Honey & Sweeteners
Honey & Sweeteners Information
What counts as a natural sweetener?
A natural sweetener is refined from a plant rather than synthesised: honey from the hive, sap sugars such as maple and coconut, cane sugars that keep their molasses, and the intense plant sweeteners stevia and monk fruit. Steviol glycosides and monk fruit extract contribute no kilojoules. Every other sweetener on this page does, and all of them are declared as added sugars on a nutrition information panel.
Steviol glycosides (additive 960) are 150 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, and monk fruit extract, from Siraitia grosvenorii, is 250 to 400 times sweeter, on the figures published by the food regulator. See the FSANZ record for permitted intense sweeteners.
Which sweetener replaces sugar in baking?
Sweetness and bulk are two separate problems. The granulated sugars swap one for one because they behave like sugar in the pan. The intense sweeteners are hundreds of times sweeter by weight, so they will sweeten a cake without building its structure, and any recipe relying on sugar for browning or texture needs something else doing that job.
| Sweetener | Substituting for 1 cup of white sugar | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut sugar, rapadura, panela, demerara | 1 cup | Darker colour and a caramel note. Otherwise behaves like sugar. |
| Raw and organic honey | About three-quarters of a cup, with the other liquid reduced | Browns faster. Drop the oven temperature by about 15°C. |
| Maple syrup | About three-quarters of a cup, with the other liquid reduced | Adds moisture. Best in loaves and slices. |
| Xylitol | 1 cup | Does not feed yeast, so it will not raise a bread dough. |
| Stevia and monk fruit | Follow the pack, typically a teaspoon or less | No bulk and no browning. Needs a bulking ingredient alongside. |
These ratios are the conventional baking substitutions, not product specifications. The nutrition information panel on each product page carries that product's own figures.
How honey is graded
Manuka honey is sold against a published scale rather than a flavour description. MGO states the measured concentration of methylglyoxal in milligrams per kilogram, and UMF is a separate four-attribute grading that includes it. Our Manuka range runs from MGO 30+ to MGO 829+. Compare the Manuka grades we carry.
Raw honey is a different kind of claim, describing processing rather than potency. It has not been heated or filtered to the point where pollen and enzymes are removed, which is why it crystallises in the jar and why the flavour shifts between batches and seasons. See the raw honey range.
Table sweeteners sit in their own group again, graded on nothing at all: what matters there is what the sweetener is cut with, which the ingredient list tells you and the front of the pack often does not. Browse stevia, xylitol, monk fruit and allulose.
The honest limits
- These are still sugars. Coconut sugar, rapadura, maple and honey are sucrose and fructose with trace minerals attached. Swapping one for another changes the flavour and the label, not the kilojoules.
- Polyols have a dose ceiling. Xylitol, erythritol and sorbitol are poorly absorbed, so a food carrying enough of them must display a laxative-effect advisory statement. Start with less than the pack suggests.
- Xylitol is toxic to dogs. That covers the baking powder, the gum and the mints. Keep all of it off the bench.
- No honey of any kind for infants under 12 months. Raw and Manuka included. It is not a question of grade or processing.
- A high Manuka grade does nothing extra in a hot drink. If it is going into tea or cooking, a lower grade is the same honey.
Where a practitioner changes the answer
The mistake we see most often is someone buying the highest Manuka grade on the shelf and then using it to sweeten tea. Grade is worth paying for when there is a specific reason for it, and our team will say so when there is not one.
The second is reaching for a sweetener when the real question is quantity. Someone cutting back on sugar is usually better served by using less of what is already in the cupboard than by switching to a sweetener that changes how the recipe behaves. That is not a product answer, and we would rather give it than sell around it.
Polyol tolerance is the third. Xylitol and erythritol are fine for some people and not at all for others, and nothing on the label tells you which group you are in, so it is worth starting small and asking. Meet the naturopaths and nutritionists on our floor, or book a 10-minute online consult.
How this range is chosen
Everything here is a food rather than a therapeutic good, so it is selected on the nutrition information panel and the ingredient list rather than on a listing number. We read what the sweetener is cut with, and we keep the range to products where the sweetening ingredient named on the front of the pack is the one doing the work.
How we write and review health content sets out how the copy on this page is produced and reviewed.
Compiled by the Mr Vitamins content team on 22 September 2026. Not yet clinically reviewed. Review due by 31 October 2026.