Everything You Need To Know About Coconut Sugar

Made from the sap of the coconut palm tree, coconut sugar resembles brown, granulated sugar. For the most part, it tastes similar to brown sugar too—it's sweet for sure but has more of a caramel taste than a coconutty one. The brown color indicates the coconut sugar is unrefined and unprocessed, unlike white cane sugar. Some research suggests coconut sugar could be a more nutritious choice when it comes to sweeteners, and some argue the sugar can fit into certain food plans, like the paleo or ketogenic diet.

"Coconut sugar is a natural sugar made from coconut palm sap," says dietitian-nutritionist Dana K. Monsees, M.S., CNS, LDN. "It's also referred to as coconut palm sugar or coconut palm sap in liquid form." Technically, it's quite similar to white sugar. "Calorie for calorie and gram for gram, coconut sugar is equivalent to classic white table sugar (15 calories, 4 grams sugar per teaspoon)," says registered dietitian Danielle Fineberg, M.S., R.D.

If the two are almost nutritionally identical, what's the potential upside to using one over the other? "In the refining process of white sugar, it is stripped from all of its vitamins and minerals," Fineberg explains. "Coconut sugar does not go through as rigorous a refining process; therefore, it contains trace amounts of minerals. That being said, you would need to eat a lot of sugar to receive any measurable benefits from those minerals." Some of the minerals you will find in coconut sugar—albeit, in small amounts—include iron, zinc, calcium, and potassium, along with short-chain fatty acids.

The nutritional stats don't seem to indicate much of a difference between coconut sugar and regular cane sugar, but are their benefits on any other level? "Coconut sugar is lower on the glycemic index (GI) than cane sugar or even maple sugar," says New York City–based holistic nurse practitioner Victoria Albina, N.P., MPH. "Foods with a lower GI are more slowly absorbed, thereby reducing the health-damaging insulin spike."

To Albina's point, research indicates that the GI value of coconut sugar is 35 ± 4, while white cane sugar (sucrose) is 65 ± 4. Researchers believe this lower value may make coconut sugar a more appealing option for people with diabetes or those seeking out a sweetener that doesn't drastically affect their glucose levels. However, additional research is necessary.

If coconut sugar isn't for you but you'd still like to integrate a cane sugar alternative into your diet, you have options. Not sure where to start in the decision-making process? Fineberg offers one simple rule of thumb for figuring out which type of sugar to use: "Choose the one that tastes best to you, and try to keep your overall added sugar intake to about 25 grams per day (for women) and 36 grams per day (for men) for optimal health," she says.