Coconut Sugar: Healthy or Unhealthy?

Coconut Sugar: Healthy or Unhealthy?

Coconut sugar, or coconut palm sugar, is derived from the coconut palm tree. It’s touted as being more nutritious and lower on the glycemic index than sugar.

The first thing I want to address is the nutrient content.

There isn’t a lot of data on this, but according to the Philippine Department of Agriculture, it contains several nutrients, most notably the minerals Iron, Zinc, Calcium and Potassium, and the fiber Inulin.

However, and this is a huge however, these nutrients are in trace amounts; to the point where they are biologically insignificant and make no difference. So, you would need to eat cups and cups of sugar just to get a noticeable difference.

Obviously you don’t want to do that, because it’s high in calories- the same as regular sugar. Instead, eating a tiny portion of just about any other whole food will provide you with much more vitamins and minerals than you’ll get from coconut sugar.

Okay, so what about the glycemic index of coconut sugar and is it better than regular sugar?

The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly foods raise blood sugar levels. Pure glucose is given a GI of 100, so if a food has a GI of 50, then it raises blood sugar half as much as pure glucose.

According to The Philippine Department of Agriculture, coconut sugar has a GI of 35, which puts it in the low range. This is much lower than regular sugar, which is somewhere around 60.

But I do have a problem with making any conclusions based on this study alone.

Glycemic Index can vary greatly between individuals and this study included only 10 people. It also varies between different batches of food, meaning that products from other manufacturers might have slightly different effects.

Additionally, we ought to be more concerned with the Glycemic Load of the food, not so much the Glycemic Index. That is, a measure of both the quality and quantity of the food with regards to blood sugar levels. The glycemic load of sugar is always high, regardless of the type.

At the end of the day, coconut sugar is no miracle food.

It is very similar to regular table sugar, although, it potentially has a lower glycemic index, and contains some trace amounts of nutrients that won’t influence your health in any way.

So at best it is slightly “less bad” than regular sugar, but it’s still not really good for you.

To really improve your health, particularly if you have blood sugar problems, you need to cut down on all forms of added sugar.