Blackstrap Molasses GI 55
Black strap molasses is all the nutrition that was taken away from refining table sugar. It’s full of minerals and antioxidants. Not the biggest fan, as the flavor can easily overpower a recipe.
Maple Syrup GI 54
I prefer Organic Grade B Maple syrup, which is darker and has more minerals. I love the flavor of maple syrup, and use it frequently as the sweetener in homemade hot chocolate, and to glaze carrots and pecans.
Honey GI 50
Contains antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates, and phytonutrients. Make sure it is raw and unprocessed, local if possible as quality can be an issue. I often use honey when baking paleo friendly desserts.
Cane Juice GI 43
It’s alkaline which is important for a lot of health reasons, and a good source of sugar and energy for athletes.
Barley Malt Syrup GI 42
I wasn’t going to include this because it contains gluten, but it is still considered a natural and healthy sweetener alternative. Made by soaking and sprouting barley to make malt, then combining it with more barley and cooking this mixture until the starch is turned into sugar. The mash is then strained and cooked down to syrup or dried into powder.
Dates (other forms are date paste, date sugar, and date syrup) GI 42
Date paste is just ground up dates. You can easily do this yourself if you only have whole dates available. This is another favorite of mine since it’s a whole food I can get at my farmer’s market. It’s naturally found in nature and still contains it’s fiber and antioxidants. Dates come in different varieties that offer different flavors profiles, however most dates taste very similar to caramel, which is great for anyone looking for a dairy free alternative caramel flavor.
Coconut Palm Sugar GI 35
Also called coconut nectar sugar or coconut sugar. It is made from the sap of coconut palms. A new favorite among health nuts, like myself, soon to replace agave in popularity. Agave has a low GI, but is high in fructose which can be harmful to your health. Coconut sugar tastes and looks similar to brown sugar. I usually use this when altering a recipe that calls for brown and/or white sugar.
Stevia Extract GI 0
This sweetener doesn’t feed candida or yeast. Recommended for The Body Ecology Diet, and another favorite among health nuts. Be careful of quality, some Stevia products have some unhealthy ingredients added to them. You can also try making your own extract with vodka and stevia leaves.
Source:
http://www.sugar-and-sweetener-guide.com/glycemic-index-for-sweeteners.html
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
Image: http://www.coconutworld.biz/
Just wished to add some points about Stevia from my side.Stevia is a natural sweetener used as a powdered sugar substitute for diabetics.Organic stevia farms lets you know more about natural sweetener stevia.
natural sweetener stevia
Thank you for the comment. I am a big fan of stevia, and have used in many of my recipes, however some types do contain "natural flavors" in their ingredient list, which can contain hidden ingredients. It's important to find the best sweetener that works with your health goals. They all have pros and cons.
thanks for this very useful post… for some reason I don't like stevia… it has a strange after taste.. but I just bought cocunut sugar… I am hoping to switch to that too…
btw, where do you by organic Blackstrap Molasses ?
Glad you liked the post! I'm not a fan of stevia either. I bought a vanilla flavored one with "natural flavors" in the ingredients list, which could be anything. Blackstrap Molasses is mostly likely at health foods stores like whole foods, but I have seen it in the healthy section of regular grocery stores as well. You will find it near other healthy sweeteners like honey and coconut sugar in health food stores.
Great post. Question. Fan of Stevia or not? One post says you are and the other says your not.
I used to use a vanilla flavored one, but it had "natural flavors" in the ingredient list. When I went nightshade free for two months, I gave it up since I couldn't say if "natural flavors" contained a nightshade. Plus it has a arificial sweetener flavor that I don't like, so I switched to maple syrup and honey mostly. I used coconut sugar sometimes in baking. Even though I do nightshades again, I don't use stevia anymore because I'm wary of what's in it. If you make your own stevia extract that would be okay, but it would be hard to bake with. Sorry for the long answer.
That is really a great thing. Sweeteners are really a great substitute of normal sugar. I recently came across a site named Cid botanicals who is providing the service of sweetener in different flavors which is made up of stevia leaves.
Cidbotanicals
What about lucuma powder, and yacon syrup? These are two more natural, healthy sweeteners but I have no idea about their G.I. Dr. Oz says yacon syrup helps with weight loss so I imagine it must have a low G.I… Your website is lovely, btw. Very easy to read and visually clean.
Thank you! I just redesigned everything 🙂 I don’t know much about lucuma powder or yacon syrup, but I will certainly look into it so that I can make this article as informative as possible. Thanks again!
I have been looking for GI Index of Dates, but there are many different number of GI in different web sites. I am wondering where you have found the number of the GI Index of Dates as 42?
I updated my sources links, check the second one 🙂 for raw dates. It looks like some of the sources I used before no longer exist.
Hi, I have been baking with stevia but find the results lacking in flavour and it has that aftertaste, I am thinking of using a portion of coconut sugar supplemented with stevia and see if this improves the flavour and texture of my muffins and biscuit etc.
I think that will definitely help.