It’s been coconut everything lately! Coconut water, coconut oil pulling (read up on this health craze!), and more.
So what’s the new food trend? Coconut sugar apparently. Most other popular foods and beauty products come from the coconut fruit, but the sugar is made from sap cooked down in a process analogous to how maple syrup is made. This making it look quite similar to brown sugar.
Where as table sugar is made out of 100 percent sucrose (glucose and fructose molecules stuck together), coconut sugar is is only about 75 percent sucrose—with smaller amounts of glucose and fructose. So they are basically the same.
Hold on! One pretty nice perk of coconut sugar is that it’s richer is minerals such as zinc, potassium, and magnesium than other sweeteners. Those others—like maple syrup, honey, or regular table sugar—have practically none of those benefits.
But one point we’d like to bring up: If you’re trying to be more healthful, you won’t be consuming any kind of sugar in the quantities needed to take in significant amounts of these minerals. Better foods to get these minerals are nuts, seeds, and lean meats.
Basically, sugar is sugar. If you’re a coconut fanatic—and not staying away from sugar—you’ll love this stuff. I suggest adding a bit into your coffee—YUM! Just use it sparingly.
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