Is Coconut Sugar The Best Sugar Substitute For People With Type 2 Diabetes?

If you live with type 2 diabetes (T2D), you’ve probably gotten practice with reading nutrition labels. But just because you’ve been diagnosed and can read food labels doesn’t mean sugar cravings magically disappear! (If only it were that easy.) So you may find yourself looking at swaps for common household ingredients, like coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar has become a go-to swap for traditional table sugar, but is it actually better for you, or is it just regular sugar with better branding? In this guide, we explore that question and add some color so you can make the best choices at the grocery store for your health.

How coconut sugar is made

Coconut sugar comes from the sap of coconut palm flowers, not the fruit. To get coconut sugar, workers tap the flower stalks, collect the sap, then cook it slowly in open pans. As the water evaporates, the liquid thickens and darkens. Eventually it crystallizes into the sugar you find on a store shelf.

Raw sap is mostly water, about 80% of it. The rest is roughly 15% sugar and 5% minerals. Once that sap is cooked down into sugar, most of what’s left is sucrose. And we hate to be the ones to tell you this, but sucrose is the same sugar that’s probably sitting in your kitchen cabinet right now.

Where coconut sugar comes from

People across Southeast Asia have made and used coconut sugar for centuries—in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, among other places—both as a food and as a traditional remedy. These days, companies sell it all over the world, often saying it’s the natural choice for people watching their blood sugar. But you should look at that claim more closely before using it as your main substitute.

How coconut sugar affects your blood sugar

The glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly a food raises your blood sugar after you eat it. A high-GI food spikes your blood sugar quickly, whereas a low-GI food gives you a gentler, slower rise. You’ll still see an older, frequently cited study floating around online that puts coconut sugar’s GI as low as 35 and table sugar’s at 84—numbers coconut sugar brands love to print on packaging. 

That comparison is old and relies on a single source, which the industry likes. Newer research, including studies from Cleveland Clinic and Healthline, shows coconut sugar’s GI is around 54 and table sugar’s is around 60. That’s a real difference, but it’s not as big as marketing makes it seem. GI numbers can also change depending on the specific product and the person eating it.

Coconut sugar and table sugar are more alike than different:

• Coconut sugar is about 70% to 90% sucrose, with small amounts of free glucose and fructose.
• Table sugar is nearly 100% sucrose.
• Both contain carbohydrates and can raise blood glucose.

So, while coconut sugar may sound like a more “natural” choice, it is still an added sugar and should be treated similarly to other sugars when managing diabetes.

Label claims can be misleading too. Terms like “natural,” “sugar-free,” and “carb smart” don’t automatically mean a food is better for your blood glucose. Look beyond the claim and check the nutrition facts and ingredients. There’s usually more to the story.

What about the nutrients?

Table sugar gives you calories and pretty much nothing else. Nutritionists call that empty calories. 

Coconut sugar does contain trace amounts of a few nutrients:

• Potassium
• Iron
• Zinc
• Calcium
• Polyphenols, a type of antioxidant

The catch is that the amounts are tiny. You’d need to eat several cups of coconut sugar a day to get a meaningful dose of any of these nutrients, and by then the extra sugar and calories would have done far more harm than the minerals did good.

Coconut sugar is also less sweet than table sugar, spoon for spoon. So people often end up using more of it to get the sweetness they’re after, which can mean eating more sugar overall, not less. That defeats the purpose of a swap!

The low-down on other sugar alternatives you might explore

Coconut sugar isn’t the only substitute people with T2D ask about.

Here’s a quick rundown of the others you’ll see on labels and in recipes:

• Stevia and monk fruit: are both plant-derived and have zero calories, since your body doesn’t metabolize them the same way it does with table sugar.
  
• Sucralose and aspartame: are lab-made. They sweeten dishes with far less volume than sugar and also skip calories, though aspartame isn’t an option if you have phenylketonuria (PKU).
  
• Saccharin: is the oldest of the bunch. It still shows up in those little pink packets, though it’s the one with the most ongoing debates, it’s safe in small servings. .

None of these are a straight swap for coconut sugar, since coconut sugar still behaves like sugar in your body—these don’t. If you’re trying to figure out which one actually makes sense for how you cook, bake or sweeten your coffee, our full guide to artificial sweeteners breaks each one down. Remember: just because something is “sugar-free” doesn’t mean it’s carb-free and doesn’t automatically mean it’s better for you—this guide explains that and more.

It’s all about finding what works for you in life with T2D

Coconut sugar is still sugar. It can raise your blood sugar just like table sugar. Its GI is only slightly lower than regular sugar, and the extra nutrients are too small to make much difference. If you’re monitoring your carb intake, coconut sugar counts the same as any other sugar—calling it “natural” doesn’t change that. Food tracking can really put that into perspective.

It does have a slight advantage because it is less processed than table sugar, which might matter if you care about how your food is made. But that doesn’t automatically make it a good choice for people with diabetes (PWD). If you want a sweetener that won’t raise your blood sugar, monk fruit is usually a better choice. It doesn’t affect your blood sugar much.

At the end of the day, coconut sugar is still sugar, just with a more appealing label and it has the same impact as regular sugar.

However, there’s also something to be said for having a little bit of the regular stuff. So long as it’s not a habit, it’s probably not a problem. Assigning moral value to food isn’t the answer. Finding your rhythm with food and T2D is! 

Figuring out which swaps work for your body is easier when you have people who understand. Beyond Type 1’s Community Apps let you connect with other people living with T2D who are making the same changes right now. Join to get real conversation and trade tips!