothing wrong with it, but it doesnโ€™t clear the bar for Paleo staple foods.

    grilled maple dijon salmon
    Need some recipe inspiration? Maple syrup is delicious on salmon with bacon and dijon mustard!

    Choosing Maple Syrup and Figuring out the Grading System

    If you're choosing to eat maple syrup, you want to actually eat maple syrup, not high-fructose corn syrup with caramel color. Here's how to get the real stuff.

    Most importantly, donโ€™t even look twice at any jar labeled โ€œmaple-flavored syrup.โ€ โ€œMaple-flavoredโ€ is nothing but a euphemism for โ€œcorn syrup and water with some food coloring mixed in.โ€ The same goes for โ€œpancake syrup,โ€ โ€œtable syrup,โ€ โ€œbreakfast syrup,โ€ or anything along those lines โ€“ they might have pictures of log cabins and trees on the bottle, but theyโ€™re not what youโ€™re after.

    Maple syrup is a common target of food fraud, so even bottles labeled โ€œmaple syrupโ€ might not actually be legitimate. The safest way to buy it is to go local from a producer you can trust โ€“ if you donโ€™t live in maple-syrup producing area, many smaller producers offer online ordering.

    Youโ€™ll also see a variety of different โ€œgradesโ€ of maple syrup, which can be confusing especially because they change depending on where you live, what country the syrup originally comes from, and what system youโ€™re using. The system has also changed very recently, so if youโ€™re wondering where the heck โ€œGrade Bโ€ went, hereโ€™s the new system:

    In the United States and Canadaโ€ฆ

    • Grade A: for eating and cooking with. It has four sub-categories, in order from light (mild-tasting) to dark (strong-tasting)
      • Golden
      • Amber
      • Dark
      • Very Dark (this is basically the same thing as the old Grade B)
    • Processing Grade. This grade of syrup isnโ€™t pretty or uniform enough to meet the Grade A standards, but thereโ€™s nothing else wrong with it, so itโ€™s approved for use in food manufacturing. You probably wonโ€™t be buying Processing Grade maple syrup in stores, because itโ€™s illegal to sell it in containers smaller than 5 gallons.
    • Substandard grade. This grade isnโ€™t even good enough to be Processing Grade. You almost certainly don't want to eat it even if you could get it, which is unlikely.

    The new system officially went into effect in early 2015, but manufacturers in some states have a 1-year grace period to change their labels, so you might still be seeing other grades until January 1, 2016.

    The darker the syrup, the more concentrated it is: darker grades contain more sugar, also have more flavor per tablespoon, so you need to use less of them to get the same flavor effect. They also have more of the nutrients and antioxidants per tablespoon, but again, youโ€™ll probably be using a smaller total amount.

    Summing it Up

    Maple syrup is delicious and for most people itโ€™s a perfectly harmless thing to have as a treat occasionally. If you like the flavor, itโ€™s great on salmon or pork, in salad dressings โ€“ or yes, on Paleo pancakes.

    That doesnโ€™t make it a health food that you should make a special effort to eat, or even something that itโ€™s healthy to have at breakfast every day. It has some nutrients, but nothing you couldnโ€™t get from a source much lower in sugar; the only real reason to eat is that you like the taste.

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