Maple syrup is a sugar, not a health food. It counts as an added sugar, the same as honey or table sugar. What sets pure maple syrup apart from pancake syrup is one ingredient against a long list.
What's in 2 tablespoons
Maple syrup is sap boiled down until most of the water is gone. What's left is mostly sugar. Nearly all of it is sucrose, the same sugar as white table sugar.
Two tablespoons (30 mL) is the serving FDA uses for every syrup. Here's what the Nutrition Facts on the back of our tin list for one serving:
- 110 calories
- 0 grams of fat
- 0 milligrams of sodium
- 27 grams of carbohydrate
- 24 grams of total sugars, including 24 grams of added sugars (48% of the Daily Value)
- 0 grams of protein
Labels on other pure maple syrups print close to the same numbers.
People sometimes mention minerals when they talk about maple syrup. Our label doesn't claim any, and neither do we.
Does pure maple syrup count as added sugar?
Yes. By law, all the sugar in maple syrup comes from maple sap. FDA still counts every gram of it as added sugar, because its definition covers sugars sold as sweeteners, syrups and honey included. So our label lists all 24 grams as added sugars. That's 48% of the Daily Value, which FDA sets at 50 grams. FDA's rule of thumb calls 20% or more per serving high, and maple syrup is more than twice that.
How it compares with pancake syrup
Calories come out about the same. The big national brands of pancake syrup print 100 to 110 calories for 2 tablespoons on their labels. Ours says 110. Total carbohydrate is about even, too.
Sugar is where it gets confusing. Pancake syrup labels often list less of it: 10 to 23 grams per serving for the national brands, against 24 grams on ours. The gap most likely comes from how labels count sugar. The sugars line includes only single and double sugars. Corn syrup can also contain longer chains, which count as carbohydrate but not as sugar. Set the two labels side by side and the bigger sugar number will usually be on the maple syrup. Both are still sugar.
The real difference is the ingredient list. Our tin lists just one ingredient: 100% pure maple syrup. Regular pancake syrup usually starts with corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, then water, a thickener, salt, caramel color, preservatives and natural and artificial flavors. We go through the whole list in what pancake syrup is made of, and the rules for each in real maple syrup vs. pancake syrup.
What health authorities say
They all file maple syrup under added sugar.
- The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2025 to 2030, released in January 2026) say no amount of added sugar is recommended, and that one meal should have no more than 10 grams. The 24 grams in 2 tablespoons of maple syrup is 2.4 times that, and even 1 tablespoon goes over. For children 10 and under, the guidelines advise none at all.
- The American Heart Association names maple syrup as an added sugar and suggests no more than 25 grams of added sugar a day for women and 36 grams for men. Two tablespoons is nearly a woman's whole day.
- Mayo Clinic Health System lists swapping white sugar for maple syrup among its nutrition myths. Its dietitian's answer: sugar is sugar.
- Harvard Health Publishing says the sugars in syrup from tree sap are the same as those in white sugar, and advises limiting your total added sugar, whichever sweetener you use.
What the research does and doesn't show
Where does the antioxidant talk come from? Mostly from test tubes, cells and animals. Many of those studies used a maple extract about 400 times richer in the compounds being studied than syrup itself, and much of the work was paid for by Quebec's maple producers. Results from an extract can't be assumed to carry over to a spoonful of syrup. USDA even withdrew its database of lab scores like these in 2012, saying they can't be applied to people.
There's one human trial that measured health markers. Researchers at Laval University in Quebec asked adults to swap some of the added sugar in their diets for maple syrup for 8 weeks, and for a table sugar syrup flavored like maple for another 8. Forty-two finished both. Most of what they measured came out the same on both syrups, and the few differences were small. Quebec's maple producers and the provincial agriculture ministry paid for it, and no one has published a repeat. It didn't include pancake syrup at all. And the authors themselves still call maple syrup an added sugar to be eaten in moderation.
The evidence doesn't establish that maple syrup is low glycemic, either. The number usually quoted comes from a single unpublished test of 10 people in 2003.
None of this supports a health claim, so we don't make one.
So why buy pure maple syrup?
Because you like the way it tastes, and because the ingredient list has one thing on it. Those are good reasons, and they're the only ones we'll give you.
Ours is pure maple syrup from a single Vermont forest, boiled over a wood fire. Amber is warm and smooth with caramel notes, the one that goes on everything. Enjoy it as a treat, and use a little.
