I am often asked about sweeteners. Why ones are bad for you? Which one is best? How much?
High-Fructose Corn Syrup (the name of which the corn industry wants changed to “corn sugar”) has been singled out as the black-sheep sweetener of the U.S., but all sugars, whether in the form of white or brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave or HCFS, contribute calories with no added nutrients.
More research will bring to light some of the differences in the way these substances affect the body, but for now, just keep in mind that sugar is sugar is sugar, and sugar has calories. A tablespoon usually sets you back around 50 or 60, so use it sparingly.
Personally I like maple syrup because it is pure and unprocessed. The way it impacts me is not as harsh as processed cane sugar for example. I look forward to the additional research on this topic because I do think they will find differences in the way the body reacts to different forms of sugar.
There are definitely a few on that list that I think have advantages over the others. For example, a University of Rhode Island study showed last year that “real” maple syrup contains some antioxidants, which can help fight disease. Blackstrap molasses, which I left off the list, offers up a lot of iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Sometimes I’ll swap out some of the sugar in a recipe for a bit of molasses, if I think it’ll work in the context of the recipe. I’ve heard a few things here and there ways in which the body may process high fructose corn syrup differently, but I don’t remember reading anything conclusive. I’m really curious to hear more.