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Fresh Grain Porridge as a Healthy Breakfast Alternative

What was it like: eat like a king in the morning, like a king at lunchtime, and like a pauper in the evening.
Easily said, but our breakfast culture is pretty bad. Quickly bought a roll from the bakery on the way or sweet bars for school, people are in a hurry in the morning and after a rested night the stomach only comes up later. It is particularly important early in the morning to start the day well and, above all, healthy.

As an alternative to bread, rolls, or nothing at all, there are delicious grain products such as cornflakes, muesli, or various homemade fresh grain dishes. Fresh grain is the be-all and end-all of a healthy diet, and with the delicious fresh grain porridge, you can prepare a tasty dish that will keep you full all morning. The practical thing about fresh grain porridge is that it can be made with minimal preparation time and without much effort.

For this, you need a grain mill or at least a grain flaker in order to always prepare the grain dish fresh. A mill is a valuable kitchen helper that really pays off in the long run, because freshly ground flour or grist can be used in many ways.

The basic recipe for a cereal porridge

Coarsely grind three tablespoons of grain per person and mix with unboiled cold tap water to form a paste and leave to soak overnight. Please calculate enough water so that nothing is thrown away. The next morning, the fresh grain porridge is served with fresh fruit, honey, yogurt, or fresh whipped cream. You can add nuts or raisins if you like. One variant is a freshly grated apple, which makes the fresh grain porridge particularly fluffy.

Millet porridge with raspberries

  • 3 tbsp millet
  • 50 grams of raspberries
  • 1 banana
  • 2 tablespoons sweet cream or 2 tablespoons natural yogurt
  • 1 MS vanilla, lemon juice
  • 1 tsp neutral honey

The millet is so fine-grained that it can be soaked without being crushed. Mix with the ingredients the next morning and season with vanilla, lemon juice, and honey.

Three-grain kiwi porridge

  • 1 tbsp each of wheat, rye, oats
  • 1 kiwi
  • small apple
  • 50 grams of strawberries
  • 2 tbsp cream or 2 tbsp natural yogurt
  • 1 MS vanilla
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 -3 walnuts

Prepare the ground grain with the tap water. Leave to soak overnight and add the indicated ingredients. Decorate with chopped nuts. All types of grain can be used without any problems, you will find your personal taste by trying them out and soon you will no longer want to delete the fresh basket rice from your menu as a healthy breakfast.

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Guarana: Why The Caffeine Alternative is Problematic

Guarana is many times stronger than coffee. Here we explain how the liana plant is cultivated and what is problematic about it from an ecological point of view.

Guarana: A liana-like plant from the rainforest

Growth form: Although the guarana plant is one of the soap tree plants, its growth form is actually not a tree. Guarana is one of the lianas and is more like a shrub, but it can grow up to fifteen meters high.

Development: When the plant is young, guarana has brown, hairy, woody branches. Over time, these become softer and bare, so that they are more and more reminiscent of lianas. The plant has large, oblong to oval leaves that can grow up to 35 cm long. It also has deep red flowers that gradually lighten. At the end remains a capsule-like fruit, three centimeters in diameter, containing small black seeds. When ripe, it opens up and resembles the shape of an eye.

Area: The exotic fruit loves tropical and subtropical climates and is native to the Amazon rainforest. There it grows wild among the diverse other jungle plants. The harvest workers cover five to ten kilometers a day on beaten paths.

Harvest: The harvested fruits are stored in sacks for four to six days. During this time, the shell separates from the seeds and the caffeine content increases to four percent. The seeds are then crushed, sorted by hand, washed and completely separated from the shells. The latter are still used as natural fertilizer.

Then it’s time to wait again: the kernels are dried in the sun until they only contain seven percent moisture. This can take a few hours to days. When they have dried sufficiently, they are freed from dust and dirt using a kind of wind tunnel and then ground into powder.

The main active ingredients in Guarana

The most important ingredient in guarana is caffeine: the caffeine content of guarana powder is between 0.9 and 7.6 percent – and thus significantly higher than the caffeine content of coffee, which only manages 1.2 to 1.3 percent. In addition, caffeine in guarana is much better tolerated by the human body than that in coffee.

These active ingredients make Guarana so effective:
Caffeine: The caffeine in guarana takes about 45 minutes to kick in, but it takes time to reach its full potential, which is why the effects can last up to six hours. This is due to the tannins to which the caffeine in guarana is bound and which have to be broken down little by little.
Tannins: These tannins also kill bacteria and cause the gastrointestinal tract to contract. This has also led to the use of guarana as a diarrhea remedy.
Saponins: The saponins – or soap substances – contained in guarana also have a draining effect, stimulate the kidneys and support the gastrointestinal system. Because of the saponins, guarana also has an antibacterial effect and is used against salmonella and choli bacteria.
Theophylline and theobromine: The theophylline and theobromine contained in guarana also stimulate kidney function, support heart activity and have a stimulating and stimulating effect.

effects of guarana

Specifically, caffeine and thus guarana has the following effects:
It provides energy, wakes you up and increases performance.
Caffeine stimulates kidney activity.
Caffeine stimulates the digestive organs, lungs and liver.
It also improves heart activity by expanding blood vessels.
And brain activity is also increased.
Like all products containing caffeine, guarana can also cause heart palpitations, high blood pressure, nervousness, sleep disorders or tremors. In rarer cases, guarana also harbors an allergy potential or can lead to abdominal pain.
Some Guarana is also praised as a “slimming agent” because it suppresses the feeling of hunger for a while. However, its effect as a diet agent is very controversial.
Other studies have also proven the blood-thinning effect of guarana, which makes it possible to use it as a remedy for thrombosis.
Because of all these effects, guarana is also often used as a remedy for hangovers. In this country it is usually available as a powder or in ready-mixed drinks. Guarana capsules, muesli bars with guarana or guarana chewing gum are also available for purchase.

How to use guarana

How to prepare the energy drink yourself:
Stir 1 teaspoon of powder into 250ml of hot water. Let the drink steep for a moment.

Caution: If you consume more than three to four grams of guarana a day, this can lead to tachycardia or high blood pressure. To be on the safe side, you should also always read the information on the packaging – because the caffeine content of guarana, as I said, varies greatly. Pregnant women and people suffering from high blood pressure should not take Guarana.

Guarana from an ecological point of view

Like many products from warmer climates, guarana has to travel long distances before it reaches German supermarkets. In contrast to coffee, however, guarana is not cultivated in monocultural plantations, but extracted from its natural environment.

If you don’t want to do without guarana, you should consume it in moderation and pay attention to the organic and fair trade seal when buying it. Such excellent products were grown under fair social and ecological conditions.

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Food

“Hemp Milk”: The Slightly Different Alternative to Milk

“Hemp milk” as a plant-based milk substitute is free of lactose, milk protein, soy, cholesterol and gluten – good nutritional values ​​make the hemp drink an exciting milk alternative for people with food allergies.

Hemp was banned in Europe for a long time due to its components with intoxicating effects and was almost completely ousted from domestic fields. The ancient cultivated plant and its seeds provide very nutritious grains that are healthy because they contain many essential amino acids, are rich in minerals and vitamins and are ideal for oil extraction.

Finely ground and mixed with water, the seeds are used as “hemp milk” – which is sold under the name hemp drink or drinking hemp. Strictly speaking, according to EU legislation, the term “hemp milk” should not be used at all, as the term “milk” is reserved for animal milk from cows, sheep, goats or horses. We use the term in this article as most consumers use it in common parlance.

Hemp milk – what is it?

Hemp milk actually consists only of hemp seeds (sometimes also hemp oil), water, some salt and rice syrup or tapioca starch for binding and sweetening. The peeled hemp seeds are ground into flour and mixed with water, salt and sweeteners. The fine paste is stirred until a homogeneous liquid is formed.

In order to make the hemp drink durable, emulsifiers are sometimes added to industrially manufactured products. With peeled hemp seeds, there is no filtering of the hemp milk, which means that the healthy components of the hemp seeds are also preserved in the hemp drink.

The purely plant-based, i.e. vegan milk substitute is free of lactose, milk protein, soy, cholesterol and gluten and is therefore a good alternative for people with food allergies.

Recipe: Make hemp milk yourself

You can easily make hemp milk yourself in your own kitchen, here is the recipe:
shelled hemp seeds
water
a pinch of salt
Depending on your taste, sweeteners (e.g. dates, rice syrup or coconut blossom sugar)
Depending on your taste, add some vanilla or cinnamon for a special touch
That’s how it’s done:
Use 1 tablespoon of hemp seeds for every 100 milliliters of water.
Place the ingredients in a blender.
Whisk them together until you get a creamy liquid.
The hemp milk is ready and can be stored in the refrigerator for about two to three days.

How healthy is hemp milk as a milk substitute?

In addition to omega-3 fatty acids, hemp seeds also contain gamma-linolenic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid that is considered healthy and a fountain of youth for the cells. And unlike the processing of other milk substitutes, hemp milk does not need to be filtered when using hulled hemp seeds. This means that the valuable components of the hemp seeds are also preserved in the hemp drink. In addition to polyunsaturated fatty acids, these are mainly potassium, magnesium and essential amino acids.

As with many milk substitute products (such as oat milk or almond milk), hemp milk, which is basically very healthy, also lacks calcium. For babies and growing children, feeding this milk substitute exclusively is therefore not recommended. In the case of a vegan diet, the supply should be ensured through other sources of calcium.

Nutritional values: This is in hemp milk

Looking at the nutritional values, hemp milk is relatively high in fat compared to other plant-based milk alternatives. However, the milk substitute contains very few carbohydrates and, unsweetened, almost no sugar. With around 40 kilocalories per 100 milliliters of hemp drink, drinking hemp is not necessarily one of the slimmers, but it contains fewer calories than other milk alternatives.

And because the energy comes mainly from slowly utilized unsaturated fatty acids, hemp milk fills you up and prevents food cravings. Depending on the product, milk alternatives contain about one gram of protein and three grams of fat, 80 percent of which are unsaturated fatty acids. Since the hemp drink is made from peeled hemp seeds, it does not contain any fiber, which would be healthy to eat.

Hemp milk and sustainability

As a very old cultivated plant, hemp is extremely undemanding and resistant to pests. As a rule, no pesticides have to be used during cultivation, which is why hemp is ideal for organic farming.

The hemp plant also thrives on almost any soil, so that hemp seeds from the region can always be processed and the transport routes are short.

So hemp milk scores in terms of sustainability. The only thing you should pay attention to is the packaging – manufacturers with glass bottles are preferable to those with beverage cartons.

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Carob: An Alternative to Cocoa

Carob is the powder from the dried fruit of the carob tree. It is considered a healthy alternative to cocoa. But what is the health value of carob and what are the advantages and disadvantages of carob compared to cocoa?

The carob tree is widespread in the Mediterranean region and in the Near East and belongs to the legume family. Long, curved pods that are almost black in color hang from the branches. These are the fruits of the tree.

Each pod contains up to 15 seeds, separated from each other by the pulp, the so-called “carob”. In its regions of origin, carob is often eaten raw, but in local organic markets carob is mainly found dried and ground as a powder.

Carob powder has a fruity-sweet caramel flavor and can therefore serve as a tasty and less bitter alternative to cocoa. You can use carob the same way you use cocoa powder, for example to make hot “chocolate” or “chocolate” pudding or to bake a marble cake. In addition, carob powder has a few advantages that speak in favor of swapping out cocoa for carob from time to time.

Carob: that’s what makes it so healthy

Carob scores in several ways from a health perspective:
Carob is nutrient rich. It contains vitamins A and B as well as the minerals iron and calcium.
Carob is almost fat-free, but rich in dietary fiber and insoluble phytochemicals.
According to a study, this means that the consumption of a carob extract can cause a short-term reduction in blood lipid levels and boost fat burning.
The roughage together with the naturally contained sugar ensure that carob is a good supplier of energy.
Carob is also very low in calories: 100 grams contain around 255 kilocalories, while 100 grams of cocoa powder contain 350 kilocalories.
Unlike cocoa, carob does not contain any stimulating substances like caffeine or theobromine. So it is also suitable for children.

Conclusion: cocoa or carob – which is better?

Carob tastes sweeter and less bitter than cocoa, but can be used in the same way. Unlike cacao, carob does not contain any stimulating substances that some people are sensitive to. In addition, carob can be a more sustainable choice than cocoa: the carob tree is less sensitive, does not need as much water and also grows in southern Europe. From a health and ecological point of view, it is therefore worth trying carob as an alternative to cocoa.

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Date Syrup: A Vegan Recipe For The Honey Alternative

Date syrup is the ideal way to leave the valuable honey with the bees and still give your desserts and hot drinks a delicious sweetness.

Date syrup is very easy to prepare yourself with a little patience. Just as sweet and tasty as honey, you can smear it on rolls, bake it, refine waffles or pancakes and, of course, sweeten teas and smoothies.

Potassium (good for heart and muscles)
Magnesium (for muscles, heart and brain)
Calcium (important for your bones)
Amino acid tryptophan (important for the formation of the sleep hormone melatonin)

Unfortunately, although dates are famous for their high fiber content, these are lost when the syrup is pressed. Since approx. 100 grams of dates contain approx. 50 to 70 grams of sugar, you do not need any additional sugar to prepare the syrup.

Date syrup: the recipe

To prepare the date syrup, you need a hand blender and a straining cloth as special utensils to squeeze out the syrup.

Ingredients for the date syrup:
200 g pitted dates
1 vanilla bean
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice
370 ml water

How to prepare the date syrup:
Pit the dates.
Take half of the dates and let them bake in the oven for about 40 minutes at 120 degrees.
Cut the other half of the dates into small pieces and place them in a saucepan of water.
Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise. Scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod and put everything in your pot. If you just want a light vanilla flavor, just scrape it once or twice with the teaspoon and store the rest of the pod in an airtight container in the fridge.
Now add cinnamon and lemon juice.
Bring the whole thing to a boil and then let it simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring constantly.
Now put the finished dates from the oven into the date-water mixture and let it simmer for another 15 minutes.
So that the taste can develop properly, leave the pot covered in the kitchen for two hours.
Now take the hand blender and puree the whole thing.
Now place the straining cloth over a bowl. Place the pureed date mixture in the cloth and squeeze as much liquid as possible through.
Now you can fill your finished date syrup into jars and seal them airtight.
The date syrup can now be stored in the refrigerator for about two weeks.

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Food

Panela: This is What You Should Know About The Sugar Alternative

Panela – Healthy, Nutritious Sugar Alternative or Unfounded Hype? Here you can find out everything you need to know about the sweetener from Latin America.

What is Panela?

Panela is a caramel-colored sugar mass that is an everyday staple in the sugar cane-growing regions of Central and South America. In these regions it is also known as panocha, raspadura, piloncillo, tapa dulce or chancaca. Similar sugar products are also widely available in Asian and African countries, such as gur in India, gula melaka in Malaysia and kokuto in Japan.

Latin American panela is made from sugar cane juice, which is boiled in copper kettles at high temperatures to form a viscous molasses. This then hardens at cooler temperatures and is then cut into smaller portions.

The difference to the white granulated sugar that is common in Europe is that the vitamins and minerals are retained in Panela because it is not refined. In contrast, conventional industrial sugar from sugar beets is deprived of all its nutrients by a centrifugal processing method. That’s why panela has a reputation for being healthier than granulated sugar.

Panela vs. Industrial Sugar: Is Panela Healthy?

It is now widely known that sugar is not exactly healthy. Normal industrial sugar is suspected of drastically increasing the risk of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, liver and kidney damage and cancer. Panela, on the other hand, is now being hailed as a healthy alternative. But is the sweetener from Latin America really that much healthier?

It is true that panela contains more nutrients than regular sugar. The sugar alternative contains, for example, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc and calcium as well as vitamin B6 – but only in small amounts. In order to get enough nutrients from eating panela, you would have to eat a lot of it.

Panela is also said to support healthy digestion. However, there are no scientific studies to prove this.

Bottom Line: Panela is a bit healthier than industrial sugar as it contains some vitamins and minerals. Compared to other foods such as vegetables or legumes, however, the nutrient content is negligible. Other health-promoting effects of the sugar alternative have not been proven. Ultimately, panela is still mostly sugar and should only be consumed in moderation.

What you can use Panela for

Since panela has a similar consistency to regular sugar and one gram of panela is exactly one gram of sugar, you can use it in baking or cooking just like white sugar. The taste of Panela has a fruity-caramel note. Panela is therefore particularly suitable for baking cakes and biscuits and for preparing desserts.

Panela: What you should consider

When buying, you should definitely pay attention to organic quality for two reasons: On the one hand, you support the ecologically sustainable cultivation of sugar cane and do something good for the environment. On the other hand, you can be sure that the farmers have produced the Panela under fair working conditions.

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Lupine Coffee: What You Need to Know About The Regional Coffee Alternative

Lupine coffee is one of the best regional coffee alternatives. But can it keep up in taste? We’ll show you the benefits of the decaffeinated drink.

Lupine coffee is a regional alternative to traditional coffee beans made from lupine seeds. Lupins are also called “wolf beans” and belong to the legume family.

Why lupine coffee? Environmentally friendly and regional

Lupine coffee could become coffee specialty because: lupins are grown in Germany, for example in Bavaria. Unlike coffee beans, they don’t have to travel long distances to be transported. In addition, stricter occupational health and safety guidelines apply in Germany – regional lupine coffee is therefore usually produced under fair conditions.

According to the MDR, the legumes are considered soil improvers. The so-called “nodule bacteria” on the deep roots of the lupins store nitrogen, which serves as fertilizer for future plants. In addition, lupins have a strong main root, which can also penetrate and loosen compacted soil.

Lupins also have advantages when roasting: According to the MDR, they store heat four times longer than coffee beans and hardly lose any volume in the drum. In addition, you only need half as much coffee powder to prepare lupine coffee, as lupines taste very intense.

Prepare lupine coffee and make it yourself

If you bought coffee from debittered cultivated lupins, you can prepare it without hesitation. We advise you to use an organic product because it was grown without chemical-synthetic pesticides. The price is similar to that of normal organic coffee.

Lupine coffee is visually reminiscent of cocoa powder, but does not exude the typical coffee smell. It tastes strongly of roasted aromas. The MDR expert describes the taste as “malty and smelling of chocolate and popcorn”.

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Soy: This is How Healthy The Meat Alternative is

Soy is a healthy legume found in many plant-based substitutes. Here you can find out more about their nutritional values, characteristics and possible uses.

How useful is soy? ingredients and nutritional value

Soy is best known as a plant source of protein. It is about 35 percent protein. Unlike many other plant foods, soy has a complete amino acid profile, in particular, it contains all the amino acids required by the human body.
The fat content of soy is about 18 percent and is mostly made up of unsaturated fatty acids. They play an important role in many bodily functions, including hormone production, brain function, and cell division. They also have a positive effect on the cardiovascular system.
With only about six percent carbs, soy is one of the low carb foods.
100 grams of legumes contain about 329 kilocalories.
Healthy soy also has a lot to offer when it comes to micronutrients: it contains significant amounts of magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and some B vitamins, among others.

Soy: This is how you use the healthy legume

In this country, soy plays an important role, especially in the context of a vegan or vegetarian diet. In the form of tofu, among other things, it is the main ingredient in many meat alternatives. This applies, for example, to plant-based burger patties, schnitzel, steaks, nuggets or cold cuts. Soy milk and soy yoghurt are also common milk alternatives.

But you can also buy the pure soybeans in Asian or health food stores and well-stocked grocery stores. You can usually get them in frozen form. When buying, pay attention to organic quality. In this way you ensure that the healthy soybeans are not genetically modified and are not contaminated with synthetic chemical pesticides.

Also, try to buy soy as locally as possible. You get soy products from German or at least European (e.g. French or Italian) cultivation.

If the beans are still in the pod, you can simply cook them in boiling water according to the package instructions and then sprinkle with a little salt and serve as finger food.

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Erythritol: A Healthy Alternative to Sugar?

Erythritol is often touted as a healthy alternative to sugar because this sweetener contains almost no calories. We’ll tell you how healthy the sugar substitute really is.

What is erythritol?

Erythritol is a sweet-tasting compound that, chemically speaking, belongs to the sugar alcohols – just like, for example, birch sugar (xylitol) or isomalt.

Visually, erythritol looks confusingly similar to classic sugar. According to the Deutsche Apothekerzeitung, it has about 70 percent of the sweetening power of sugar, so you have to dose erythritol a little higher when sweetening. The sugar substitute is suitable for cooking and baking.

Erythritol occurs naturally in ripe fruits such as melons, grapes and pears, as well as in wine, cheese and pistachios. Obtaining erythritol from these foods is very complex and expensive. That is why it is obtained for the food industry through fermentation. Carbohydrates are converted – usually with the help of fungi – into erythritol and some by-products.

On the list of ingredients, erythritol is sometimes also identified as Erylite, Erythritol or E968.

Erythritol: low-calorie sugar substitute with few side effects

Erythritol is not metabolized in the body and therefore has no calories according to the German Pharmacy Journal (the health portal netdoktor.de writes of 20 kilocalories per 100 grams). For comparison: ordinary sugar has 400 calories per 100 grams. Most other sugar substitutes such as xylitol still have 240 calories per 100 grams.

This makes erythritol particularly popular for low-calorie diets. In addition, according to the Deutsche Apothekerzeitung, the sweetener has no effect on blood sugar and insulin levels, so diabetics can also use erythritol without any problems.

As with any sugar alcohol, excessive consumption of erythritol can cause gas and diarrhea. Compared to other sugar alcohols such as xylitol or sorbitol, the risk here is significantly lower, since more than 90 percent of the erythritol is excreted undigested according to netdoktor.de and not digested in the large intestine. Nevertheless, according to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), foods that contain more than ten percent erythritol must be provided with a warning (“excessive consumption can have a laxative effect”). Otherwise, the BfR describes erythritol as harmless to health.

Important: Choose organic quality erythritol

The starting product for erythritol is mostly corn, which grows in monocultures in Europe. Genetically modified mushroom cultures are often used for the actual fermentation.

That’s why we expressly advise you to only buy erythritol with the EU organic seal. Then the sugar alcohol (especially for diabetics) is a recommended alternative to sugar. You can get organic erythritol, for example**, from Bioaufvorrat or Amazon.

The bottom line, however, applies to every sugar substitute: You cannot train yourself away from your desire for sweets. Therefore you should only use erythritol and co. sparingly.

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Rice Syrup: What Good is It as a Sugar Alternative?

Rice syrup is considered a healthier sugar alternative alongside honey, agave syrup and other sweeteners. You can find out here whether the chewy, sweet juice is actually better for your health and what special features it has.

It is well known that sugar is not very good for our health. Therefore, if you want to try to do without it partially or completely, there are various alternative options. Some swear by stevia or birch sugar, others by honey or maple syrup. And then finally there is rice syrup.

Rice syrup: use, production, and origin

Rice syrup is a light golden syrup that tastes mild and sweet. Since it doesn’t have a particularly strong taste or aftertaste, you can use it in a variety of ways. For example, it is suitable for sweetening yoghurt or porridge, as a sweetener in the dough of cakes, muffins or biscuits or for caramelizing.

To make rice syrup, machines heat the ground rice and then break it down into sugars. This is how the sweet juice is extracted from the rice grain. The syrup then runs through filters and is finally thickened. Since rice syrup is therefore completely vegetable, it is a vegan honey alternative. In Japan, the sweet juice has long been an integral part of traditional cuisine.

Since rice is grown in Asian countries such as China, Thailand or India in particular, rice syrup often has a poor eco-balance. After all, there are long transport routes during production, which release large amounts of greenhouse gases. To a small extent, some farmers also grow rice in southern Europe, for example in Italy or Spain.

We recommend that you pay attention to information about the origin of the rice grains when buying and that you prefer rice syrup from European cultivation. For example, according to the company, Reishunger’s organic rice syrup comes from Italy. You should also buy organic rice syrup if possible. In this way you avoid chemical-synthetic pesticides that are harmful to your health and, in particular, drive insect mortality.

By the way, to extend the shelf life, it is best to store rice syrup in the refrigerator after opening. It stays there for weeks or months.

Is Rice Syrup Healthier Than Sugar?

When looking at the nutritional values, rice syrup performs only slightly better than conventional table sugar. According to Reishunger, the syrup has around 319 kilocalories per 100 grams. Alnatura’s organic beet sugar, on the other hand, has 400 kilocalories. Both sweeteners contain only small traces of fat and protein.

Sugar is almost 100 percent carbohydrates, while in rice syrup they are only 80 percent. Of that 80 percent, sugar molecules make up 62 percent. This is also the reason that rice syrup does not taste as sweet as sugar. So you need more syrup to achieve the same sweetness. This also makes up for the calorie difference.

According to a Northwestern University nutritionist, our bodies treat rice syrup the same way it treats sugar. Our organism therefore does not recognize any difference between the sugar molecules. In addition, rice syrup has a higher glycemic index than sugar. This means that your body breaks down the syrup into glucose extra quickly. This process causes your blood sugar levels to rise and fall rapidly. As a result, you will only feel full for a short time and will soon feel hungry again.

There is also no evidence that rice syrup would contain a particularly large number of micronutrients (such as vitamins or minerals). Even if these are available in moderation, they hardly make an important contribution to covering our daily needs.

Conclusion: Rice syrup is not a miracle cure either

There is not enough substantiated evidence to support the thesis that rice syrup is healthier than sugar. But with both sweeteners, the dose makes the poison. As part of a balanced diet, it is not a problem to eat sweets from time to time.

From an ecological perspective, rice syrup from Europe is definitely more climate-friendly than maple or agave syrup. These often come from even more distant growing areas. Even better sweeteners would be, for example, apple or pear syrup, sugar beet syrup or beet sugar from German cultivation.

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