Agave, stevia, honey, coconut sugar….what sweetener to use?

These days, many people try to limit their processed sugar intake and are interested in natural substitutes. But which one should you pick? A few years ago, when I got diagnosed with fructose malabsorption and had to also cut out white sugar, I researched this a lot and it was very confusing. However, given the fact I am a wholefoods cooking coach, ensuring that my clients know how to sweeten their recipes was key so I persisted, asked around, read and researched more. In this article, I will attempt to clear it up as much as possible by sharing some of my findings.

Quick intro
Whether you are looking at table sugar or natural sweeteners like honey or dates, they mostly all have slightly different ratios of fructose and glucose. Fructose is a sugar molecule that breaks down in your liver and doesn’t provoke an insulin response. In small quantities like in fruit, it’s absolutely fine, but in big quantities it really taxes your liver, which is why things like High Fructose Corn Syrup – present in many processed foods – are terrible for you and are associated with conditions such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

Glucose, on the other hand, breaks down in your digestive system and it increases your blood sugar. For blood sugar to return to a normal level, the pancreas releases insulin, which binds to the glucose molecule and carries it to the cells that need it. The body needs glucose, but if you consume too much of it and have chronically high levels, the pancreas struggles to manage insulin properly. Not only does it cause serious health issues but it also becomes inefficient at providing glucose to the cells that need it.

And when we talk about glycemic index (GI), it is “a figure representing the relative ability of a carbohydrate food to increase the level of glucose in the blood”. A low GI sweetener or food however is not necessarily healthy as you will see below.

Let’s begin with table sugar
Sugar, mostly made from sugar beets or sugar cane, is mostly made up of sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide made from glucose and fructose. The ratios of fructose and glucose are 50/50.

• Raw cane sugar is made by extracting the juice from sugar cane, boiling and then filtering it of the majority  molasses. The result`ing crystals are then spun in a centrifuge to produce raw sugar, which contains very little molasses and therefore has minute amounts of some minerals. Muscovado, turbinado and demerera are types of raw sugars. They have similar calorie counts and mineral contents.
• White sugar gets processed further to make smaller crystals – this removes all the molasses.
• Brown sugar is nothing else but white sugar to which we’ve re-injected molasses. It is slightly higher in minerals than raw sugar but is more processed.

So is table sugar bad? Well, the jury is out. Our cells need glucose to function properly and many experts say that unless you have a very specific health reason to do so, cutting it out completely may not be the right thing to do. All in moderation I suppose.

Aspartame: a neurotoxin
What is it?
It is a chemically-derived low-calorie artifical sweetener, often found in brands like Nutrasweet, Canderel and Equal. It is also the sweetener for most diet sodas (diet Coke, Coke Zero, etc), which is yet another reason you should avoid drinking the stuff.

Health benefits?
None apart from the fact that is has a low GI. It is actually dangerous. Most nutritionist agree it is a chemical compound that can have scary side effects and is probably not made to be ingested by humans. Dr Mercola states, “the amino acids in aspartame literally attack your cells, even crossing the blood-brain barrier to attack your brain cells, creating a toxic cellular overstimulation called excitotoxicity.”

Conclusion
Avoid it, you’re better off eating table sugar.

Agave syrup: a marketing scam
What is it?
It is derived from the sap of the agave plant, which is also used to make tequila. It mostly grows in Mexico. Agave syrup is thinner than honey and a bit sweeter than sugar so is very popular for baking and sweetening drinks.

Health benefits?
It has a lower glycemic index (15), which means it’s low in glucose and doesn’t shoot up your insulin levels, BUT its fructose content is extremely high (up to 85%) – higher than that of High Fructose Corn Syrup. In fact, the agave plant is a great candidate to produce high fructose syrups according to recent studies like this one. Fructose is hard for your liver to metabolize and has been linked to heart disease. Many researchers and doctors these days do not recommend the use of agave syrup. Although the sap itself has healthy compounds, the process it goes through to turn it into syrup destroys them, making it an unhealthy processed sweetener.

Conclusion
Don’t use it. Unfortunately, most recipe blogs and books that try use healthy ingredients will include it as a sweetener but even they are being fooled I’m afraid. I suspect its popularity will decrease over time as people get more educated on it.

Stevia: a mixed bag
What is it?
Stevia is an herb originally from South America that has become a popular sugar substitute in the past ten years. Originally, its leaves were basically just dried and ground into powder form.

Health benefits?
Stevia powder is about 45 times sweeter than sugar but has zero calories and a very low GI. However, it has a slightly bitter taste that comes from one of its sweetening compounds called Stevioside, which is also meant to have great health benefits. The other compound that gives stevia its sweet taste is Rebaudioside A. Over time, companies have started to produce stevia extract using only rebaudioside to avoid the bitterness. There haven’t been a lot of studies on this form of stevia but it does seem healthier than sugar given the low GI content and the fact that it has zero calories.

The other form of stevia that has grown dramatically is the processed variety we often see at the supermarket such as the brand Truvia. It is usually mixed with a lot of chemicals and its health risks seem to outweigh any potential benefits. According to Dr. Josh Axe, “first, the rebaudioside is extracted from the stevia leaf, and then chemical solvents are added, including acetonitrile, which is toxic to the liver and is a carcinogen. Then the producers add in a GMO corn derivative called erythritol. Truvia or rebaudioside stevia products are about 200 to 400 times sweeter than sugar.”

Conclusion
If you can find natural stevia powder or extract with no other ingredients, get it. Otherwise, forget it. I haven’t found pure stevia in Dubai yet – most of the time I’ve seen it mixed with erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol that isn’t great for you according many studies like this one.

Coconut sugar and nectar
What is it?
It is the sap of coconut flowers from the coconut palm tree. It is minimally processed to turn into a syrup – coconut nectar – that is dried up and made into sugar. It is made up of sucrose (73%), followed by glucose and fructose (3-9%). It has a lower GI than sugar (around 35). It has minerals, polyphenols, antioxidants as well as a fiber called inulin, which is said to slow down glucose absorption. This may explain why coconut sugar has a lower GI than regular white sugar.

Conclusion
It’s a probably one of the better natural sweeteners considering it’s natural fabrication process, low GI and other health benefits. I personally use this and maple syrup a lot in my dessert recipes.

Date sugar and syrup
What is it?
It is made from dehydrated dates that have been ground into a powder.
Date syrup however is made of dates boiled in water and then blended, which makes it easier to bake with than date sugar, which never really dissolves in cake/muffin batter. They have similar health benefits.

Health benefits?
It is not a highly processed food, which means it retains a lot of the date’s tannins, vitamins and minerals. It has a moderate GI of 42 but is quite high in fructose.

Honey
What is it?
It is produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants. Most supermarket honeys are pasteurized (heated so that micro-organisms cannot survive). This means they lack most of the pollen, minerals, enzymes and benefits that you would get from raw honey, which are outlined below. Also processed honey can have a GI of up to 72%(!).

Health benefits (of raw honey)?
Honey contains 40 percent fructose and 30 percent glucose. The rest consists of pollen, trace minerals like potassium and magnesium, enzymes, antioxydants and amino acids. It also has  anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties. It has more calories than sugar but is sweeter so you don’t need to use as much. It has a GI that is lower than sugar, although it is still somewhere between 45 and 65 depending on how much fructose it has (the more fructose, the lower the GI). In Dubai, you can order raw honey at GreenheartsUAE.

What is Manuka honey?
We are seeing this more and more of this pricey honey in supermarkets and pharmacies around Dubai. Manuka honey is made from the manuka tree, found in New Zealand. It has a very high concentration of a natural antibacterial compound called methylglyoxal. As such, manuka honey has been shown to inhibit a number of known pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli and S. aureus in some studies. In fact, there exist medical grades of Manuka honey.

Conclusion
If you have good quality raw honey either from a store or local form – it’s probably a good natural sweetener option. If it’s a cheaper supermarket honey, I would think twice as it probably doesn’t have many health benefits, has high GI and high fructose – always check the label to see if there are additives and avoid honey from China as it is often laced with pesticides and other nasties. As for Manuka, given its hefty price tag I probably would reserve it for medicinal use and not to sweeten cupcakes.

Maple syrup
What is it?
Maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees. The sap is boiled until most of the water evaporates, leaving a thick sweet syrup which is then filtered.

Health benefits?
The GI of maple syrup is said to be around 54m, which is lower than sugar. It is made up of around 65% sucrose (here is a good study of its sugar composition from the University of Vermont) and nutritionally-speaking, it delivers antioxidants and more minerals than most: one tablespoon will give you 33% of the daily recommended value of manganese, 6% of zinc.

Conclusion
It’s GI isn’t great but like raw honey and coconut sugar/nectar, it has minimal processing (which is always a big plus) and it offers good health benefits. It is a great option for people with fructose malabsorption.  It is great to use in baking.

In a nutshell
Natural sources of sugar that have not been overprocessed contain minerals and deliver other benefits that table sugar doesn’t. So even though they are sweet and you should consume them in moderation, they are better than sugar. Your best bets depend on what your needs are. I have fructose malabsorption – as does 30% of the population – so I prefer sweeteners like coconut nectar or maple syrup. But sources like dates or raw honey, which have a higher fructose ratio, contain excellent nutrients and are a good bet for most people. A few tips:

• Sugar consumption isn’t just about quality, it’s also about quantity. A spoonful of honey or a few dried fruits are ok, but not in big quantities
• If you can get natural stevia, try it and see if you like it – it seems to be the best overall option
• Stick with the sweeteners that have been minimally processed like real maple syrup, date sugar/syrup, raw honey or coconut syrup/sugar
• Stay away from the chemical sugars and the “natural” ones that have been overly processed like agave, processed stevia or even cheap industrialized honey
• Keep in mind that although natural sweeteners have beneficial minerals, vitamins and other nutrients but you would have to eat huge quantities of them to get your daily recommended allowance

I hope this has helped clear up some of the questions you had about the different sugars, and hopefully allows you to make the best choices when preparing your meals and desserts. If you are interested in getting some inspiration, menu plans and recipes based on whole foods, go check out my e-books. They are filled with breakfasts, mains, sides and desserts that have been tried and tested by myself, friends, family and readers time and time again. And if you are interested in getting a 1:1 zoom cooking class, email me.