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Sweeteners · Added Sugars

Maltose: What It Is, Foods, Blood Sugar Impact & Better Swaps

What maltose (malt sugar) is, where it shows up in whole foods and syrups, how fast it raises blood sugar compared with honey and table sugar, and the swaps that keep your blood sugar steady.

By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS·19-min read
Meet the Medical Advisory Board
Evidence-based60 sources citedUpdated October 23, 2026
Published Oct 23, 2026Last updated Oct 23, 2026Editorial policyMedical review policyFact-checking policy
Amber maltose syrup pooled in a white dish on a wooden board beside dried wheat stalks
A maltose syrup beside wheat. Maltose forms when the starch in grain breaks down.
The Dr. Axe Score™
2.2/10
Overall Dr. Axe Score · Maltose

Maltose scores 2.2 because this number rates it as a sweetener: maltose and maltose syrups added to food, a fast sugar separated from the grain or root it came from.

Scientific Evidence
4.5/10
Rates how much research exists, not which way it points: small blood-sugar and exercise-fuel trials and digestion research on maltose itself, plus the large added-sugar research its syrups belong to.
Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory
1.0/10
Pure maltose is a plain sugar with no protective plant compounds, and no antioxidant benefit in people has been shown for it or its syrups.
Clinical Effectiveness
1.6/10
Our judgment: one real use, fuel during long exercise; otherwise it's a fast sugar.
Nutrient Density
1.0/10
On USDA data, pure maltose is sugar alone, and malt syrup has no fiber but keeps some niacin, magnesium and potassium from the barley.
Why this score?
Why Maltose scores 2.2 / 10

    Maltose that forms inside a baked sweet potato or a whole grain isn't what this score rates. Weighting: Evidence 30% · Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory 25% · Clinical Effectiveness 25% · Nutrient Density 20% (4.5×0.30 + 1.0×0.25 + 1.6×0.25 + 1.0×0.20 = 1.35 + 0.25 + 0.40 + 0.20 = 2.20, shown as 2.2). How we score

    A transparent, weighted index built for foods. See how it’s calculated →
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    Maltose at a glance

    Maltose, or malt sugar, is two glucose molecules joined together: the sugar your body makes from starch on the way to fuel, and a main sugar in syrups such as brown rice syrup and malt syrup. It raises blood sugar about as fast as pure glucose, scoring 105 on the glycemic index, where glucose is 100.12

    • What it does: your gut splits it into two glucose molecules, so it's fast fuel, and in two trials it fueled trained cyclists as well as glucose did345
    • Where it comes with fiber: baked sweet potatoes and ancient grains such as kamut and spelt carry maltose along with fiber, protein and minerals678
    • Where it's added: brown rice syrup, malt syrup, high-maltose corn syrup and maltose candy, all counted as added sugar on a label9
    • How much: if you sweeten, Dr. Axe's daily amount is 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of raw honey, in place of other sweeteners rather than on top of them10
    • How to use it: swap maltose syrups for raw honey, then monk fruit, stevia or allulose, and eat your protein and vegetables before the carbs1112

    Maltose is malt sugar: two glucose molecules joined together. It forms whenever starch starts to break down, which happens when grain sprouts, when a sweet potato bakes and when amylase, your body's starch-splitting enzyme, goes to work on a slice of bread, so your body makes maltose every day on the way from starch to fuel.3136

    What matters is the package it comes in. Inside a baked sweet potato or a whole ancient grain such as kamut (khorasan wheat), maltose arrives with fiber, protein and minerals.147 Poured in as a syrup, it's a fast, isolated sugar that reaches your blood as quickly as pure glucose.2 Constant surges of fast sugar like that are a root cause of insulin resistance, the problem that starts upstream of type 2 diabetes, years before blood sugar itself looks high.15

    Barley malt syrup and brown rice syrup are among the syrups I've long told people to be careful with,16 and I treat every maltose syrup the way I treat cane sugar: it comes from a plant, and it's still sugar. The fix is a better sweetener, used sparingly, and a few habits that keep your blood sugar steady.

    Sugar is not the culprit. It's sugar that doesn't come with the fiber and nutrients of a whole food, and how that impacts your body.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom 11 Foods with SHOCKINGLY High Amounts of Sugar (Best Sugar Substitutes), The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2024), at 22:43

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    Did you know?

    • Bread dough makes its own maltose. In a lab study of white-flour dough, the flour's own starch-splitting enzymes supplied 56% of the sugar the yeast used during a 2-hour rise.17

    • Finished beer keeps only a little maltose. Maltose is the most abundant sugar in brewing wort, but the yeast ferments most of it away: USDA's analysis of regular beer found 0.0 grams per 100 grams, and 13 commercial lagers tested in a lab averaged 0.6 grams per liter.181920

    • Honey's sugar is mostly fructose and glucose; maltose is only about 1.44 grams per 100 grams.21

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    What is maltose?

    Quick answer

    Maltose is a double sugar, or disaccharide, made of two glucose molecules joined together. It's also called malt sugar or maltobiose, its chemical formula is C12H22O11, and in food it works as a sweetener.1

    The two glucose units are joined by what chemists call an alpha-1,4 link, from the first carbon of one glucose to the fourth carbon of the next.1 The enzymes that digest starch break exactly that kind of link, which is why breaking starch down yields maltose.223

    The name comes from malt, barley that's been sprouted and dried. Sprouting wakes up a grain's starch-splitting enzymes, and when the sprouted grain is mashed in warm water, those enzymes turn its starch into a sweet liquid in which maltose is the most abundant sugar.1318

    Maltose vs. sucrose (table sugar)

    Maltose (malt sugar)Sucrose (table sugar)

    Built from

    Two glucose units1

    One glucose and one fructose23

    Fructose

    None

    Half of each molecule

    Glycemic index (glucose = 100)

    1052

    652

    Split in your gut by

    Maltase-glucoamylase and sucrase-isomaltase3

    Sucrase-isomaltase3

    Foods with maltose

    Quick answer

    Ancient grains and cooked starchy foods carry maltose naturally: uncooked kamut has 6.56 grams per 100 grams and spelt 5.15 grams, and a sweet potato makes maltose as it bakes. Most of the maltose added to food comes from syrups such as brown rice syrup, malt syrup and high-maltose corn syrup.786

    Values per 100 grams from USDA FoodData Central.

    Food (per 100 g)MaltoseWhat comes with it

    Kamut (khorasan wheat), uncooked

    6.56 g

    11.1 g fiber, 14.5 g protein7

    Spelt, uncooked

    5.15 g

    10.7 g fiber, 14.6 g protein8

    Sweet potato, baked

    Made during baking; USDA estimates about 3.1 g

    3.3 g fiber, 475 mg potassium, 961 mcg vitamin A14

    Sweet potato, raw

    0.0 g

    3.0 g fiber24

    Pears, canned in heavy syrup

    1.9 g

    15.2 g total sugars, 1.6 g fiber25

    Applesauce, canned, sweetened

    0.89 g

    14.7 g total sugars, 1.2 g fiber26

    Table sugar

    0.0 g

    99.8 g sucrose and nothing else27

    Kamut and spelt are ancient wheats that carry the most maltose of any food in this table before they're ever cooked, along with more than 10 grams of fiber per 100 grams.78 Sprouting a grain wakes up the same starch-splitting enzymes that turn barley into malt,13 and sprouted grain bread is made from grain that's been through that step.

    The sweet potato shows the other way maltose forms: heat. A raw sweet potato has no measurable maltose in USDA's analysis.24 Baking changes that. In a lab study of four Chinese sweet potato varieties, maltose appeared only after cooking, as the root's own enzymes broke its starch down; baking raised it by as much as 240.2 milligrams per gram of dry weight, and most of the extra sugar was maltose.6 That's why a baked sweet potato tastes so much sweeter than a raw one, and it still comes with its fiber, potassium and vitamin A. In my Perimenopause & Menopause protocol, sweet potato is on the food list as a steady carbohydrate to eat with protein.28

    Maltose syrups: brown rice syrup, malt syrup and high-maltose corn syrup

    Quick answer

    Maltose syrups are sweeteners made by breaking down grain starch with enzymes until much of it is maltose and glucose, and their sugar counts as added sugar on a Nutrition Facts label. The common ones are brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, high-maltose corn syrup and the thick syrup sold simply as maltose, or maltose candy.13299

    Brown rice syrup starts with rice. Manufacturers add enzymes to brown rice or milled rice, or sprout the rice first to wake up its own enzymes, then hold the mash warm while the enzymes break the starch down; in lab tests of sprouted brown rice, glucose and maltose were the main sugars that formed.13

    Barley malt syrup, also sold as malt extract, is made from malted barley, and maltose is the most abundant sugar in the sweet liquid that malting and mashing produce.18 A tablespoon carries about 15 grams of sugar and no fiber, with some niacin, magnesium and potassium carried over from the barley.30

    High-maltose corn syrup is made from corn starch with enzymes.29 Because it's built entirely from glucose units, it has no fructose, unlike high-fructose corn syrup, and on a label both count as added sugar.19 The FDA treats sugars that manufacturers create by breaking down starch as added sugars because, in the agency's words, they "add empty calories to the diet."9

    On my show, I've told people to watch for sugar names that end in -ose when they're cutting sugar,16 and maltose is one of them. Brown rice syrup, malt syrup, malt extract and high-maltose corn syrup carry maltose under other names, and they turn up in cereal bars and energy bars, among other packaged foods.31 My guideline is to buy food with five ingredients or fewer,32 which keeps most of these syrups off your plate. For more places sugar shows up, see hidden sugar foods.

    Digestive support in Chinese medicine

    Maltose syrup has a long history as a medicine, too. Chinese medicine calls it yi tang, and it's one of the six ingredients of Xiao Jian Zhong Tang, a classic formula from the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. The formula is used to strengthen the spleen and stomach, which in plain English means your digestion, and to warm a digestion that runs cold, with belly pain, loose stools and a belly that feels better with warmth and pressure.333435 Within it, yi tang is credited with nourishing and strengthening, and Chinese medicine theory holds that maltose nourishes the spleen and lungs.3435 The formula is still commonly used for gastritis, stomach ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome.33 There it's a measured part of a remedy, which is a different thing from a syrup stirred into packaged food. I give that kind of long, consistent use real weight, and when I work with patients, I pair Chinese medicine's tongue mapping with their bloodwork.36

    How fast does maltose raise blood sugar?

    Quick answer

    Maltose raises blood sugar about as fast as pure glucose: it scored 105 on the glycemic index, where glucose is 100, in two tests of 6 and 10 healthy adults. Table sugar averages 65 and honey 61 on the same scale.2

    In each of those tests, healthy adults took 50 grams of maltose and had their blood sugar tracked for 2 hours, and both tests landed at 105.2 Table sugar's score is the average of six studies and honey's the average of 17 honeys.2 The gap comes down to what each sugar is made of. Once your gut splits maltose, all of it is glucose, which goes straight into your blood. Half of table sugar is fructose, which barely raises blood sugar on its own: fructose scores 15.2

    Maltose scores 105 on the glycemic index; table sugar averages 65 and honey 61

    Maltose scores 105 on the glycemic index; table sugar averages 65 and honey 61Glycemic index, glucose = 100 · 2-hour tests in healthy adults · maltose: two tests of 6 and 10 people. Maltose: 105 glycemic index (glucose = 100); Table sugar (sucrose): 65 glycemic index (glucose = 100); Honey: 61 glycemic index (glucose = 100)Glycemic index, glucose = 100 · 2-hour tests in healthyadults · maltose: two tests of 6 and 10 peopleMaltose105 glycemic index (glucose= 100)Table sugar(sucrose)65 glycemic index (glucose =100)Honey61 glycemic index (glucose =100)
    Source: Atkinson, Foster-Powell & Brand-Miller · International tables of glycemic index, Diabetes Care, 2008 [2]Once your gut splits it, all of maltose is glucose; half of table sugar is fructose.

    Starch eaten as part of a whole meal can land very differently from a spoonful of syrup, and you can see that for yourself. When I wore a continuous glucose monitor a couple of years ago, I was surprised by what did and didn't affect my blood sugar. Sweet potatoes, which I usually ate with a protein such as chicken, hardly moved it.37 Your own numbers may look different, which is why I'd rather you test than guess. For the numbers to aim for, see normal blood sugar.

    How maltose works in your body

    Maltose is one of the steps your body uses to turn starch into energy. Here's the path from a bite of bread or a spoonful of syrup to your muscles, and the point where a steady stream of fast sugar starts to wear the system down.

    1Starch becomes maltose.

    Amylase, the starch-splitting enzyme in your digestive tract, breaks starch into maltose. The same thing happens when grain sprouts or a sweet potato bakes.3613

    2Maltose becomes two glucose.

    Two enzyme pairs in the lining of your small intestine, sucrase-isomaltase and maltase-glucoamylase, split each maltose into two glucose molecules.3

    3Glucose reaches your blood fast.

    Gut studies have found glucose is absorbed from maltose at least as fast as from glucose itself, and maltose scores 105 on the glycemic index.42

    4Insulin moves it into your cells.

    Insulin signals your cells to take in the glucose and burn or store it, and when you walk after eating, your muscles pull sugar in.38

    5Constant surges wear the signal down.

    In my Type 2 Diabetes Protocol, I name refined starch and sugar the number-one driver: a steady diet of them forces constant insulin surges, and cells adapt by turning down their receptors.15

    6Whole food and meal order break the loop.

    Eating vegetables and protein before your carbohydrates, and walking after meals, blunts the rise, with the numbers in the swaps section below.1239

    As I write on page 8 of my Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes protocol, "The post-lunch crash is the loop talking. Most people reach for coffee or sugar."38 That afternoon slump is a signal from upstream: the same loop of fast sugar and insulin surges, felt after lunch. Swapping the syrup for real food, and changing the order you eat in, are the two levers that work on it.

    Blood sugar is a late signal. Insulin resistance can build silently for ten years before your fasting glucose moves, which is why I check fasting insulin first. The earlier you read the signal, the more of this you can undo.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSWritten in The Type 2 Diabetes Protocol (2026), p. 5

    Two markers that show how your body handles sugar

    Read these two beside your fasting glucose.

    • Fasting insulin: How hard your body works to hold blood sugar steady. The optimal range is 2 to 8 µIU/mL.
    • HbA1c: Your average blood sugar over about three months.40 The optimal range is 4.8% to 5.3%.

    See the cellular bloodwork panel

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    Is maltose bad for you?

    Quick answer

    Added maltose, from brown rice syrup, malt syrup and other maltose syrups, is sugar your body doesn't need, and in Dr. Axe's view it belongs with cane sugar as something to swap out. Maltose inside a whole food, such as a baked sweet potato or a whole grain, comes with fiber and nutrients and is a normal step in how your body turns starch into fuel.679

    The Biblio Diet, the book I wrote with Jordan Rubin, puts added sugar among the Sinister Six, the foods to drop first, and it draws the line that matters for maltose. Naturally occurring sugars come in whole foods along with the nutrients and fiber that aid digestion and metabolism, while added sugars, often found in ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks, provide empty calories.32

    Maltose syrups are added sugar. An umbrella review of 73 meta-analyses covering 83 health outcomes found harmful links between dietary sugar and 45 of them, from body weight and fat stored in the liver to heart disease and tooth decay, and its authors recommended keeping free or added sugars under 25 grams a day, about 6 teaspoons.41

    What swapping out added maltose does for you, ranked by evidence

    Ranked by evidence, cutting maltose syrups and other added sugars, and sweetening with a little raw honey or a zero-calorie sweetener instead, does the most for weight control, triglycerides and blood pressure, blood sugar after meals and your teeth, and maltose itself has one real job: fuel for long workouts.

    1

    Easier weight control

    Strong evidenceHuman studyMeta-analysis · 30 trials, 38 cohorts

    Cutting added sugar is one of the most reliable ways to make your weight easier to manage. In trials where adults ate freely, cutting sugars lowered body weight by 0.80 kilograms (about 1.8 pounds), and adding sugars raised it by 0.75 kilograms. When sugars were swapped for other carbohydrates at the same calories, weight didn't change, so the effect runs through the extra calories sugar adds.42

    2

    Lower triglycerides and blood pressure

    Strong evidenceHuman studyMeta-analysis · 39 randomized trials

    Your blood fats and blood pressure respond to sugar, even when your weight holds steady. Across 39 randomized trials, higher sugar intake raised triglycerides by 0.11 mmol/L (about 10 mg/dL), total cholesterol by 0.16 mmol/L and LDL cholesterol by 0.12 mmol/L. In the trials that ran 8 weeks or longer, it raised blood pressure by 6.9/5.6 mmHg, and the authors found the effect didn't depend on weight change.43

    3

    Steadier blood sugar with raw honey

    Moderate evidenceHuman studyMeta-analysis · 18 controlled trials, 1,105 people

    Honey makes the clearest swap for a maltose syrup. In a small experiment with 8 healthy adults, 75 grams of glucose (sold as dextrose, the same sugar maltose breaks into) dissolved in 250 milliliters of water raised blood sugar 53% after 1 hour, against 14% for the same amount of honey, and insulin rose significantly more after the glucose.44

    Over longer use, a University of Toronto meta-analysis pooled 18 controlled trials with 1,105 people, who ate a median 40 grams of honey a day for 8 weeks, mostly compared with their usual diet rather than with another sugar. Honey raised HDL cholesterol by 0.07 mmol/L (about 2.7 mg/dL), rated high certainty, and lowered fasting blood sugar by 0.20 mmol/L (about 3.6 mg/dL), rated low certainty. Raw honey did best: across 5 trials, it lowered fasting blood sugar by about 19 mg/dL (1.05 mmol/L), also rated low certainty, and clover and robinia honeys helped too.45

    4

    Fewer cavities

    Moderate evidenceHuman studySystematic review for the WHO · 55 studies

    Less sugar means fewer cavities, for children and adults alike. In a review done for the World Health Organization, 42 of 50 studies in children and all 5 in adults found at least one link between sugar and tooth decay, and moderate-quality evidence showed fewer cavities when free sugars stayed under 10% of calories.46

    5

    A gentler sugar spike with allulose or monk fruit

    Emerging evidenceHuman studyRandomized trials · 30 adults each

    Allulose and monk fruit bring sweetness with little or no sugar, and both softened the blood-sugar rise from a sweet drink in trials. Allulose is a rare sugar with about 70% of the sweetness of table sugar. In 30 adults without diabetes, adding 10 grams of allulose to a 50-gram sucrose drink lowered blood sugar 30 minutes later by 12 mg/dL compared with placebo, in a trial where each person tried every dose and neither the people nor the researchers knew who got what; three of the authors work for an allulose maker.47

    In 30 healthy men who each tried every drink, blood sugar ran higher after the lunch that followed the monk fruit-sweetened drink, so the 3-hour totals came out even, but the monk fruit drink itself skipped the first-hour spike that a drink with 65 grams of sucrose caused.48

    6

    Fuel for long workouts

    Emerging evidenceHuman studyTwo trials · 6 and 9 trained cyclists

    Maltose fuels working muscle during long exercise. In 6 trained cyclists who drank either a maltose or a glucose drink through a 90-minute ride, their bodies burned 51 grams of the maltose and 49 grams of the glucose, with no significant difference in how fast either was used.4 In 9 trained cyclists who rode 150 minutes on four separate days, a glucose-and-sucrose mix was burned at a peak of 1.25 grams a minute, and a glucose-and-maltose drink at 1.06, the same peak rate as glucose alone.5 For a long ride or run, maltose fuels your muscles just as glucose does.

    Better swaps for maltose syrups

    Quick answer

    Raw honey is Dr. Axe's number-one replacement for maltose syrups, followed by monk fruit, stevia and allulose. Honey is still sugar, so use it sparingly: 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of raw local honey a day, in place of other sweeteners rather than on top of them.1110

    If you're going to use a sweetener, honey should be your number-one sweetener, and after that, monk fruit, stevia and allulose are the next best options, as I've said on my show.11 Raw local honey and manuka honey both work as everyday sweeteners. I'd use honey sparingly, as Scripture says plainly: "Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it" (Proverbs 25:16, KJV).

    Dr. Axe's sweetener swaps for maltose syrups, in order
    SwapWhere it ranksHow to use it

    Raw honey (raw local or manuka)

    Number one, used sparingly

    1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon a day, in place of the syrup1110

    Monk fruit, stevia, allulose

    Next best

    Use in place of the syrup, with few or no calories49

    Maple syrup, coconut sugar

    On Dr. Axe's sweetener list, in small amounts

    In place of other sugars, never on top of them3210

    Artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols

    Not a swap

    Aspartame, sucralose and maltitol, a sugar alcohol made from maltose, stay off the menu3249

    Your body doesn't need any added sugar, and the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans agree, recommending no amount of it and capping a single meal at 10 grams, about 2½ teaspoons.50 A teaspoon of honey carries about 6 grams of sugar, so it fits under that cap at a meal.21 The American Heart Association's upper limits are about 6 teaspoons a day for most women and 9 for most men.51 For the full picture, see how much sugar per day is too much.

    Read the label. Look for maltose, brown rice syrup, malt syrup, malt extract and high-maltose corn syrup, and put back products that list them near the top.
    Swap, don't stack. Let honey replace the syrup a recipe calls for. As I've said on my show, taking loads of honey on top of maple syrup, coconut sugar and cane sugar just adds to the sugar load.10
    Start with drinks. Soda, juice and sweet coffee drinks lead the list of foods to cut in my Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes protocol.38
    Pair starches with protein. Eat a sweet potato with chicken, the way the 7-day meal plan in the same protocol serves it, rather than eating carbs on their own.38
    Eat the carbs last. Start with vegetables and protein, and finish with the starch.12
    Walk after meals. A 15-minute walk after eating helps your muscles use the sugar.39

    Eat the carbs last

    One of the simplest tools in my Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes protocol doesn't change what's on your plate, only the order you eat it in.38

    Eating vegetables and protein first and carbohydrates last leads to a smaller blood-sugar rise than the same meal in reverse. Add a short walk afterward, and you've lowered the spike without changing what's on the plate.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSWritten in Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes: The 90-Day Healing Protocol (2026), p. 12

    In 11 adults with type 2 diabetes who take metformin, each person ate the same 628-calorie meal twice, a week apart: once with the carbohydrates first and the vegetables and protein 15 minutes later, and once the other way around. With the vegetables and protein first, blood sugar 60 minutes after eating was 125.6 mg/dL, against 199.4 mg/dL with the carbohydrates first, 37% lower. It was also 28.6% lower at 30 minutes and 16.8% lower at 2 hours, and the total rise over 2 hours was 73% smaller.12

    Carbs last: blood sugar 125.6 vs. 199.4 mg/dL an hour after the same meal

    Carbs last: blood sugar 125.6 vs. 199.4 mg/dL an hour after the same meal11 adults with type 2 diabetes · the same 628-calorie meal twice, a week apart · blood sugar 60 minutes after eating. Vegetables and protein first, carbs last: 125.6 mg/dL blood sugar at 60 minutes; Carbs first: 199.4 mg/dL blood sugar at 60 minutes11 adults with type 2 diabetes · the same 628-calorie mealtwice, a week apart · blood sugar 60 minutes after eating
    125.6 mg/dL blood sugar at 60 minutes
    VEGETABLES AND PROTEIN FIRST, CARBS LAST
    199.4 mg/dL blood sugar at 60 minutes
    CARBS FIRST
    Source: Shukla et al. · Diabetes Care, 2015 [12]The same meal, eaten in a different order.

    Walking adds to it. In 10 inactive adults age 60 and older whose fasting blood sugar ran between 105 and 125 mg/dL, a 15-minute walk after each meal improved blood sugar across 24 hours compared with a day without exercise, in a study where each person tried every walking plan.39

    Want help cutting back?

    Ask Dr. Axe AI. Answers are grounded in this library, with sources shown.

    Who should be careful with maltose

    Quick answer

    For most people, maltose is simply part of digesting starch. The people who need extra care are those managing blood sugar, anyone with the rare inherited sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, and babies and toddlers.

    Who needs to take care:

    • Diabetes, prediabetes or glucose-lowering medication: Swapping out maltose syrups can bring your readings down. Check them more often as you cut back; your doctor may need to adjust your medication. If you take acarbose, its label says to treat a low with glucose (dextrose) tablets rather than table sugar.52

    • Sucrase-isomaltase deficiency: In its rare inherited form, the gut can't fully digest sucrose and sometimes starch, the source of most of the maltose you eat, which brings diarrhea, gas and bloating. It has mostly been diagnosed in babies and young children with chronic diarrhea, but milder forms can show up later and look like IBS, and in Greenland 2% to 3% of people have inherited a complete loss of the enzyme's function.535455 If sweets and starchy foods reliably bring on diarrhea, ask your doctor about testing, such as a disaccharidase test on a biopsy from the small intestine. Care starts with food: sucrose, and sometimes starch, cut to the amount you tolerate, with an enzyme for sucrose.53

    • Babies and toddlers, and brown rice syrup: In a testing study, organic brown rice syrup carried high levels of inorganic arsenic, and a toddler formula with it as the main ingredient had total arsenic up to six times the EPA's limit for drinking water. For babies and toddlers, choose foods that don't list brown rice syrup as a main ingredient; see arsenic in rice for more.31

    • Honey as your swap: Never give honey, raw or cooked, to a baby younger than 1 year old.56 If you have asthma, or you've ever had hives, swelling or trouble breathing from pollen, bee stings or bee products, don't assume honey is safe for you: honey allergy is rare, but honey carries proteins from the bees as well as pollen, and severe reactions have been reported.575859 Sweeten with monk fruit, stevia or allulose instead.

    The bottom line

    Should you eat maltose?

    Maltose is part of how your body turns starch into fuel, and inside a baked sweet potato or a whole grain like kamut it comes with the fiber, protein and minerals your body can use. Brown rice syrup, malt syrup and high-maltose corn syrup are another matter: sugar that raises your blood sugar as fast as glucose, which is why I treat them the way I treat cane sugar.

    When you want something sweet, reach for raw honey, used sparingly, then monk fruit, stevia or allulose. Read labels for the maltose syrups, eat your protein and vegetables before the carbs, and take a short walk after meals.

    Your body was designed to heal, and every fast sugar you trade for real food gives it a steadier day to do that work.

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    Four phases, the foods that lower insulin and a 7-day meal plan. Have recent bloodwork? Analyze it free.

    Free with your Dr. Axe account (email or Google). You'll also get the protocol's short email series and the Dr. Axe newsletter; unsubscribe anytime.

    Open the free protocol →

    Maltose: frequently asked questions

    What is maltose made of?

    Maltose is made of two glucose molecules joined together, which makes it a double sugar, or disaccharide.1 Your body makes it from starch during digestion and then splits it back into those two glucose molecules to burn for fuel.3

    Is malt sugar the same as maltose?

    Yes. Malt sugar is another name for maltose, named for malt, the sprouted grain whose enzymes turn starch into it.118

    What is the structure of maltose?

    Maltose is two glucose units joined by an alpha-1,4 link, from the first carbon of one glucose to the fourth carbon of the other. Its chemical formula is C12H22O11.1

    Is maltose a carbohydrate?

    Yes. Maltose is a simple carbohydrate, a disaccharide built from two glucose units, so it sits between single sugars such as glucose and the long glucose chains of starch.13

    Is maltose a reducing sugar?

    Yes. Maltose is a reducing sugar, and food scientists count it among the reducing sugars that rise when sweet potatoes are cooked.6

    Is maltose bad for you?

    Yes, when it's added. Brown rice syrup, malt syrup and other maltose syrups are sugar your body doesn't need, and Dr. Axe treats them like cane sugar, as something to swap out. Maltose inside a whole food, such as a baked sweet potato or a whole grain, comes with fiber and nutrients and is a normal step in digesting starch.679

    Can you eat maltose?

    Yes. You make and digest maltose every time you eat starch, and whole foods such as baked sweet potatoes, kamut and spelt contain it.367 Maltose sold as a syrup or candy is added sugar, so swap it for a small amount of raw honey or for monk fruit, stevia or allulose.

    Is maltose worse than sucrose for blood sugar?

    Maltose raises blood sugar faster. It scored 105 on the glycemic index, where glucose is 100, while sucrose, or table sugar, averages 65, because half of sucrose is fructose, which barely raises blood sugar.2 Both count as added sugar when they're added to food.9

    Is maltose OK for people with diabetes?

    Maltose syrups aren't a good choice with diabetes, because maltose raises blood sugar as fast as glucose.2 Swap them for a small amount of raw honey or for monk fruit, stevia or allulose (if you take glucose-lowering medication, read the safety section first), and eat your vegetables and protein before the carbs, which in one trial left blood sugar 37% lower an hour after the same meal.12

    What foods are high in maltose?

    Among whole foods, uncooked kamut has 6.56 grams of maltose per 100 grams and spelt 5.15 grams, and a sweet potato makes maltose as it bakes.786 The biggest added sources are maltose syrups: brown rice syrup, malt syrup and high-maltose corn syrup.

    What is high-maltose corn syrup?

    High-maltose corn syrup is a sweetener made by breaking down corn starch with enzymes until much of it is maltose.29 In the U.S., more than 90 percent of corn is grown from genetically engineered varieties.60 It has no fructose, unlike high-fructose corn syrup, but it's still an added sugar,9 so swap it the same way: a little raw honey, or monk fruit, stevia or allulose.

    Is brown rice syrup healthier than sugar?

    It's still sugar. Brown rice syrup is rice starch broken down by enzymes into mostly glucose and maltose,13 and Dr. Axe gives it the same treatment as cane sugar (the safety section covers it for babies and toddlers). Swap it for a little raw honey, or for monk fruit, stevia or allulose.

    Does beer have maltose?

    Only a little. Maltose is the main sugar in brewing wort, but yeast ferments most of it: USDA's analysis of regular beer found 0.0 grams per 100 grams, and 13 commercial lagers tested in a lab averaged 0.6 grams per liter.181920

    What is maltose intolerance?

    Maltose intolerance means trouble digesting maltose, and the condition medical reviews connect to it is sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, in which the gut can't fully digest sucrose and sometimes starch, bringing diarrhea, gas and bloating.5354 It can be inherited, which is rare, or come on later with damage to the lining of the small intestine.53 If sweets and starchy foods reliably upset your stomach, the safety section covers testing.

    Is maltitol the same as maltose?

    No. Maltitol is a sugar alcohol made from maltose, and it's on Dr. Axe's avoid list.32

    Freshness & update log

    October 23, 2026 — Rebuilt the 2019 page ("What Is Maltose? Plus, Is It Bad for You?") to the current DrAxe.com standard under Dr. Axe's byline. Kept the old page's core facts, each checked against its source: maltose is malt sugar made of two glucose units; it forms when grain is sprouted and mashed, in rising bread dough and in your own digestion; kamut and spelt carry it before cooking; cooked sweet potato has it and the raw root doesn't; small amounts turn up in fruit canned in syrup and in sweetened applesauce; brown rice syrup, malt syrup and high-maltose corn syrup are made from starch and count as added sugar; high-maltose corn syrup has no fructose; maltose is a reducing sugar; added sugar is linked to weight gain, higher triglycerides and blood pressure, heart disease and tooth decay; maltose intolerance, now described as sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, inherited or acquired; and the American Heart Association's limits. Added maltose's glycemic index (105) from the international tables, with a chart; maltose syrup's traditional place in Chinese medicine (yi tang); a step-by-step cascade of how maltose works in your body; Dr. Axe's position on maltose syrups and his ranked sweetener swaps; the honey, allulose and monk fruit trials, with honey's raw-honey and HDL results; the meal-order and after-meal walking research, with a chart; maltose's use as fuel for long exercise; the Dr. Axe Score with its math; and one safety section on blood-sugar medication, sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, brown rice syrup for babies and toddlers, and honey. Corrected two food claims: finished beer keeps only a little maltose (USDA and a lab analysis of 13 lagers), and raw kamut and spelt do contain it. Removed claims we couldn't source: molasses, cooked pizza, cream of wheat, canned peaches and canned cherries as maltose sources; a sweetness ratio for maltose; texture and shelf-life uses; the reason manufacturers adopted high-maltose syrup; and a quote from an outside expert, whose point is now covered by the glycemic index tables.

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    Dr. Josh Axe

    Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

    Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

    Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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