Local syrups

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Springtime is sugar time! In spite of the current crisis, which changes our sugar shack experience, we can still make a point of encouraging our local producers by stocking up on maple products for cooking at home. Maple syrup is very popular, but do you know about birch syrup? Here’s a brief overview of their respective properties.

Maple syrup

This one stands out thanks to its level of valuable antioxidants including 67 kinds of polyphenols (including Québecol, which is its very own). It is also considered a source of calcium, a good source of copper and an excellent source of riboflavin (B2) and manganese.

Birch syrup

Penalized by its modest yield, this syrup is harder to produce that maple syrup. (It takes four times as much sap to produce an equal quantity of syrup.) You won’t usually find birch syrup in a grocery store; it’s more often found at the producer’s or at a fine foods store. It is, logically, more costly than maple syrup.

So it’s a syrup to use sparingly and mainly for full-on gourmet cuisine. Its taste changes over the harvest season, evolving from a flavour much like that of honey towards richer notes of molasses, anise and coffee. Like maple syrup, it contains vitamins and minerals, and is particularly rich in manganese and thiamin (B1).

Obviously, these 100 per cent pure syrups don’t contain artificial colouring or flavouring agents. These are more nutritious sweetening agents compared to white or brown sugar, for example.

But syrup, while natural and local, is still sugar! Now the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a modest intake of added sugar which should not surpass 10 per cent of our daily energy needs. This corresponds to 50 g of sugar (a little more than two tablespoons of syrup) in a daily intake of 2000 calories a day!

Vous avez besoin d’un coup de pouce pour optimiser votre alimentation ? N’hésitez pas à me contacter via la Clinique Mouvement Optimal : 819 425-8889.

 

More from this author by clicking on her picture below.

Ariane Lavigne

 

Ariane Lavigne38 Posts

Titulaire d'un baccalauréat en nutrition de l'Université de Montréal, Ariane est nutritionniste depuis 2008. Voulant approfondir ses connaissances sur la performance athlétique, elle a obtenu un diplôme de spécialisation en nutrition sportive avec le Comité International Olympique (CIO). Elle est aujourd'hui nutritionniste du sport chez Vivaï et à la Clinique Mouvement Optimal de Mont-Tremblant. Toujours en quête de dépassement, elle combine sa profession à sa grande passion : le snowboard alpin. Elle connaît la réalité des sports élites, ayant été elle-même une athlète membre de l'Équipe Nationale de Snowboard et Olympienne des Jeux Olympiques de Sotchi en 2014. Ariane has a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from the University of Montreal and has been a nutritionist since 2008. Wanting to expand her knowledge of athletic performance, she obtained a diploma specialized in sports nutrition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She serves at Clinique Mouvement Optimal de Mont-Tremblant as well as Vivaï as sports nutritionist. Always in search of personal and professional advancement, she combines her profession with her greatest passion: alpine snowboarding. She understands the realities of elite sports, having been a member of the Canadian National Snowboard Team who participated in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

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