Eating maple syrup, instead of more refined sugars, may reduce the risk of metabolic disease, according to a Canadian study.
"We know from decades of research that maple syrup is more than just sugar," Dr. André Marette, lead scientist on the study, said in a statement. "It contains over 100 natural compounds, including polyphenols, that are known to prevent disease in part through their anti-inflammatory effects."
Metabolic disease is an umbrella term given to obesity and related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and heart disease. A high-sugar diet and inflammation are two known risk factors for metabolic disease, and there has long been a debate among nutrition experts and scientists as to whether all forms of sugar are equally harmful to health.
"Because the fundamental chemistry of maple syrup is unique, I wondered if ingesting maple syrup instead of an equivalent amount of refined sugar would differently impact the cardiometabolic health and intestinal microbiota in humans," said Marette. "The results were extremely encouraging. I did not expect to see so many improvements of risk factors within a relatively short treatment period."
The study involved 42 people from Quebec, Canada, and nearby, aged 18 to 75, who were all overweight, but otherwise healthy. Participants were split into two groups, and for eight weeks one group substituted 5 percent of their daily caloric intake of food with Canadian maple syrup, and the other group swapped the same amount of calories for artificially flavored sucrose syrup.
After those eight weeks, there was a four-week washout period when the participants went back to their usual diets, before they spent another eight weeks eating the other sugar. This meant that the participants all experienced eight weeks eating each form of sugar, so the scientists could directly compare the effects of eating the equivalent of two tablespoons of Canadian maple syrup with two tablespoons of sucrose syrup.
The scientists concluded that eating maple syrup rather than artificial syrup improved several markers of metabolic disease, including blood sugar, blood pressure and abdominal fat. When participants ate maple syrup, their bodies afterwards responded better to the sugars in their blood, compared to when they ate the artificial syrup.
Individuals in the maple syrup group showed significant improvements in blood pressure, while those in the sucrose group had higher blood pressure than on their regular diets.
Abdominal fat is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other metabolic conditions—but the scientists found that participants swapping their sugars for maple syrup lost abdominal fat, and those eating sucrose gained abdominal fat.
"Both individually and collectively, the study findings are quite significant," said Marette. "The combined decrease of such key risk factors may help to reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease."
Marette's team also discovered an unexpected benefit to gut health from eating maple syrup. Maple syrup groups improved their levels of potentially beneficial bacteria in the gut, and reduced their levels of gut microbes linked to inflammation and metabolic disorders.
"We now have human evidence to support replacing refined sugars with maple syrup, a natural sweetener, for preventing metabolic diseases," said Marette. "Our next goal is to conduct larger studies with other populations to explore how replacing refined sugars with maple syrup might impact their unique health conditions."
One of the study participants said in a statement: "Before the study, I would consume pure maple products regularly, but not consistently. I have always enjoyed it. Today my routine is to replace refined sugars with two tablespoons of pure Canadian maple syrup daily."
This study was published in The Journal of Nutrition. It was conducted by a team of scientists at Laval University, Quebec, led by Marette at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, and Dr. Marie-Claude Vohl at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods.
The research was partly funded by Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which represents 13,500 producers of maple syrup and 8,400 maple enterprises.
Do you have a tip on a food story that Newsweek should be covering? Is there a nutrition concern that's worrying you? Let us know via science@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured in Newsweek.
Reference
Morisette, A., Agrinier, A. L., Gignac, T., Ramadan, L., Diop, K., Marois, J., Varin, T. V., Pilon, G., Simard, S. Larose, É., Gagnon, C., Arsenault, B. J., Després, J. P., Carreau, A. M., Vohl, M. C., Marette, A. (2024). Substituting Refined Sugars With Maple Syrup Decreases Key Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Individuals With Mild Metabolic Alterations: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Crossover Trial, The Journal of Nutrition 154(10). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.08.014
English (US) ·