We use Coconut Palm Sugar in many of our baked good recipes as it is the lowest glycemic natural sweetener on the market and it is important to us to create foods with natural ingredients that keep blood sugar stable. Unlike it’s name implies, it is not really coconut–it is the nectar from the coconut flower blossom where this delicious sugar is derived so it does not tend to be an allergen like coconut may be.
Because of it’s GI-35 glycemic index, coconut palm sugar is appropriate for those on low glycemic diets including Keto, Low Carb and Diabetic diets.
Sugar alcohols commonly used in Keto diets (like erythritol) and sweeteners used in many diabetic diets often cause stomach distress. Coconut palm sugar is a great alternative to the sugar alcohols and non-natural sweeteners as it is gentle on the body and does not raise blood sugar levels–which is the goal of Keto and low glycemic diets.
Coconut palm sugar adds a more ‘real’ sugar taste to recipes as well with no funny after taste.
If you are following a keto or low carb diet and have a preferred non sugar sweetener like Swerve, you may substitute it wherever you see coconut palm sugar in our SunFlour recipes.
Can you deduct the coconut palm sugar from the carb count like you do erythritol?
The reason that erythritol can be deducted from the carb count is that there was a big lobby of the sugar alcohol ingredient manufacturers to get the FDA to approve it. Coconut sugar has been found to keep blood sugar just as stable (without all the symptoms that sugar alcohols cause for many–like migraines and stomach upset). The FDA doesn’t take a position on whether to deduct it from the carb count because the ingredient is far lesser known and there are not a bunch of manufacturers lobbying to have the nutrition panel changed. So according to the FDA, the answer is no. According to the research, you should be able to. Plus, if you are having the coconut palm sugar with SunFlour, even better support for blood sugar stability. We are just learning about some research that seems to indicate that having sunflower seeds in your diet regularly can lead to a lessening of blood sugar overall.