Coconut Sugar
Hello and welcome to 99% Fad Free, the nutrition and health Podcast. I’m your host Tara Leong, you might now me as the Nutrition Guru from The Nutrition Guru and the Chef. I’m a qualified nutritionist and I’m here to help you learn all about nutrition.
Today I’m talking about coconut sugar. The reason I’m talking about it, and dedicating a whole episode to it, is because of the mass confusion surrounding it.
You see, I posted a tik tok showing that coconut sugar was just another sugar and nothing special. Well, the comments were overwhelming. Soooo many people saying ‘but it’s healthier sugar’ but it’s better for us, but it’s a natural sugar so it’s healthy. Don’t you even know this? I thought you were a nutritionist?
But is it any wonder everyone is confused. It has exploded onto the health scene. Sooooo many recipes on insta and pinterest using coconut sugar. So many health bloggers saying its a healthy alternative. It’s been given this health halo, where it’s perceived as healthier just because it’s natural.
Well, you guys know me by now. I use science to understand food, and I always have a skeptical eye. So today, I’m going to explore whether Coconut Sugar is really healthier than normal table sugar.
To do this, let’s look at where it comes from. Coconut sugar comes from the sap coconut palm. It’s a lovely rich brown colour. It looks lovely and ‘natural’ in inverted commas. To sell it, it’s harvested and then dried and heated. Some if that brown colour is in fact from the sugars being heated. It’s often spray dried and pasteurised to kill any microbes because it’s aplant after all and weird things live in plants.
Table sugar is made via the same process, but comes from sugar cane. The only difference between the two, is that one is sugar from sugar cane. One is sugar from a palm tree. Table sugar becomes white, the more it is filtered. Each time it gets filtered, the molasses is drawn out, which is that brown colour, and you are left with white sugar crystals.
So when people say ‘it’s less processed’ this is not true. I suspect the dark brown colour of the coconut sugar has tricked people into thinking it’s less processed, but it’s still a sugar and it has still gone through processing.
You’ll see stupid stuff online, like….it contains vitamins and minerals so it’s healthy. Weeeeeellllll, that’s nonsense. Yes it contains ‘trace’ amounts of nutrients such as iron, calcium and potassium’ but when you look at the levels those levels are tiny.
For example: Coconut sugar contains iron, and is often described as being a ‘source of iron’ in stuff you read online. I’ve got a study in front of me now that shows that 100 grams of coconut sugar contains 2mg of iron. Milligrams is smaller than grams. 2 milligrams is 0.002 of 1 gram of iron….and that’s in 100 grams of the sugar.
So if we calculate how much is in a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee…..
A tsp is 5 grams ….So we get an amazing 0.0001 of a gram of iron. WOAH!
So….Let’s get real here. Saying that coconut sugar contains nutrients and therefore a healthy sugar, is as crazy as saying that a big mac contains lettuce, so it’s a healthy.
You may have also seen info saying that coconut sugar is low GI. GI is the glycaemic index of a food, meaning, the level that food raises your blood sugar (or glucose) levels to.
We want to keep that level low for good health, so foods that don’t raise our blood sugar quickly or to a high level, are considered LOW GI options, and these are always a good thing.
But get this, the GI of coconut sugar has never been tested. Yup, that’s right.There are CLAIMS that it’s low GI but it has never been tested, it’s just a theory.
I did find a study from a loooong time ago stating that the coconut sugar had a low GI rating. But being the skeptic that I am, I read this study and found that A) the scientists stated that they PREDICTED that it was low, not that they had tested it. And, B) The study was published by ...oh, The coconut sugar company in the Phillipines.
And this is how a supposed health food explodes. The study comes out, coconut sugar manufacturers and health food companies latch on to it and market it as a healthy sugar. They do this because they don’t understand how to read studies, and also because they are pretty darn keen to find anything that says their product is healthy.
The media might come across the study, Food bloggers and wellness gurus read that, and start to use it in their cooking, believing it’s healthy. They do fun little videos saying they’ve switched to this and we should to. They look nice, tanned and toned, and we believe them. We go out and buy some to try. The food companies latch on to this explosion while the going is good, and send the bloggers and insta famous people free coconut sugar to promote on their platforms. We all go out and buy it, thinking it’s a healthy sugar. We serve it to our friends when they come over for coffee, and she is impressed and goes home and buys some too, because she has a sweet tooth and would really love a ‘guilt free’ option. Before you know it, the trend is coconut sugar and it’s everywhere.
The issue here is that, we are all believing something that isn’t scientifically true. We are being duped. And this sugar having that ‘health halo’ where we think it’s healthier than it is, might lead to us eating more of it, more often than we actually need to.
I was at my local farmer’s market, looking to purchase a lovely homemade cake. The man who owned the stall told me that it was a sugar-free cake. I asked what he used to sweeten it, and he said coconut sugar. I gently informed him of what I’ve just told you guys.
WHat’s most crazy about this craze is that It’s expensive!. 5 times the price of regular sugar. Well, It certainly doesn’t have 5 times the health benefits.
There is a positive. I love it in baking because it adds a beautiful caramel flavour. I also love it in my coffee for the same reason. But that’s about it.
So, to finish upuup, coconut sugar is not a healthier sugar. It’s a sugar. Just choose the sugar you like, and can afford, whether that be white sugar, or coconut sugar. Be mindful of your intake. The WHO recommends sticking to no more than 6 tsp of added sugar per day. This does not include sugar amount from dairy foods such as milk, nor fruit and veg. Maybe that’s a good topic for the next podcast hey?
And remember, if you thought that coconut sugar was healthier, that’s ok. You’re not silly. I’ll admit, when I first got into nutrition, I thought it was low GI and even published that in my ebook!
Remember to use a critical eye when you take nutrition information on board, follow people you trust, and try not to get wrapped up in the hype and nutrition pop culture.
