Maple syrup boosts antibiotic effectiveness

All sugar is the same, right? Well, there is one sugar that seems to separate itself from the others and that sugar is maple syrup. Why? Is it the form of the sugar in it? Actually, the sugar part itself is not unusual, but it’s what comes along with it in the form of natural phenols that makes this sugar unique.

What are phenols?

Phenols are defensive chemicals plants produce to protect themselves against solar radiation and bugs; yes, they are a natural pesticide for the plants. There are many different types of phenols in nature, in fact, many benefits of the Mediterranean diet — which I have written about previously (here, here) — come from the high intake of phenols, much of which comes from extra virgin olive oil that is customarily high in the traditional diet.

So, maple syrup is not the only substance that has phenols in it, not by a long shot, but it is loaded with them — over 50 different ones! While this post is meant to go into all the benefits of maple syrup, there is some new research that once again points to the superiority of this sugar amounts the rest: maple syrup helps kill infectious pathogens.

Antimicrobial resistance

A new abstract from the American Chemical Society describes how the World Health Organization has identified antimicrobial resistance as a severe and rapidly growing threat to global health. As I write this I recall a report not that long ago on NPR describing the sad case of a women in Reno, Nevada who was infected with a pathogen that resisted 26 antibiotics! Whenever I think of antibiotic resistance, I think of the Nostradamus prediction, “the world will not end with a bang but with a whimper.”

Okay, enough doom and gloom. So the bad news is that pathogens are becoming increasingly resistant to the drugs we’ve used to treatment them, but the good news is that the natural phenols in maple syrup have now show to work synergistically with antibiotics:

“Our tests showed that PRMSE gave a major boost to the commonly used antibiotics, ciprofloxacin and carbenicillin, in killing Gram-negative clinical strains of Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilisand Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This strong synergy between PRMSE (the maple syrup phenols) and selected antibiotics resulted in up to a 97% decrease in the amount of antibiotic needed to halt bacterial growth.”

This is pretty huge news especially given the risk this poses to public safety. Now, does this mean we can eat maple syrup ad libitum? While there are interesting metabolic effects of maple syrup — it metabolizes more like a complex carbohydrate than a simple sugar — I still think it’s sensible to keep your sugar intake on the lower side. But I’m increasingly convinced, if you’re going use sugar in a meal, maple syrup appears to be a superior choice from a health perspective.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/n2brvzv