A New Favorite Sugar

Reader Contribution by Jessica Kellner
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A long time ago the kind folks at Big Tree Farms were kind enough to send me a bunch of samples of their Organic Coconut Palm Sugar. I will admit the items sat in my kitchen untouched for quite a while. Since last November, my husband and I have made it our mission to severely limit our sugar intake. We slip up and/or cheat sometimes, but I haven’t been baking anything or making anything with white sugar. Then I decided to make a few sweetened summer drinks for a get-together I was having, and realized I could replace the white sugar with coconut sugar.

Replacing White Sugar with Coconut Sugar

I started reading about it and was impressed with coconut sugar’s benefits as a white sugar substitute: Like maple syrup and honey, coconut sugar retains some of the nutrients from the coconut palm, notably iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short-chain fatty acids, polyphenols and antioxidants. It also contains the fiber inulin, which helps slow glucose absorption and may make coconut sugar have a lower glycemic index than regular table sugar (although thus far there are really no solid studies to back up these claims). I certainly think severely limiting our intake of sugar is a major benefit to our health. However, if I am going to use sweeteners, I prefer to use ones with at least some redeeming health qualities such as honey and maple syrup. I now add coconut sugar to that list. 

  • Published on Aug 21, 2014
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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