A note about maple syrup!

I use Maple syrup rather than honey in most of my recipes.  

This isn’t just a personal preference (although I do prefer maple syrup if using it in the raw).  Maple syrup is actually better than honey for what I am trying to achieve!

Here goes with some science -  for a starter, and I for one was quite surprised by this, maple syrup is lower in calories than honey.  It's quite a significant amount - over 10%!

Also the carbohydrate content in maple syrup is primarily sucrose, which is a complex sugar that your body breaks down into equal parts of fructose and glucose whereas honey’s carbohydrate content is pretty much pure fructose and the problem with that is that too much fructose is detrimental to heart and liver health. 

Honey is however higher in vitamin content but maple syrup is much better on mineral content.  So I suppose that's a balancing act as to what you are trying to achieve.

On the whole, I tend towards maple syrup as I don’t use it in my recipes for the "what is good for me" content.   I use it as it adds sweetness, so the concern for me is much more about avoiding what is bad for me.  

One final thing to really keep in mind is that you should never give honey to babies or to children with a vulnerable health profile due to the risk of botulism.  That's a risk you don't run with maple syrup.  The botulism content of honey is very real - it isn't anywhere as insignificant as the risk of say salmonella with raw eggs.