It’s the perfect time to start sweetening your recipes with Joolies dates + date syrup 💕 While traditional gingerbread recipes are made with molasses, we swapped it out for our organic medjool date syrup 🌴You may be wondering what exactly is the difference between the two? Just keep scrolling to read all the reasons why you should make the swap 😉👇✨ 

How It's Made

At Joolies, we have high standards for our medjools that come from our date palms to your palms, but as with any organic, natural product not every date meets them. But we don't let them go to waste! We upcycle them into 100% organic medjool date syrup ⤴️ The only ingredient: medjool dates 🌴

It's a simple process really! We boil down the medjools in water, then strain the mixture, transforming into a delicious date syrup. No added sugars whatsoever! Even though the dates are heated down into a delicious syrup, this doesn't mean you lose any of the amazing vitamins or minerals...hooray! 

Molasses on the other hand is a product of cane sugar-making process. There are several types of molasses, including light, dark, and blackstrap. Each varies in color, consistency, flavor, and sugar content.

First, the sugar cane juice is separated from the pulp. Next, it’s boiled once to create cane syrup, then boiled once more to create light molasses, which is the sweetest and most commonly used in baking. To create dark molasses, it's boiled down a second time and blackstrap molasses is made from a third boiling process, which is the least sweet with a bitter taste. 

Nutrition

Medjool dates are a super fruit—oozing with tons of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, anti-cancerous agents, and more. Including magnesium, potassium, calcium, including fiber, B vitamins and phosphorus. Their high fiber content helps your body digest the natural sugars slowly, so you don’t experience a spike in your blood sugar. 

Out of the cane sugar-derived bunch, blackstrap molasses contains the highest levels of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. But nutritionists don’t recommend eating molasses for the nutrients since its sugar content is so high. Also blackstrap molasses isn’t typically used in baking/cooking since it’s so bitter, which will overpower whatever you’re preparing.

Glycemic Index

Heard of this guy before but don't know exactly what it is? The Glycemic Index is the "a value between 0-100 that is assigned to foods based on how slowly or how quickly those foods cause increases in blood glucose levels. " (About: Glycemic Index). Lower glycemic foods have lower ranks and have shown to help balance weight, manage type 2 diabetes, and lower cholesterol. 

Date syrup has a glycemic index of 46. Since date syrup is a low glycemic food, it's digested and absorbed slowly by your body, so you won't experience any sugar crashes!

Molasses has a similar glycemic index rating to refined sugar, which is 65+. Foods with a high GI are digested and absorbed quickly which will cause a spike in blood sugar levels.

Flavor

Uses

Conclusion

Making the swap to date syrup means less sugar, more nutrients, and no sugar crashes. It's not only the healthier alternative, but the superior, delicious alternative. So next time you're in the baking (or cooking) mood, naturally sweeten your recipe with Joolies organic date syrup. Once you start you won't be able to stop😉

Try out some of these tasty, date-able recipes below:

Sources

• https://www.plantbasedcooking.com/two-nutrient-dense-natural-sweeteners/ 
• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318719#nutrition 
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6074203/ 
• https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.1160.7
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/glycemic-index-and-glycemic-load-for-100-foods 
• https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/glycemic-index#what-it-is