What is the Healthiest Type of Sugar? | The Cooking Doc®

Is there a health benefit to coconut sugar? Should you choose agave nectar? Maybe maple syrup, maybe honey? How are you gonna sweeten your next meal? Stay tuned, I'll tell you what to choose. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Dr. Blake. I'm a board certified nephrologist and I'm also the cooking doc. These are my opinions and my opinions only. This is not medical advice. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure you subscribe to my channel. Click that like button, hit that bell so you never miss a new recipe or a new health tip. Which of those sweeteners should you choose when you are cooking things at home? And if you've watched my show before, you can probably guess where this is headed. Almost all sugar is sugar. Sugars, no matter what you choose, have a very similar amount of calories in them unless you're choosing a no calorie sugar substitute. So things like coconut sugar and table sugar, very similar amount of calories per serving. And even though the glycemic index may be a little bit different, there is no health benefit to choosing coconut sugar over regular sugar. They will both give you calories. They will both make your blood sugar go up if you're diabetic. Don't get fooled into thinking that coconut sugar is better for you. You're faced with lots of choices when you go to the grocery store or when you look at a recipe or when you reach in your cabinet for how to sweeten things. You've got people telling you to choose things that have fructose instead of sucrose or sucrose instead of fructose. You have people telling you to choose things like honey because they have other natural healing properties and it can be enough to make you crazy. Today we're talking Sweet Tooth. This is actually inspired by my sister-in-law. I went to her house about a month ago. She had coconut sugar on hand. There was the assumption that that was the better sugar to choose, the healthier sugar, and that's a common thought. You're faced with lots of choices when you go to the grocery store or when you look at a recipe or when you reach in your cabinet for how to sweeten things. There's agave nectar. Agave nectar has been hinted as a healthier sugar because it has a very low glycemic index, but while agave nectar may have a very low glycemic index, it is very high in fructose, which may have negative health benefits as well. So I don't look at agave nectar as any healthier than any of the other sugars. So if you're bored now with me already, just telling you that all sugar is sugar, please take heart. I do like sugar and I do like sweets, and there is a role for sugar in your diet, but don't get sucked into thinking that you can substitute coconut sugar for regular sugar and have health benefits. Use added sugar sparingly. Use the type of sugar where you like the flavor. Make your changes based on the texture of the sugar and the flavor of the sugar because the bottom line is for the most part, all sugar is sugar. Now honey may be a little different because it has micronutrients and other bioactive compounds, but let's face it, you're probably not eating enough honey for it to make a difference in your long-term overall health. Those level of micronutrients and bioactive compounds are very small. So I guess if you line it up next to regular sugar, it's possible that honey has a little bit of benefit, but honey still has calories. If you eat too much honey, you will still gain weight. So don't look at honey as something that's gonna make you overall healthier, but maybe it's just a little bit better than regular sugar. The other thing we have to cover is the difference between natural sugars and added sugars. So natural sugars are sugars that are already in the food. So you talk about people eating fruit and they say that's high in sugar, and they're right, and that's natural sugar. Now, natural sugar still has calories just like the added sugar, but there's a little bit of difference. Those natural sugars are incorporated into those fruits, and so there's also a number of other things like fiber and vitamins and nutrients that come when you eat those foods with the natural sugar. When we're talking about added sugar, that is just sugar. That is just calories. It does not have those other things. So that's why there's a difference between natural sugar and added sugars, and it's important when people tell you not to eat fruit because it has so much sugar that that is natural sugar, but it is not on the same plane as added sugars. Now I'm gonna end with one final note. Focusing on these little changes like table sugar to honey or thinking that coconut sugar is better than regular sugar is not the way to make yourself healthier. Focus on your long-term eating patterns. What is it that you do every day that is detrimental to your health that you can cut out? Is it going to fast food restaurants? Is it eating too many processed sweets? Is it drinking Coca-Cola and 7-Up? Cut out those behaviors before you worry about what type of sugar you're using. If you're gonna add sugar, use a small amount and choose your sugar based on the flavor and the texture, not because some internet person tells you that it's good for your health. And I'm well aware that I am an internet person, and so I understand that, and I do see the irony here. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Dr. Blake. I'm a board certified nephrologist, and I'm also the cooking doc. Make sure you subscribe to my channel. Check out my website, thecookingdoc.co. Like this video, share it, and we will see you next time.