History and Health Benefits of Pure Maple Syrup

History and Health Benefits of Pure Maple Syrup From trees to jars and jugs, maple syrup is a sweet yet surprisingly healthy addition to recipes and breakfast meals. Because of its price tag, you may have bypassed this beautiful, remarkably good-for-you syrup in favor of a cheaper imitation.  Read the label.  That imitation syrup is filled with high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colorings, and maple-flavored with chemical additives. If you’ve ever wondered why this amber-colored, delicious syrup is so expensive.  Here’s why.    Producing This Tasty Syrup is a Labor of Love It’s labor of love and its intense. Native Americans were the first to discover this sweet syrup from a broken maple tree branch.  They introduced early European immigrants to this sugary treat who invented the process of drilling holes in the maple tree to insert a spile, a sort of faucet used to drain the sap from the tree. Draining sap is only the first step in a four to six weeks process which involves reverse osmosis, boiling for thickening and carmelization, filtering, and grading for color and flavor. Now you have the perfect jug of syrup.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  On average a tapped maple tree will produce 10 – 20 gallons of sap per tap.  Some maple sap harversters work with between 40,000 – 60,000 taps. And maple trees are not harmed in this process.  Some maple trees have been producing sap for more than 100 years.   Health Benefits This labor of love production process produces a maple syrup that is rich in at least 24 antioxidants that can lower your risk for some diseases. Now that’s a mic drop fact.  Who knew? Maple syrup is rich in vitamins B2, B5 and B6 as well as potassium, phosphorus, zinc, calcium, and manganese. And it does have a lower glycemic index than other sugars. Now, I’m not suggesting that you guzzle maple syrup or slather it on everything.   Buy Pure Maple Syrup But  I am suggesting that next time you’re in the grocery store you pause to take a longer look at that jug of maple syrup.  Consider the health benefits in paying just a bit more to add this natural, delicious syrup to your pantry. Your health and your tastebuds will thank you. Try my homemade buttermilk pancake recipe with pure maple syrup! The post History and Health Benefits of Pure Maple Syrup appeared first on Life At The Table.