Is Maple Syrup Healthy For Weight Loss 2024? Benefits Of Maple Syrup

Many dieters steer clear of the sweetener aisle when it’s time to cut back, and the choice of maple syrup has put a concern that whether it is healthy or unhealthy for weight loss. However, pure maple syrup is nothing like the artificial Mrs. Buttersworth of our childhood memories- you might be surprised to see that there’s much more to this sweet, sticky delicacy than meets the eye. We can always recommend natural, whole sources of nutrition over chemicals and factory-made commercial sweeteners, especially if your goal is to lose weight. Is maple syrup healthy for weight loss? Here are a couple of the advantages of the best syrup for weight loss.

Other Potential Health Benefits Of Maple Syrup

With so many other healthy ways to reduce your sugar intake like monk fruit extract or honey, you may be wondering: why choose maple?

Pure maple syrup goes above and beyond things like table sugar and other forms of refined sugar, even if considered purely in taste alone. Fans of the sweet stuff will be happy to hear that there are many other reasons to choose maple syrup aside from flavor profile and weight loss alone.

A Relatively Low Glycemic Index Sweetener Substitute

Maple syrup contains mostly sucrose and water^[3], with some glucose and fructose, as well. Because it’s relatively low in glucose, it’s much lower on the glycemic index (GI) scale, especially when compared to other sweeteners with high sugar content.

The baseline for the glycemic index is pure glucose, with a GI score of 100. Maple syrup earns an astounding 54^[4] on average, depending on where it originates and how it is processed. You should feel less of a spike in your blood sugar levels after choosing maple syrup than you would with table sugar, or any other granulated, refined sugar. Low glycemic foods are good for weight loss as they don’t have as drastic of an effect on blood sugar levels, thus indirectly affecting appetite.

Maple syrup is sometimes compared favorably to other natural sugar substitutes like agave when it comes to blood sugar levels. The phenols and minerals present in maple syrup make it a much more attractive option than other substitute sweeteners devoid of these nutrients. 

Rich in Nutrients and Antioxidants

Maple syrup contains twenty-four known phenolic compounds. It’s also a great source of several essential minerals, including polyphenols^[5] that may help you ward off many diseases like cancer.

Unlike the empty, nutritionless calories in white sugar, maple-derived products bring much more to the table than sucrose alone. Among these additional health benefits, you’ll also find:

• Manganese in ample quantities
• Plenty of zinc
• Small amounts of copper, potassium, iron, calcium, and magnesium
• Trace amounts of B vitamins
• Flavanols have been shown to improve blood flow^[6] and prevent heart disease
• Polyphenolic lignans^[7], an antioxidant
• The phytohormone abscisic acid, which may help your body manage its glucose levels

If you’re going to indulge in natural sugar of any kind, you may as well include something as nutritionally-complex as pure maple syrup.

Different Types Of Maple Syrup

The world’s supply of all real maple syrup is extracted from sugar maple trees, also known as the Acer genus^[8]. The type of maple tree may vary—black maple (Acer nigrum), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), and Box Elder Maple (Acer negundo) are a few species of sugar maple trees.

There are also several different grades of maple syrup to consider: extra light, light, golden, medium, and dark amber maple syrup. These varieties are produced during different parts of the season. The later the syrup is acquired and processed, the darker it will be.

Darker maple syrup is much more viscous than golden maple syrup and other lighters, early-season maple syrup. Much of the sap’s water evaporates as time passes. This evaporation produces a darker, more concentrated maple syrup resulting in a much richer and more bioactive source of antioxidants^[9].

Does Maple Syrup Make You Gain Weight?

The risks of consuming maple syrup too much are very similar to the risks of too much sugar. Weight gain, for those trying to lose weight, will be one obvious consequence to avoid. Everything is in moderation.

The biggest risk that you stand to take when choosing maple syrup: picking up a bottle of the fake stuff instead of pure, 100% maple products. Fake maple syrup is usually full of chemicals, artificial sweeteners, regular sugar, preservatives, and other useless filler, often containing less than three percent of actual maple-derived content^[10]. 

Real maple syrup, just to clarify, contains only one ingredient: maple. No refined sugar, period.

Just like any other off-the-shelf sweetener concentrates like golden syrup or inverted sugar syrup, the high sugar content of artificial maple syrup alone should be enough to convince you to avoid consuming it in large amounts, especially when trying to lose weight.

Can real maple sugar cause any other health problems, though? Not really. If you stay within your recommended daily value, you should be fine. When in doubt, we can always recommend seeking the advice of your local health professional.

Conclusion

If you want to lose weight, subbing in maple syrup for table sugar or other added sugars won’t generally earn you fewer calories toward your daily caloric deficit. However, it’s certainly worth remembering that not all sugars and sweeteners are built equally.

As long as you remain in a caloric deficit, you will lose weight, no matter what you put on your waffles in the morning. If you’re going to splurge, you may as well choose something as natural and delicious as maple syrup.

Whether you buy the Whole Foods-approved premium reserve label or you go local, seasonal, and straight from the source, pure maple syrup can be used to enhance pretty much every type of meal, whether you’re on a healthy diet or not.

---