When it comes to sweetening our homebaked goods, it is often difficult to convey the importance of choosing natural sweeteners over refined white sugar. After all, you can get a bag of white sugar for a few dollars, whereas a bottle of good maple syrup will run you well over $10. How do you justify the expense? A sugar gram is a sugar gram, right? Not exactly.

Natural sweeteners are not only the option for the posh with money to spare in the grocery budget. The health benefits they offer far outweigh the cost difference – and the cost could be a great factor encouraging us to reduce that total number of sugar grams so that it fits into a more ideal part of our well balanced diet.

For example, researchers found 13 brand new compounds in maple syrup this year, not to mention the 20 antioxidants they found. These compounds provide antibacterial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and even anti-diabetic benefits. Yes, anti-diabetic. So, while refined white sugar can lead to diabetes, natural maple syrup has compounds that can help prevent diabetes, adjusting for the sugar content. In other words, by consuming the food the way God created it, the risks associated with sugar consumption are addressed by the protective compounds that are included within the syrup.

Maple syrup is also a source of natural minerals such as calcium, zinc, potassium, magnesium and B complex vitamins.

For our Vintage Remedies School of Natural Health students – most of these compounds are flavonoids and phenols. It is believed that the phenolic acids are secreted as a result of the stress caused by the tapping of the tree to remove the sap.

Ready for some giveaways? We’re giving away a free 3 month subscription to the brand new podcast, a copy of the Handbook of Vintage Remedies, a copy of the Guide to Real Food and an organic cotton tote. To enter, leave a comment below and we’ll randomly select the winners throughout the rest of the day.

Update: Winner #1 is comment #6! Congrats Rebecca! You’ve won a copy of The Handbook of Vintage Remedies!

Update: Winners #2 and 3 are comments # 7 and 9! Linda, you won a copy of the Vintage Remedies Guide to Real Food and Anne, you won an organic cotton tote!

And the final winner: Da-Niel, comment #12! You’ve won a free 3 month subscription to our brand new podcast featuring the Tuesday Get Healthy! series!!

as an fyi: The first winners were chosen by asking my assistant for a # between 1 and (# of entries at the time) and the final number was chosen by random.org.

The contest is now over, but I’m sure we’ll be hosting more soon so stay tuned!

Be sure to join us this Saturday – the 14th of August – to celebrate the grand opening of our new offices! We’ll be providing you with yummy treats baked by local Farmers Market venders r local and / or organic ingredients. We’ll have some amazing giveaways. And we’ll be releasing information on the new event calendar for the next few months – some great events coming up that you don’t want to miss!

The offices are located at 120 3rd Ave South in Historic Downtown Franklin (the top floor of the Moran Pope House) Parking is available in the parking garage on 4th – or directly in front of the building on 3rd. We’ll be there from 1-5pm – Stop by!!