A guide to choosing the best sugars, syrups, and sweeteners for you
A guide to choosing the best sugars, syrups, and sweeteners for you
The 1st WhatSugar–approved sweetener is HERE!
WHAT IS SUGAR, ANYWAY?
Chemically speaking, sugars are the smallest and simplest type of carbohydrates. They're easily digested and absorbed by the body, making them a quick source of energy. There're 2 main types of sugar:
• Simple sugars are small enough to be absorbed directly into the bloodstream. These include glucose, fructose, and galactose.
• Double sugars, as the name implies, contain two simple sugars linked together and are broken down in the body into simple sugars. Examples are sucrose, maltose, and lactose.
Caloric Sweeteners are made up of simple and/or double sugars in concentrated form. They're often a blend of sucrose, glucose, and fructose. And here's how they differ:
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "SUGAR"?
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More Than Cane and Beet: The term "sugar" refers to a wide variety of sweeteners from many sources, not just cane and beet. While sucrose from cane and beet is the most familiar form, chemically speaking, sugar means a simple carbohydrate. In food science, it refers to caloric sweeteners.
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Diverse Origins: Sugars come from saps, starches, fruits, and milk. They can be concentrated plant saps (fluid, nectar) from sugarcane, sugarbeet, agave, maple trees, coconut palm tree, sorghum, and flowers. Sugars can also be derived by breaking down starches — from corn, brown rice, barley, or tapioca. They may be from fruits and milk. Keep scrolling to see them.
BREAKING DOWN "SUGAR"
Sugar comes in many forms — granulated, cube, tablet, nectar, and syrup. They certainly don’t affect the flavor and the texture of our foods in the same way. However, chemically speaking, they are not too different from one another.
No matter where those sweeteners come from, they contain two primary components: sugar (sucrose, fructose, glucose) and water.
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Honey: about 80% sugar (mostly fructose and glucose)
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Maple syrup: 66% (sucrose)
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Agave: 69–77% (mostly fructose and glucose)
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Table sugar: 99.9% (sucrose)
The remaining portion is mostly water.
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Liquid sweeteners (syrups, nectars): 15–35% water
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Solid sweeteners (granulated, powdered, cubes): 0.03–7% water
What sets these sweeteners apart are the trace minerals and micronutrients that contribute to their unique flavors and characteristics.
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Table Sugar: Neutral, sweetens without overpowering other flavors.
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Honey: Adds a floral taste; darker varieties have a bolder flavor.
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Maple Syrup: Varies by grade—darker syrup has a stronger flavor.
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Molasses: Offers a complex bitterness that intensifies with type (traditional, organic blackstrap, mild, dark, blackstrap).
Because some of those sweeteners, such as honey, maple syrup, date syrup, and coconut sugar are way less processed than regular white sugar, they tend to be perceived as more nutritious or healthier.
They do contain trace amounts of micronutrients, such as minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. However, they are not a significant source of any nutrient other than calories from sucrose/glucose/fructose. We would have to eat a truly unhealthful amount of them (100g or even a cup) to get our daily micronutrients requirement or the positive health effects from them. The calories and sugar content outweigh the advantages of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
TAKEAWAY: Don’t swap table sugar with other caloric sweeteners for nutritional value—they’re all similar in that regard. Choose them for their unique taste, aroma, culinary role, or the satisfaction they bring to your recipes. Check out my complete guide to substituting caloric sweeteners HERE.
CALORIES IN SUGARS VERSUS SYRUPS
Ever wondered if syrups have more calories than granulated sugars? Here’s the breakdown.
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Solid or crystallized sweeteners: Have over 90 percent total sugars and provide about 15 calories per teaspoon. Examples are coconut, date, and table sugar.
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Liquid sweeteners: Have over 50 percent total sugars and provide approximately 20 calories per teaspoon. Examples include maple syrup, agave, and honey.
The difference in calorie content comes down to water. As seen above, caloric sweeteners consist of two main components: sugar and water. Their water content varies—from under 0.05% in table sugar to as much as 34% in maple syrup—leading to differences in calorie density.
To compare their nutritional value more accurately, we use a "dry basis"—which assumes no water is present. On a dry basis, all caloric sweeteners provide 4 calories per gram because they’re entirely composed of simple carbohydrates once the water is removed.
SUCROSE, GLUCOSE AND FRUCTOSE
The Building Blocks of Caloric Sweeteners
Most sweeteners are made up of sucrose, glucose, and fructose in various proportions. Sucrose is a double sugar, composed of two single sugars — glucose and fructose — stuck together.
When digested, sucrose is quickly split into glucose and fructose. So, your body processes caloric sweeteners as glucose and/or fructose (see chart below).
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In most varieties of honey and agave nectar: Fructose is present in higher amounts than glucose.
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Maple syrup, coconut sugar, and cane & beet sweeteners: Roughly equal amounts of fructose and glucose.
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Starch-derived sweeteners (e.g. barley malt, brown rice, tapioca syrups): Fructose-free.
These differences also help explain how those sweeteners affect flavor, texture, and color of your recipes. For example, syrups with more “free fructose” (not bonded with glucose) will brown faster, absorb and retain more moisture. I explain this in detail HERE.
NATURAL vs. NATURALLY OCCURRING
What's the difference?
The sweeteners I refer to as "sugars" are categorized differently by different organizations.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Heart Association, and in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 calls them "added sugars"
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The World Health Organization uses the term "free sugars".
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The FDA defines those sweeteners (except blends) as single-ingredient sugars — those "intended to be consumed alone or added to foods by consumers, and thus will be an added sugar to the diet when consumed".
These definitions exclude intrinsic and intact sugars, also known as "naturally occurring", found in whole foods like milk and fruits.
What’s the difference between natural and naturally occurring?
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Naturally Occurring Sugars: Found in their original state in whole foods, like the fructose in an apple or the lactose in milk.
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Natural Sugars: Derived from natural sources but processed. For example, the store-bought fructose is a natural sugar; it's a synthetic sweetener that can be made from corn and table sugar.
To learn more about what "natural sweeteners" truly mean, check out my in-depth blog posts:
THE GLYCEMIC INDEX OF SUGARS
A flawed guide for choosing the healthiest sugars
I'm always asked Which sugar is healthiest? or Which sugar has the lowest glycemic index?
Here's the truth: When it comes to comparing sugars, the glycemic index (GI) is meaningless.
As said before, sugars, also known as caloric sweeteners, are primarily made up of glucose and/or fructose (see chart above). Once digested, they all end up as glucose in your body. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Sucanat, muscovado, table sugar, honey, maple syrup, or any of the 80 sweeteners I’ve listed on this page.
Some sugars have a low GI, which would put them in the “healthy” range of the scale. However, that does NOT make them healthier than table sugar.
Take agave nectar, for example. A low GI of 34 doesn’t make it better for you when compared to white refined sugar. It just means that it contains more fructose (see chart above).
Fructose ranks very low on the glycemic index scale (GI=19) because the GI measures ONLY glucose. Fructose doesn't immediately increase blood sugar levels as it takes twice as long to be absorbed, AND it must be converted into glucose by the liver before your body can use it. So, this “time delay” — from the time fructose is digested to when it becomes available as glucose — skews the GI score, making it appear healthier when it’s not.
The bottom line? The glycemic index is not a reliable tool for comparing sugars. Focus instead on overall sugar consumption and choosing the right sweetener for your needs.
Sugar Swaps: What do You Need to Know
If you're wondering: Is it better to replace sugar with honey? Is maple syrup better than regular sugar? The answer depends on what you mean by “better”.
Better taste? Better aroma? Better for baking? If the question is “better for you” or healthy, you’re probably guessing it by now.
Sugars and syrups are an excellent source of energy. They offer no other nutritional benefit. So, as they’re generally not too different from one another in terms of nutritional value, one is not healthier than the other. Of course, some are less processed and refined than others, but that doesn’t make them “better for you” or more nutritious than table sugar.
But if your idea of "better" focuses on baking results, or how these options affect taste, texture, or color in recipes, check out THIS blog post.
EXPLORE "SUGAR" BRANDS & PRODUCTS
There is A LOT to see here. Scroll down to explore it all, or if you're short on time, make your choice below:
Click the TRY IT button of each sweetener to be linked to Amazon
where you can read reviews, labels, Q&As, and prices.
Affiliate links help keep this content free (Full disclosure)
The most common beet sugars found on the market are (fine or extra fine) granulated sugar, (light or dark) brown sugar and confectioners sugar
Non-GMO beet sugars & syrups are usually imported from Europe where genetically modified sugar beets are not grown. In the U.S., bioengineered sugar beets are grown and sent to sugar factories to be processed into refined sugar.
An invert syrup made from beet sugar. Non-gmo, since it is produced in Europe.
Some sugar marketers, such as United Sugars Corporation and Cargill, may combine cane and beet sugar. Some granulated, brown and confectioners sugars available on the market might be cane sugar mixed with beet sugar. Most store brands are a blend of both, unless the label states it is 'cane sugar'. By law, the use of the term 'sugar' in food labels is for cane or beet sugar only. Sugar manufacturers and distributors are not required to mention the source - if from beet or cane.
Decorative sugars, such as pearl sugars, are made by crushing blocks of white refined sugar or by pushing sugar through an extrusion die. Shaped like irregular little balls, these sugars are typically used to decorate the tops of baked goods as they do not melt during the baking process.
Some commercial sugars are combinations of refined sugar (sucrose from cane or beet) and sugars from other sources such glucose, lactose and coconut sugar.
From Sap (Plant Nectar or Fluid),
Starch, Fruit & Milk
Fruit Juice Concentrates (FJC) are made by evaporating most of the water of a fruit juice, usually from grapes, apples or pears. Contain different proportions of fructose, glucose and sucrose depending on the fruit used. Provide 40-60 Calories per tablespoon. A typical FJC is sweeter than table sugar.
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