I love maple syrup. It's like liquid sugar, but ... better! (Un)fortunately, a low carb way of eating doesn't really support the idea of liquid sugar. However, (un)fortunately, there are alternatives with varying degrees of synthesis. I keep adding the "(un)", because I can see both sides of these particular coins. Pure natural maple syrup is natural, but ... floods the blood with sugars. The good with the bad. Then, synthetic maple flavors with often synthetic sweeteners replicate the taste and texture of a maple syrup, but ... who really knows what's in that stuff.

I often eat these things and tend to believe they're ok, as long as most of your foods are whole, largely unprocessed and natural. The occasional dip on the synthetic side may not be optimal, but it keeps me sane. The jury is still out on that last statement. ;)

Pork loins have virtually no fat in them. They DO have a nice layer of fat on the outside, but pork loins still tend to be a bit on the dry side. Brining them in advance REALLY makes for a beautiful, delicious and extremely moist and clean cut of meat. The maple flavor really just brings these flavors home.

Yum.

Note: Pork chops vary in size and the brine is mostly thrown away. I'm not really sure how to handle the nutrition on this one, so I'm just going to set the amounts to zero for everything.