5 Not-So-Sweet Facts About Coconut Sugar There is pretty good consensus amongst a number of other articles on this topic that coconut sugar is not a super healthy alternative to sugar at all. They also agree that no sweetener is always a better alternative. Many also list the same "healthier" alternatives as this article does. What can be added to this article is the coconut sugar does not contain Palm Oil, and it does contain a fiber called inulin (clinical research finds prebiotics like inulin support gut health, colon cancer prevention, blood sugar balance, lipid (fat) metabolism, bone mineralization, fatty liver disease, obesity, and immunity), which may slow glucose absorption and explain why coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than regular table sugar. It should be noted that coconut sugar is made from the leaves of the tree, and not the fruit from which coconut oil is made. The major component of coconut sugar is sucrose (70-79%), followed by glucose (3-9%). Sucrose (table sugar) is made up of half fructose. That makes coconut sugar 38-48.5% fructose, which is about the same as table sugar. The GI doesn’t directly apply to sweeteners because it doesn’t measure fructose, the main component of coconut sugar. Fructose ranks low on the GI because the body can’t immediately use it for energy, so it doesn’t affect blood sugar, but it’s still kryptonite. When you eat lots of fructose it goes straight to your liver, and your liver tries to metabolize it into a useful form before it causes damage (fructose is toxic in large amounts). See http://ift.tt/2kr5s2d
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