Benefits and History of Maple Syrup from Canada

Maple syrup

If you want to satisfy your sweet tooth, do not forget to consider using maple syrup which contains fewer calories and higher concentrations of minerals than honey. It is available throughout the year at your local supermarket.
Is Maple Syrup?

Maple syrup is one of the many wonders of the world. Yellow viscous liquid with an earthy sweetness and character that made from the sap of sugar, black or red maple. The process of making maple syrup begins by pressing (piercing) the tree, which allows the sap out. The sap is clear it is almost tasteless and very low blood sugar when first tapped. It is then boiled to evaporate the water producing syrup with a distinctive flavor and color of maple syrup and sugar content of 60%. The scientific name for sugar maple trees, from maple syrup is obtained, is Acer saccharum.

Health Benefits

Maple syrup is sweet and we're not just talking flavor. Maple syrup, as an excellent source of manganese and a good source of zinc, which is very good for your health.

Defense Sweeteners Antioxidants

Trace mineral manganese is an essential cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defenses. For example, oxidative enzyme superoxide dismutase, which disarm free radicals generated in the mitochondria (energy production factories within our cells), requires manganese. One ounce of maple syrup has a supply of 22.0% of the daily value for this very important trace minerals.

Maniskan Heart with Maple Syrup
Maple syrup is a sweetener that is quite handy when you try to protect your heart health. Zinc supplied by maple syrup, in addition to acting as an antioxidant, has other functions that can reduce the progression of atherosclerosis. Zinc is required for proper function of endothelial cells and helps to prevent endothelial damage caused by oxidized LDL cholesterol and other oxidized fats. (The endothelium is the inner lining of blood vessels.) Zincjauh low endothelial membranes are more susceptible to injury. In addition, studies have found that manganese deficiency in adults, other trace minerals are sufficiently supplied in maple syrup, the level of HDL ("good" cholesterol) decreased.

Support for Body Immune System

Zinc and manganese are important allies in the immune system. Many types of immune cells seems to depend on zinc for optimal function. Especially in children, researchers have studied the effects of zinc deficiency (and zinc supplementation) on immune response and the number of white blood cells, including specific studies on T lymphocytes, macrophages, and B cells (all types of white blood cells important to the immune defenses). In this study, zinc deficiency has been shown to compromise white blood cell count and immune response, while zinc supplementation has been shown to restore normal conditions. In addition to the role played by zinc, manganese in maple syrup is important because, as a component of SOD antioxidant, helps reduce inflammation, thus supporting healing. In addition, manganese may also act as an immunostimulant.

Men Will Use More first with Maple Syrup
Maple syrup may help to support reproductive health and provides special benefits for men. Zinc is concentrated higher in prostate than in other human tissues, and low levels of zinc in this gland is associated with a higher risk for prostate cancer. In fact, zinc is a mineral used therapeutically by healthcare practitioners to help reduce prostate size. Manganese may also play a role in supporting men's health because, as a catalyst in the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol, also participated in the production of sex hormones, thus helping to maintain reproductive health.

History

The process of making maple syrup is an ancient tradition in the North American Indians, who used both as food and as medicine. They will make an incision into the trees with their tomohawks and use the skin to collect birch sap. Sap will be summarized into a syrup by evaporation of excess water using one of two methods: plunging hot stones into the sap from the sap or freezing night, following the removal of a layer of frozen water in the morning.

When settlers came to North America, they were fascinated by the traditional process and admiration of the sweetener, which is produced naturally delicious. They developed other methods to reduce the syrup, using iron drill bits to utilize tree sap and then boil the kettle in which the metal is collected.

Maple syrup is the main sweetener used by the colonists since sugar from the West Indies and taxes are very expensive. As sugar became cheaper, and began to replace maple syrup as a sweetener that had relied upon.

Maple syrup-producing trees are found only in regions of North America. Maple syrup producers include Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, as well as the state of Vermont and New York in the U.S..

References

Ensminger AH, Ensminger, ME, Kondale JE, Robson JRK. Foods & Nutriton Encyclopedia. Pegus Press, Clovis, Calif. 1983.
Ensminger AH, Esminger M. K. J. e. al. Food for Health: A Nutrition Encyclopedia. Clovis, California: Pegus Press; 1986 1986. PMID: 15,210.
Fortin, Francois, Editorial Director. The Visual Foods Encyclopedia. Macmillan, New York 1996.
Wood, Rebecca. The Whole Foods Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall Press; 1988 1988. PMID: 15,220.

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