Hi all,

I've been noticing a lot of Paleo desert recipes calling for coconut sugar...and I'm wondering if this is a better substitute or at least comperable to raw honey or agave necter? Would appreciate any feedback, professional or opinion.

Just eat the coconuts.

I don't know whether coconut sugar is better than honey or not but I do know that coconut sugar, more specifically coconut PALM sugar, is not from the actual coconut. It is simply the coconut palm sap (nectar) from the coconut palm flowers, boiled, dried, and pulverized into granules. AFAIK it's not processed other than boiling and drying unlike cane sugar with is heavily refined using a centrifuge process and a chemical process. Coconut palm sugar seems to be similar to maple sugar, which is simply boiled, dried and granulated maple syrup. Seems that it might qualify as paleo, although as with all things sweet, in strict moderation.

Thank you for the feedback I appreciate it. Obviously this is not something to eat regularly, but I was trying to find alternative sweets so as to get my 10 year old to stop eating snickers bars. He only weighs 71 lbs so it's not a weight issue, I'd just like to show him that Mom's paleo diet can be fun for him too.

Thank you for the feedback I appreciate it. Obviously this is not something to eat regularly, but I was trying to find alternative sweets so as to get my 10 year old to stop eating snickers bars. He only weighs 71 lbs so it's not a weight issue, I'd just like to show him that Mom's paleo diet can be fun for him too.

If there was ever a genuine mitigating reason, that would be it.

There are quite a few good paleo desserts out there.

Just search 'dessert' on http://www.terryballard.org/Paleo.html , see if anything takes your fancy.

Still, at the end of the day the idea is to minimise sugar, and feeding a sweet tooth sweet anything just makes them want more sweets.

Fresh fruit makes a good dessert.

There are also studies that indicate that honey is not nearly as bad as sugar.