Maple syrup is often used as a sugar substitute to sweeten food. What is in the syrup and what quality should you use? Learn interesting facts about maple syrup and its effects on health here.
Classification: quality of maple syrup.
Depending on the harvest time, different quality grades are created. In Europe, the quality grade ranges from AA to D:
- Maple syrup grade AA stands for highest grade, very light syrup with fine-mild taste. This quality grade is sold almost exclusively in Canada and hardly exported.
- Grade A maple syrup is also very high quality and has a mild, aromatic taste.
- Grade B is usually much darker and tastes strong and aromatic.
- The amber maple syrup grade C tastes very strong and spicy.
- The last category, maple syrup grade D, is also called “industrial syrup” in Canada, because it is used exclusively for industrial processing. Its flavor is so strong that it is almost unpleasant and the color is very dark.
So basically, the lighter the maple syrup, the finer and milder its taste. Attention when buying: Again and again you hear that maple syrup is diluted with sugar water from sugar cane. Therefore, when buying should pay attention to the selection of reputable suppliers.
Use of maple syrup
Maple syrup is healthy, there is no doubt about it. As a purely natural product, it contains many minerals depending on the soil conditions. However, most of the vitamins are lost due to repeated cooking during the processing procedure.
Nevertheless, maple syrup is primarily a high-sugar food. It consists primarily of water, sucrose and fructose (sugar content: 66 to 67 percent) – and it is even sweeter than conventional granulated sugar. Maple syrup is not suitable for people with diabetes.
It is therefore important to enjoy maple syrup only in small quantities.
Maple syrup diet: shake to lose weight.
In combination with lemon juice, chili or cayenne pepper and water results in a maple syrup diet to lose weight, also known as master cleanse diet or lemon juice diet. Here, the main focus is on the calorie deficit. The maple syrup is supposed to provide carbohydrates, while the cayenne pepper is supposed to boost digestion and the lemon juice is supposed to aid digestion and reduce fat.
The risk for a deficiency supply with nutrients or a JoJo effect after end of the Diät is however rather high. This is another reason why orthodox medicine views the maple syrup lemon juice shake diet rather critically.
Maple syrup as a sugar substitute
If you want to use maple syrup to sweeten food and drinks, you should pay attention to the fact that already a good half tablespoon of syrup can replace a whole tablespoon of sugar. In general, the guideline is that 100 grams of sugar can be replaced by 75 grams of syrup.
Otherwise, maple syrup can generally be used anywhere in place of sugar. Incidentally, the native peoples used their “sinzibuckwud,” which roughly means “coaxed from the wood,” to flavor almost all foods, including savory dishes. Even when they first came into contact with salt through the settlers, they didn’t like it much and preferred to stick with their maple syrup.
Maple syrup: healthy effect
Whoever uses the golden liquid today can be sure to have a high-quality natural product. A cup of tea or hot milk with maple syrup relaxes and helps with sleep disorders. A spoonful of pure syrup awakens new energies and drives away feelings of sluggishness.
As versatile and delicious as syrup is, it still has its drawbacks. From the ecological point of view, the long transport from overseas and the associated impact on the environment should be judged quite critically. Also the price for a bottle of maple syrup exceeds that for a package of sugar by far. However, since a tree can only yield about 40 liters of sap per year, which is equivalent to one liter of maple syrup, this price should be understandable.