I am so thrilled to be able to share about this product with you all. I know that many of you already feel that half my recipes have some unheard of ingredient (millet, quinoa, sorghum-hey, they are old friends to me!), and so I do hate to introduce yet another new product to you. But I think that you will be glad I did because….
This sugar is amazing!
What it is
Coconut sugar is a traditional sugar made from the sap of coconut flowers. It is boiled down to create either dry sugar blocks, a soft paste, or a granulated form. I should mention that the names” palm sugar” and “coconut sugar” are used interchangeably, but the sugars are different. This can cause a little confusion. For example, the brand I got was called palm sugar, but was actually made from coconut sugar tree flowers. Since I don’t know the value of palm sugar, I just look at the ingredient list to make sure it’s made from coconut trees.
The brand I have tried (put out by J and A importers) tastes much lighter than unrefined cane sugar, maple syrup, and honey, while avoiding tasting like straight sweetness. It almost tastes like it has just a tad of maple syrup in it. It’s not quite as sweet as cane sugar. It also has the advantage of not turning dishes so brown like rapadura would. Sally Fallon recommends this sugar in Eat Fat, Lose Fat, but I hadn’t tried it until recently. I am so glad that I did! It’s wonderful.
Low on the Glycemic Index
And this is exciting, it actually has a low glycemic index! This may be a good sugar for diabetes. I know that many of you like using agave syrup for it’s low GI rating, but remain concerned about reports of the damage it’s high fructose content can cause. Others of you prefer stevia, but there are definite disadvantages to that sweetener as well (taste, for one).
This sugar’s GI index is at a low 35 (anything under 55 is considered low). Agave syrup’s GI rating seem to vary from 27-41, so coconut sugar is very comparable. And coconut sugar has the advantage of being a traditional sugar too.
I wondered if coconut sugar would have the same characteristics of agave syrup by having a high fructose content, but apparently it doesn’t (which is good news).
“The composition of coconut sugar (also known as gula kelapa, jaggery or gur) obtained from three locations in Indonesia was determined using HPLC. Sucrose was the major component of all samples (70-79%) followed by glucose and fructose )3-9% each). Minor variations in sugar content between samples were observed, probably due to differences in processing, raw material quality and variety of coconut (Pumomo, 1992).” Source
Full of Minerals
On this article, you can see the comparison of one brand of coconut sugar to brown cane sugar to see the nutrient difference (coconut sugar is much higher) plus more information.
Where to Find It
I have found a source for very, very cheap coconut sugar at my local ethnic store (I think it’s Korean). It only costs a few dollars for a quart. So the other advantage is price. It’s very cheap. Check out your local ethnic stores, and I bet you will find it too.
The two common forms of coconut sugar I have found at my store are the pasty type in the jar
and the rock solid one, which you have to grate to use.
Obviously the softer kind is much easier to use, and that’s what I recommend you get.
But there is one other form that I have seen online, that looks more like a granulated form. It can have a slight caramel taste from what I am told. The kind I get tastes very light, so I am curious to see what these other brands taste are like. So even if you can’t find it locally, there are many online places you can buy it at.
I am still just starting to experiment with it, but everything I have made with it have turned out beautifully! I hope to share some recipes using it soon.
The last advantage? When buying coconut sugar, you help small farmers too!
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Heather
This sounds great! I am always on the lookout for healthier sweeteners. We have quite a few ethnic grocers here, so I’ll have to stop in and see if I can find some!
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home
Kimi, I have never heard of this before, but I am so interested! Mostly because of it’s low GI rating, and because of the cost. We have many ethnic markets around here, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to find it!
Secondly, you mentioned stevia and it’s effects on hormones and fertility… I haven’t hear this. Do you have any articles or site links to send me to? I’d really like to research this more. Thanks!
Kimi Harris
Heather,
Good luck! We sure enjoy it. 🙂
Stephanie,
Those are both of the things so attractive to me. 🙂
As far as stevia goes, I hadn’t heard about the fertility- hormonal connection either, until recently. I really haven’t researched it well enough to feel like I have a strong opinion about it one way or another. Studies results vary widely! And now, quite frankly money can be lost on both sides of the study (sugar growers don’t want it to be good, stevia sellers obviously need the studies to back them up)
This is an old study that was negative about it.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/162/3857/1007
Here is an article referring to the above study.
http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/Dangers_of_Stevia
It seems that more recently they have found that it drops testosterone in men. Supposedly it used to be used as a natural birth control herb, though some think that just a rumor. Who to believe? Anyway, when looking it up I came across a few sites where men shared how it seemed to really drop those levels, but I didn’t realize that it wasn’t a very nice site, so I won’t link to it here! 😮
I actually first heard about it from a comment on a popular health blog, where someone shared about her grown daughter who was using stevia everyday, and noticed her energy really dropping (women have testosterone too, and if you deplete it, lack of energy I guess), anyway, even more odd, either the same daughter or a different one actually purposely used stevia as a natural birth control for over a year, or so she claimed. That’s what got me researching.
This link mentions it as a birth control herb in the past.
http://www.naturalstandard.com/index-abstract.asp?create-abstract=/monographs/herbssupplements/patient-stevia.asp
Here is a forum discussion that briefly discussed this topic (ending positive for stevia)
http://www.welltellme.com/discuss/index.php/topic,5216.0.html
If you end up researching it more, let me know what you find out! I think that overall people are very positive right now…but things in the health food industry can change so quickly!
Dalyn (AKA The Queen of Quite Alot)
yum! That looks tasty. I’ll look for it!
Belinda
I hope you enjoy that I have nominated you for an award
http://belindas-simple-life.blogspot.com/2008/11/thankyou-tag.html
Coco Sugar
Mabuhay!
Thank you for featuring coconut sugars. I’m from the Philippines and we produce coco palm sugars, too.
The Glycemic Index (GI) value for coconut sugar is only applicable for sugars made from coconuts (cocos nuciferas) and not from other palms, which maybe the case if the sugars are produced in countries other than the Philippines. (We’re a late player in this industry, unlike our neighbors in Southeast Asia, palm sugars are not among our traditional foods. And, we only use coconuts.)The GI value of sugars made from other palm varieties may differ, and there are no public literature available on this.
Palm tree varieties that may be used are: Palmyra Palm/Date Palm (Borassus Borassus flabellifer), Sugar Palms (Arenga saccharifera), Nipa (Nypa fruticans) Buri (Corypha elata Roxb.), and Toddy/Wine palm (Caryota urens).
The Philippine Sugar Regulatory Administration analyzed a sample of coco palm sugar and determined the sugar components as follows: Sucrose: 84.98, Fructose: 2.9 and Glucose 2.0.
This isn’t even close to Agave’s reported 92% fructose content or the fructose content of corn syrup which is anywhere from 42-90%.
And, despite the many health benefits from coco palm sugars, we still recommend its moderate consumption.
Coco palm sugars are healthy, flavorful and eco-friendly, too.
Cjuan
Hi
I’d like to refer to your entry as follows:
“The Philippine Sugar Regulatory Administration analyzed a sample of coco palm sugar and determined the sugar components as follows: Sucrose: 84.98, Fructose: 2.9 and Glucose 2.0.”
Let’s not forget that sucrose is a dissacharide bond of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. This bond breaks up into individual fructose and glucose respectively during metabolism. So if this is added to the separate figures given for fructose and glucose (2.9 and 2.0) then the total fructose and glucose content will come to [42.49 + 2.9% for fructose and [42.49 +2.0% for glucose, that is, 45.39% fructose and 44.49% glucose respectively.
Looks like fructose slightly dominates in coconut sugar. This is not surprising as fructose is highly hygroscopic – attracts and absorbs moisture – meaning that coconut sugar has to be kept in a tightly sealed container. Here in Malaysia, I have to store it in the fridge. Same story for honey as it contains
Yes, the glycemic index for coconut sugar is low at 35. But ultimately it is the quality that matters, not just the quantity alone. In this case, the high fructose content should be carefully noted by those who are health conscious for fructose has been linked to obesity, increase in triglycerides, increases in total cholesterol and LDL, increase in uric acid, insulin resistance, high kidney concentrations of calcium, accelerated aging, gastrointestinal distress, diabetic complications, etc.
I think there is another sweetener which is a newcomer to the scene. This is Lohan or Luohan sweetener, and it is derived from the Luohan fruit that grows primarily in China. Its sweetness comes from Mogrosides, not sucrose. It is 250 times sweeter than sugar! On top of that, it is low in both calories and glycemic index (20) and has great stability which makes it good for cooking and baking. One can buy the dried fruit in Asian markets, put it in a pot of water (shell and seeds) and boil them for an hour or two and make a bottle of sweetener!
Perhaps Kimi would like to write an article about this very interesting sweetener?
Sarah
Is the coconut sugar a 1:1 substitution of regular sugar?
cheeseslave
This looks so great! Thank you for posting. I always wondered where to get it. I live in LA so I will have to go over to Koreatown and check it out — I’m sure I’ll be able to find some.
Morgan
Check out essential living foods coconut sugar and agave they make wonderul foods. Go to google and type in “essential living foods” and then hit “products” you can order via web and it’s an amazing company!
Lisa @ Stop and Smell the Chocolates
Very interesting – I will have to look around for some.
Michele @ Frugal Granola
This sounds wonderful! Thanks Kimi!
I’m really looking forward to seeing how you use it in your recipes.
Blessings,
Michele
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home
Thanks for the info and links, Kimi. I will definitely be checking those out when I get a few minutes, and I’ll let you know if I find out anything more. 🙂
Kimi Harris
Sarah,
It’s a little less sweet than sugar, but I have been using about one to one, so far. 🙂 Of course, it also has a different texture, so that effects things too.
Cate
ohhhhh, coconut sugar. duh. i should have used it in my sweet potato casserole recipe. next time. thanks for the heads up!
Bren
I found it! It was in the Vietnamese section of our Asian market (even though they have a Thai aisle and it says ‘product of Thailand’). 1.99. It had the same texture as the raw unfiltered honey I buy (for about 4x that price). I really like the taste, and look forward to experimenting with it.
I had eliminated the possibility of using alternative sweeteners for the most part because of the price. Thanks!
Kimi Harris
Cate,
I actually used it in my own sweet potato casserole and it worked great. 🙂
Bren,
I am so glad that you found it. It’s price is wonderful, isn’t it?
Lauren
This looks wonderful! When I use real sugar it’s raw honey, but the flavor can be overpowering for some applications. Coconut sugar looks good! Will have to look into ordering it. You always have such great ideas, Kimi.
Hadn’t heard about stevia’s side effects, but it’s great you’re getting the word out about agave! Agave syrup is as far from natural and healthy as can be and it’s being pushed like it’s some revolutionary sweetener!
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home
Kimi, I found some at my local Korean market! It really was cheap- $1.50 for 450 grams! I could only find the solid blocks, but I was just so glad to find it. We tasted just a little bit, and thought it was sort of like a cross between brown sugar and maple syrup, but a bit more mild. I can’t wait to try it in something, and am so excited about it’s low GI rating, as I’m really having a hard time with sugar lately. Thanks!
Kimi Harris
Stephanie,
I am so glad that you found some! You will have to let me know how you like it in recipes. 🙂
Bren
Again, thanks so much. I just made THE BEST snack bars. It was my first time using coconut oil (thanks to you – I picked some up at the Asian market when I got the coconut sugar) as well as this sugar. They’re wonderful!
Nasma Tariq
Hi Kimi,
I was very interested to read about coconut sugar being low GI and I am thinking of ordering some from navitas. I would love to know how it effected you when you started using it, did it cause any blood sugar imbalances of any sort? How does it compare with other sweeteners you have used before since you mentioned you have blood sugar issues, in terms of how your body felt while consuming it. Please let me know as I am looking for a healthy natural sweetener that does not cause swings in blood sugar. Thanks.
Best regards,
Nasma
Eileen
I’ve been using coconut palm sugar for about 8 or 9 months. I love it! I really like it in my de-caf coffee. I originally got it just because it was different. I was looking around at the grand opening of an oriental market near my sister’s. It wasn’t until I got back to my home that my daughter was looking at the package and discovered the low glycemic index. It really is a wonderful product. I have the block variety, and have discovered that if you beat on it a little bit, it softens up so that it scrapes easily.
Diane-thewholegang
This sounds wonderful. Do you know for sure if it’s gluten free?
Cjuan
I remember reading before that gluten is found only in 3 grains – wheat, barley and rye!! There is no more room in there for coconut sugar, unless there is contamination during processing!
Cjuan
Lori
Thank you so much for this wonderful information! I have been type 1 diabetic since 1982, I am a certified massage therapist & wellness educator and am always trying to get correct health info- diabetics can’t have sugar, so we opt for artificial sweeteners and then we find out they are just as bad and cause all kinds of problems! So what do we do? This may be the answer, and I thank you!
Heather
The stevia/fertility thing really depends on whose studies you want to believe. The only negative one I’ve seen was on rats, rather than men, and used a form of stevia that people don’t usually use–and a huge amount of it, at that. We use stevia as a daily sweetener, mostly in iced tea, and, well, considering that we currently have a 5-month-old, when we had not planned on starting a second baby till about now, I would say it isn’t affecting our fertility!
Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
Kimi,
I am just now hearing all the buzz about agave syrup not being so good. 🙁 I can’t say this has been our primary sweetener all these years, but I do depend on it. I appreciate hearing about coconut sugar and the low GI characteristic; this is why agave has been so good for us all these years.
Do you know anything about the farming methods used to grow the coconuts to produce this sugar? You say the coconut flowers are boiled down to produce the sugar. Would this be considered high heat? If you could point me to some resources, you’ve already found, I’d appreciate that. I’ll keep looking myself.
~Wardeh
Catherine
Do you know if the sucrose feeds candida? Do the coconut flowers have anti-candida properties like the oil does?
Thanks for sharing this awesome info.
Metasequoia
I love coconut sugar – but have a REALLY hard time finding any that A.) Doesn’t contain sulfur dioxide and/or B.) Isn’t cut with white sugar. It’s very important to read labels when buying coconut or palm sugar.
Metasequoia
Here’s an example where you can read “white sugar” on the ingredient label:
http://importfood.com/spca1702.html
Miranda
I’d heard of jaggery, but I had no idea that it was the same thing. 🙂
Cjuan
Jaggery is a rather general term. It’s usually a mixture of sorts – coconut palm sugar + cane sugar and others. So it’s difficult to say exactly what goes into it. It’s sold in big balls or chunks. No label, nothing. One is left in the dark.
Palm sugar can be anything from coconut to nypa to arenga. Once again most producers simply do not care to label clearly the ingredients that go into the finished product. The so-called palm sugar known as gula melaka in Malaysia mostly contain BOTH palm sugar and some cane sugar. The former is highly hygroscopic – absorbs moisture and the latter is added to prevent this. 100% pure coconut palm sugar is rare and it’s difficult to say if other non-coconut palm sugar is added from looking at the labels alone!!
Cjuan
Lynn
The sucrose molecule is made of one fructose and one glucose molecule (bonded), so based on that, the amount of fructose in coconut sugar is close to 50%. However, coconut sugar appears to be processed in a much more “basic” way than HFCS, which endears me to it more than HFCS.
Michelle Hall
Thanks for the info on that, I’m always looking for alternative sweeteners. At the moment I’m mostly using a combination of Stevia and Erythritol (as I’m eating low carb), but they are so expensive. When I read your article about palm sugar and coconut sugar being interchangeable I dug out a block of palm sugar I bought maybe a year ago for a Thai recipe. The ingredients are coconut and water so I’ll be using that in a few more recipes now. I’m not using much in the way of sweetener anyway as eating low carb, but finding I’m now using coconut products in almost all of my recipes. That blog of palm sugar was bought in an Asian supermarket is was 60p (40 cents) for 500g 🙂
Jocelyn
Kim, have you tried the organic coconut sugar that Wilderness Family Naturals just started selling?? They call their “coconut sap sugar” and theirs is more like sugar crystals instead of a paste or solid. Also, Azure Standard just started selling organic coconut sugar from Earth Circle Organics that is also in crystal form.
I just ordered some coconut sugar from WFN today. Can’t wait to try it!
Cjuan
Does anyone know how the coconut palm sugar in crystal or granular form is made? I recently wrote to a coconut palm sugar manufacturer here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia about introducing this form instead of the hard, big chunks or cylindrical blocks packed in plastic bags. His answer is this – Palm sugar is highly hygroscopic (absorbs moisture) and to prevent this he has no choice but to add cane sugar to it to prevent it from becoming mushy. Adding cane sugar he says helps to keep it in a hardened or solid state.
He is keen to find out how the 100% pure, free-flowing, granular coconut palm sugar (like table sugar) is produced and is willing to produce it commercially. I know that it is sold in granular form in the Philippines and some parts of Indonesia (under the Navitas brand). I guess something has to be added to prevent it from absorbing moisture and becoming deliquescent, which naturally robs it of its usefulness, unlike table sugar.
Does anyone know? Can anyone help?
Kindest regards, Cjuan
Shannon
Thanks to this wonderful post I finally got around to trying out the coconut sugar I’ve had sitting in my pantry for months. I purchased it almost by mistake while shopping for coconut milk at my local Oriental grocer and didn’t even bother to open it to see what it was like! Now I’m mad I didn’t try it sooner. Absolutely delectable. This may replace my beloved agave. Now for a question – my coconut sugar is by a brand called Caravelle and comes in a can. It’s not solid, kind of like a grainy paste that smooths with manipulation. It’s actually close in texture to raw, crystallized honey. In your picture, the sugar looks more shiny-smooth. I’m wondering if what I have (and love!) is truly coconut sugar w/out refined sugars added. The info on the can is mostly not English except the nutrition info and one word of the ingredients: coconut! Has anyone else heard of or tried this particular brand? Or purchased coconut sugar in a can? Thanks in advance!
Jody
I have two different kinds of sugar by Caravelle. One is the canned Coconut Sugar and the other is a jar of Pure Palm Sugar. I haven’t yet tried the canned sugar, but the one in the jar sounds like what you’ve described. They both have pictures of swirled sugar lumps on them.
I can’t tell you whether there are refined sugars added. The jar does say “Ingredients: Palm Sugar 100%”, but as you wrote, the can has very little English on it, so it is hard to know for sure.
Ironically, I asked my mother to look for coconut or palm sugar in a large Asian market where she lives and she was unable to find it at all. She did find the hard sugar lumps and a Vietnamese friend also gave some to her and told her that it can be melted in the microwave. After she went to several stores and still came up empty-handed, I ended up finding my two jar/cans at a small Korean market in my relatively small town!
tosha
Two things on stevia. My copy of The Little Herb Encyclopedia mentions that stevia affects the pancreas and the adrenals, but it doesn’t say how. And, we live in Reno, NV, and my neighbor grows her own stevia. I mention our location because, if you can grow it here – it’s hardy! So if the cost of stevia is getting to you, you might consider growing it fresh. Just crush the fresh leaves and add them to your drink. I’m sure a little web research would tell you other ways to prepare it.
Marissa
Kimi I have a question that I am not sure if you will be able to answer. After reading this post I went on a mission to find coconut sugar. I want to fill my life with foods that heal and do not harm, so when I read about the coconut sugar not affecting the liever (like Agave) and the blood (like regular sugar) I was ecstatic. But I did some research and it seems like high levels of sucrose (which is what coconut sugar is made of for the most part) can have a negative impact on the kidneys. Do you know anything about this? At this point I am not eating a ton of the stuff, but I do not eat regular sugar, and I don’t want to slowly be hurting my body in another way and just thinking I am being healthy. If you have any information I would really appreciate it! Thank you!!
Anna
I’m always wet noodle raining on the sugar parade.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to sugar; less is always better, no matter what the sugar source, no matter how “traditional”, no matter how unrefined. It doesn’t matter if we are thick or thin, more than tiny amounts of sugar are problematic. Our biochemistry and physiology was determined over millions of years when there were few sources of readily and steadily available concentrated sugars, so we can’t handle very much without slowly developing health issues. Historically, concentrated sugar was relatively scarce and costly. Once the supply grew ample and cheap (19th century-20th century) concentrated sugars really turned deadly on an increasingly massive scale. This isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s just on a much larger scale than ever seen before.
There is simply too much glucose and fructose in concentrated sugars for the modest amount of other nutrients that accompany sugars (in other words, sugars aren’t where we should be looking for our minerals and vitamins). Concentrated sugars (of any sort, including honey, coconut/palm sugar, date sugar, maple syrup, cane sugar, beet sugar, fruit juice concentrates, etc.) need to kept to very small, very, infrequent doses. Check out the University of California TV seminar by Dr. Lustig for a great presentation on sugar – Sugar: The Bitter Truth (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM). He refers to fructose a lot, but he makes clear that sucrose and HFCS (both approx half fructose) are both equally awful in biochemical pathways. Fructose is indeed the sneakier part of the sugar equation, though, but is never mentioned or quantified on nutrition labels.
Lynn 06.18.09 at 1:05 pm and Marissa 08.19.09 at 3:07 pm also commented with similar concerns. Glad to see that.
Sucrose is a disaccharide (two molecule sugar) made of one molecule glucose bound to one molecule fructose. So the small % listed as glucose and fructose in coconut sugar are unbound molecules and they don’t take into account the glucose and fructose that make up the sucrose.
Be skeptical of those Glycemic Index/Glycemic Load claims – those glycemic studies are based on young, seemingly healthy subjects and the results may not be applicable to anyone who is older, has impaired glucose tolerance (like me) or diabetes. It also makes a difference what else is eaten with the sugars. Fats slow down the rate of sugar entering the blood, but then the insulin promotes storing the fat instead of burning it.
And ultimately, all the carbs (including sugars), except indigestible fibers) you ingest have to be metabolized and processed, regardless of how slow or fast they hit the bloodstream. If it’s glucose, that means insulin needs to be made to push the glucose into cells; it’s fructose, the liver has to convert it to glycogen (if the stores are depleted by intense physical activity) or into triglycerides (fat). The body works very hard to maintain BG levels at about 1 teaspoon of glucose (about 4 grams) at all times even if that means non-stop insulin production), so unless you are burning through the sugar at a fast rate, anything more than what is immediately needed is toxic to the cells and EXCESS, and will be converted to fat. Fructose (as in sucrose and concentrated fructose sweeteners) beyond the modest amount of fructose consumed in a few pieces of whole fresh fruit is just a train wreck in the liver eventually (NAFLD).
Now after all this dumping on sugar, yes, I have some sugar in my house. Grade B maple syrup (least fructose content I can find in a sugar, so far); raw local honey, fridge, and a jar of coconut sugar in the fridge. But that one jar (the thick, gluey kind from the Asian store) has been there at least 6 months, probably longer, that’s how often I use it. The honey takes forever to use up, and the maples syrup is used rather slowly, too (1 quart purchased perhaps 2-3 times per year). I buy more granulated sugar for the hummingbird feeder each year than I do for our family (maybe 2-3 pounds granulated sugar for us, and mostly that’s used when I have company and need to make sweeter things for them). We eat only chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa solids, and that’s probably our major form of sugar intake, other than some fresh fruit. I’m quite sure our entire family eats far less than one third the sugar (from all sources) of the national average per capita intake of about 150 pounds.
So I’m not really anti-sugar; I just recognize that the healthiness or unhealthiness of sugar is far less about the source, the GI #, or the refinement level of sugars and a lot more about the amount and the frequency of intake. Low and infrequent is always better and we don’t seem to miss it, though that took a while.
We are a culture addicted to sweet and we rationalize our sugar consumption in numerous ways.
Jeanmarie
Anna, well said. I keep some organic sugar around for making kombucha and kefir soda, that’s it. I did buy some chocolates yesterday for the first time in months, but ate fairly moderate amounts with some crispy nuts to mitigate the impact on blood sugar. But you’re right, there’s no free lunch on sugar consumption.
Alymarie
I have fallen for coconut sugar and use it almost exclusively in all my baked goods. While researching it I noticed that several sites listed the glutamate content as 34.2 g/100g. That seems excessive to me and was wondering whether that is a concern. I’m very MSG sensitive and have never noticed any problems after consuming coconut sugar but since glutamate can be toxic to the brain in any form, I was worried when I read the amount. Any thought?
BeCareful
Coconut sugar tastes great, but it is sugar. If you are diabetic as I am take the glycemic claims with a grain of … sugar. After a 10-hour fast I tested my blood sugar. Then I ate about 200 calories of coconut sugar. At 30 minutes my blood sugar spiked to over double the baseline. Without eating anything else it took over 2-hours to get back to the baseline. Of course this isn’t a scientific study. Still, people with diabetes probably need to treat coconut sugar as the sugar it is and use it in moderation.
KimiHarris
Many feel that diabetics should completely avoid sweet things, so I don’t know if I would really recommend any type of sweetener to someone with major blood sugar issues.
And truthfully, I would hate for anyone to eat 200 calories of coconut sugar on a fast! That would spike most people’s blood sugar. 🙂 By the way, if you eat fat with sugar you will generally lower the glycemic load of sugar. Also, in Nourishing Traditions, Sally mentioned a study where they found that people responded to different sweeteners differently. Some people will spike more with certain sweeteners….for no apparent reason. So everyone, know that you may do better with certain sweeteners.
Niki G
What’s the point of this “test”? Is there any valid, real-life application to it?
You say you’re diabetic, that means you need to regulate your glucose intake then you take 200 calories of coco sugar to prove what?
A prudent diabetic (or a health-conscious person) will not consume 200 calories in one sitting. Your blood sugar, whether your’e diabetic or not will definitely shoot up if you consume that much.
The glycemic response of edible foods and beverages are not dependent on their calorie count. Zero-calorie and zero-carb food can elicit high insulin levels and affect blood glucose concentration during the digestion process.
Anne
It’s probably not as cheap, but there’s a lovely organic, fair trade brand of granulated coconut sugar available from http://www.cocopure.com.au/coconut-butter/fine-foods/fine-foods.html
It’s $6.50 AUD for 250gm (about 1 cup).
Thanks for a great site – it’s very informative. I was trying to find information on the nutritional properties of coconut sugar.
rhean
is there any disadvantage of coconut sap sugar?
chris
Does anyone know if coconut palm sugar is ok for a person with candida. Does it feed the yeast?
Cjuan
Many people are still unaware of the dangers of fructose, esp fructose as high corn fructose syrup (HCFS). Sucrose is made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose, a bond described as a dissacharide. A recent researcher pointed out that the latter is the culprit in many illnesses and ailments including uric acid and obesity. Insulin responds properly to glucose but not fructose. Here’s a list of the ills of fructose that reads like a chilling nightmare, a list sourced from NancyAppleton, PhD: [www.NancyAppleton.com]
1. Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins, and minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use.
Fructose browns food more readily (Maillard reaction) than with glucose. This may seem like a good idea, but it is not.
The Maillard reaction, a browning reaction, happens with any sugar. With fructose it happens seven times faster with than glucose, results in a decrease in protein quality and a toxicity of protein in the body.
Maillard products can inhibit the uptake and metabolism of free amino acids and other nutrients such as zinc and some advanced Maillard products have mutagenic and/or carcinogenic properties. The Maillard reactions between proteins and fructose, glucose, and other sugars may play a role in aging and in some clinical complications of diabetes.
2. Research showed that fructose caused a general increase in both the total serum cholesterol and low density lipoproteins (LDL) in most of the subjects. This puts a person at risk for heart disease.
3. There is a significant increase in the concentration of uric acid that is dependent on the amount of fructose digested. After glucose no significant change occurs. An increase in uric acid can be an indicator of heart disease.
4. Fructose ingestion in humans results in increases in blood lactic acid, especially in patients with preexisting acidotic conditions such as diabetes, postoperative stress, or uremia. Extreme elevations cause metabolic acidosis and can result in death.
5. Fructose is absorbed primarily in the jejunum and metabolized in the liver. Fructose is converted to fatty acids by the liver at a greater rate than is glucose.
6. Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on “the pill.”
7. Fructose reduced the affinity of insulin for its receptor. This is the first step for glucose to enter a cell and be metabolized. As a result, the body needs to pump out more insulin, to handle the same amount of glucose.
8. Fructose consistently produced higher kidney calcium concentrations than did glucose in a study with rats. Fructose generally induced greater urinary concentrations of phosphorus and magnesium and lowered urinary pH compared with glucose.
9. Fructose-fed subjects lose minerals. They had higher fecal excretions of iron and magnesium than did subjects fed sucrose.
10. A study of 25 patients with functional bowel disease showed that pronounced gastrointestinal distress may be provoked by malabsorption of small amounts of fructose.
11. Many times fructose and sorbitol are substituted for glucose in intervenious feeding, IV. This can have severe consequences with people with hereditary fructose intolerance. A European doctor declared: “Fructose and sorbitol containing infusion fluids have no further place in our hospital pharmacies.”
12. There is significant evidence that high sucrose diets may alter intracellular metabolism, which in turn facilitates accelerated aging through oxidative damage. Scientists found that the rats given fructose had more undesirable cross-linking changes in the collagen of their skin than in the other groups.
These changes are also thought to be markers for aging. The scientists say that it is the fructose molecule in the sucrose, not the glucose, which plays the larger problem.
13. Fructose is not metabolized the same as other sugars. Instead of being converted to glucose which the body uses, it is removed by the liver.
14. Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. FRUCTOSE CONVERTS TO FAT MORE THAN ANY OTHER SUGAR. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter.
Fructose raises serum triglycerides significantly. As a left-handed sugar, fructose digestion is very low. For complete internal conversion of fructose into glucose and acetates, IT MUST ROB ATP ENERGY FROM THE LIVER.
15. Fructose inhibits copper metabolism. A deficiency in copper leads to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.
Kind regards, Cjuan
Anna
Someone said “What’s the point of this “test”? Is there any valid, real-life application to it? You say you’re diabetic, that means you need to regulate your glucose intake, then you take 200 calories of coco sugar to prove what?
A prudent diabetic (or a health-conscious person) will not consume 200 calories in one sitting. Your blood sugar, whether your’e diabetic or not will definitely shoot up if you consume that much.”
Diabetics need to know how the foods they eat will affect their blood sugar. That requires a lot self-testing and experimentation, then avoiding, restricting, or balancing amounts of foods which demonstrate a pattern of spiking glucose levels (of course, many simply adjust their meds to “cover the sugar” but I am one of those people who aims for as close to normal BG as possible without any meds. Individuals respond differently to glucose loads, too, because despite the classifications of Type 1 & Type 2 diabetes (less well-known diabetes types are LADA, MODY variations, 1.5 and many more to be classified as research progresses), there are different reasons people are not regulating glucose properly (diabetes simply means a *symptom* of high blood glucose levels, due to lack of insulin production, insufficient insulin production, and/or insulin resistance).
200 calories of sugar is 50 grams or about 12.5 teaspoons (4 cal=gram /4 or 5 grams=1 teaspoon), which is a LOT of sugar, but keep in mind, it’s not much more than the sugar content of a 12 oz can of soda pop (usually 40-48 grams) and probably not much different than the sugar content in a piece of frosted cake (certainly less than a restaurant dessert portion) and only slightly less than a person would ingest for a glucose tolerance test in a lab (usually 75 gms or 100 gms). In fact, it’s less sugar than most beverages from smoothie bars or frozen yogurt establishments (how’s that for frightening?). That much sugar will definitely spike the blood glucose (resulting in hyperglycemia) of anyone with poor glucose regulation, and for some, will later result in a blood glucose crash (hypoglycemia) when the high level of insulin finally stuffs the glucose somewhere, anywhere – usually fat cells as they are the last to become insulin resistant (excess circulating glucose is toxic to proteins). Even those who still have “normal” glucose regulation will be pumping out a LOT of insulin to quickly mop up all that sugar from a soda, a smoothie, a muffin/cookie/pc of cake, and so on. Year after year, the beta cells might not be able to keep up with insulin production or the body’s cells might become “deaf” to the insulin (insulin resistance).
I probably wouldn’t test my own BG with this much sugar at this point, because I already know that 50 grams of sugar will spike my BG very high – > 200 mg/dL (though btw, for those who don’t want to go to a lab or pay for an expensive OGTT, with a glucose meter, a clock, and less than 10 glucose test strips you can do a DIY glucose tolerance test this way and roughly estimate your glucose regulation over time). But I might test with a smaller amount of sugar. Typically I wouldn’t test sugar alone, but rather as an ingredient in the food as normal eaten in one serving. That’s a better representatation of real life eating.
For instance, here are two examples that I have “tested” many, many times – the effect on my BG from commercial high quality full fat “ice cream stand” or premium supermarket ice cream (I don’t even bother with cheap ice cream – it tastes nasty, is full of garbage ingredients, and isn’t worth the sugar hit) and commercial frozen yogurt, as found in many “healthy” franchises. Sometimes the ice cream has bits of dark chocolate or nuts (I avoid the flavors with sugary candy bits) but the fro-yo is soft serve smooth and I never order “mix-in” ingredients.
If I have eaten one of my typical low carb meals, I can usually eat up to a 1/2 cup serving of premium (high fat) commercial ice cream, such as Ben & Jerry’s pistachio (no cone) with a total carb count somewhere around 25 grams/serving) and still keep my BG under 120 mg/dL an hour later. The fiber, protein, and fat of the meal and the ice cream will prevent a huge spike in BG. Without the meal before the ice cream, my BG would probably go a bit higher, perhaps hovering close to the 140 mg/dL (the “ceiling” of my target range, as this is the level at which cellular damage from glucose occurs). My homemade ice cream has even more fat and less sugar than commercial ice cream, so of course, that’s a better option for me. Still, I don’t indulge in ice cream very often (when I spent two weeks in Italy two years ago, a small afternoon gelato was the exception).
To contrast, commercial frozen yogurt (which is always non-fat or low-fat) has
a LOT more sugar than ice cream and will always put my BG well over the 140 mg/dL mark, even into the truly diabetic territory >180 mg/dL, with or without a LC meal beforehand. I don’t eat this stuff – it’s toxic to me. One popular fro-yo place I know offers a smoothie that contains the equivalent of 19 teaspoons of sugar, but all their “health” claims are based on 0% fat!
Sweet Poison believer
Not sure if anyone has said this – but sucrose is made up of half glucose, half fructose so the quote stating how much fructose this contains is totally wrong by that calculation…