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Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)
This event was on
Tuesday, June 04, 2024 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.
Question:
![Svetlana H](/assets/users/default_thumbnail-c14152f0fe89cae1cce32e15cdc92f426d801796f87b61f4bb21b89f4b1704ab.jpg)
My doctor keeps telling me that I have to watch my sugar. Is there anyway I can substitute maple syrup for Monk Fruit Powder? What are your thoughts about Monk Sugar?
— Svetlana Hanson
Answer:
So there's a couple things here, so I don't want to give you any kind of recommendations on what your doctor's saying. If your doctor's saying to avoid something, you probably should. Now that being said, maple syrup is found to have a lower glycemic index than a processed granule sugar and would be considered better for you and has more nutrients in the maple sugar than a granule sugar would just because it's not as processed as a granule sugar would be. Now, monk sugar kind of falls into that granule sugar area when we talk about processed food as well. So, uh, monk fruit is a very sweet and it does have a very sugary taste to it, but typically when you're making it into the ized sugar that you'd find in a packet at a grocery store, it kind of goes through a very similar process. Is the cane sugar wood or the beet sugar wood that you'd find at the grocery store? Um, I tend to err on the side of unprocessed as much as possible. So maple, uh, or agave are probably, um, you know, wonderful sources to be able to go off of that. Uh, you know, as far as monk sugar goes, I've tasted it before. Um, I've used it in certain things. It definitely is sweet, but it is again, a very processed ingredient. So, uh, for use case scenario, it kind of is up to you. But, uh, just remember I'm not a doctor, so listen to whatever your doctor says and avoiding that sugar. And if you are switching to something like maple syrup, um, or agave or something like that, you might want to ask the doctor that's telling you that at the same time, 'cause I don't know any of your conditions or, um, you know, what you should be avoiding specifically hope set up.
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