Sugars - Disaccharides

 syrups600011

The sugar component of Golden syrup, Treacle and Molasses is the disaccharide Sucrose. 

The values for Energy (kJ), Carbohydrate and sugar content were obtained from the nutritional information panel on the product purchased. Some of the values however appear to be incorrect. For example Palm sugar has been given an energy value of 1260 kJ/100g and contains 95.2 g of sugar/100g. Each gram of sugar contains 17 kJ. Multiplying 95.2 (the number of grams of sugar in Palm sugar) by 17 kJ gives us a value of 1618.4 kJ, this appears to be a more realistic number.

 Table 2:  A Comparison of Sugars commonly used in Baking

Name   Containing 

Energy kJ

per 100g 

 

Carbohydrate

per 100 g 

Sugar

per 100 g

GI 

Solid (S) or

Liquid (L)

 Disaccharides
           
Block palm sugar  Sucrose (mostly) 1692 99.5  90.3   
Cane sugar (Table)  Sucrose  1700   100 100  68 
 Caster sugar Sucrose   1700   100 100    S
 Coconut palm sugar

~75% Sucrose 

remainder glucose & fructose

1625   93.4 90.1   35
Dark brown sugar   Sucrose  1649   96 96   
Dark Muscovado  Sucrose   1615   94.4 NA  
Demerra  Sucrose   1696  99.4 99.4    S
Golden syrup  Sucrose   1260   74  74  
Icing sugar  Sucrose    1700  100 100   
Light brown sugar   Sucrose  1670   98 98    S
Light Muscovado   Sucrose  1679   97.4  NA    S
Maple syrup   Sucrose (mostly)   1500  88  88 54   L
Molasses   Sucrose  1179   68.8  68.8  
 Molasses sugar  Sucrose  NA  NA  NA   
Palm sugar 

~94% Sucrose,

minor amounts of Glucose & Fructose 

1260   95.2 95.2   <30
Rapadura  Sucrose  1600  86   86    S
Raw sugar  Sucrose  1697   99.8  99.8    S
Rice Malt syrup 

~45% Maltose

~52% Maltotriose

& ~3% Glucose

1370  80  55   L
 Treacle  Sucrose  1210 71   71    L
             
 Trisaccharides            
 Rice Malt syrup

 ~45% Maltose

~52% Maltotriose

& ~3% Glucose

 1370  80 55   #  L

# The GI of Rice Malt syrup has been rumoured to be relatively low (various sites on the web). However the GI of maltose is 105, greater than that of glucose. Nearly half of the Rice Malt syrup is maltose and presumably has a corespondingly high GI. The other half of the syrup is maltotriose. During digestion maltotriose breaks down to maltose and glucose and then finally into 3 glucose units.    

The three unrefined sugars are indicated by light blue text. 

NA - Data was not available