Swirl a bit of maple syrup into your coffee or tea instead of refined table sugar. With this simple choice, you can enjoy an especially delicious morning beverage and support the sugarmakers who tap trees. Moreover, according to recent research, you also might lower your risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Like table sugar, maple syrup is mostly sucrose. But unlike table sugar, maple syrup also contains a rich diversity of plant-derived molecules. These plant compounds accumulate in sap as sugar flows through trees, and they become concentrated when sap is boiled to syrup in sugarhouses. Many of the compounds found in maple syrup, such as lignan and inulin, have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, or other health-promoting properties. Chemical reactions during processing also produce new compounds with health benefits, including the aptly named quebecol.
In a study published in the October 2024 issue of The Journal of Nutrition, scientists at Université Laval in Quebec tested whether maple syrup is a healthier choice than refined sugar. Researchers asked 42 adults with moderately increased risk of cardiometabolic disease to substitute maple syrup for some of the refined sugars in their typical diet, for example, by adding syrup to plain yogurt rather than eating presweetened products. In control trials, participants ate a sucrose solution with artificial maple syrup flavor.
After eight weeks of swapping maple syrup for refined sugar, participants had reduced blood pressure and less fat around the belly and upper body. They also regulated their blood sugar levels better in a glucose tolerance test, which analyzes the body’s response to drinking a sugar water solution. Together, these responses reflect improved cardiometabolic health. Although the effects were modest, the dietary intervention was also small – about two tablespoons of maple syrup daily.
If two daily tablespoons of maple syrup have moderate health benefits, would two quarts have major ones? Probably not. Health organizations recommend that we don’t overindulge in added sugars. And the Université Laval study investigated the effects of replacing sugars with maple syrup, not adding more sugar to the diet.
Intriguingly, shifts in the gut microbiome, the mix of bacterial species that live in digestive systems, might be partly responsible for positive changes in response to eating maple syrup. Following the maple syrup diet, participants had lower levels of gut bacteria from species associated with infection, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, beneficial bacteria such as the probiotic Lactobacillus casei became more abundant, probably because they thrive on plant compounds found in maple syrup.
Taking care of the trees in a sugarbush will help it produce a healthy crop of maple syrup. In turn, eating a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup each day might help nurture a community of beneficial gut bacteria and reduce the risk of common cardiometabolic diseases.