I've lately decided to stay away from high fructose corn syrup and try to limit my refined sugar intake. I'm under the impression that nothing good comes from refined sugar. So while at the store today I was looking for unrefined sugar. I found something that is "organic raw cane sugar". But I'm wondering if it is really unrefined. On the back of the container it says "Florida Crystals Organic Raw Cane Sugar is a cup-for-cup replacement for traditional refined sugar. It's light golden color and delicate molasses flavor make it perfect for all your baking needs". So is this some sort of slight of hand, or is this stuff really unrefined. It doesn't say that it's unrefined. It just says it's raw, and compares itself with refined sugar. Anyone with knowledge of this?

Also, will the "molasses flavor", while maybe being perfect for baking, make my coffee taste weird?

Thanks for any insight. I haven't opened it yet and can take it back to the store if I want.

it'll be fine in your coffee, but all sugar is refined somewhat. unless of course you're just using sugar cane.

Why buy any sugar at all? I have not purchased or cooked with sugar for years. Well some honey 1.5 years ago, but none since.

Also carbs turn to sugar in your gut, so best to limit those as well.

They are virtually the same thing. If you want to stay away from sugar, you should stay away from "raw sugar" as well.

It’s the same calories and results with your body. I can’t say for sure but it seems there’s something extra going on with high fructose corn syrup. Get away from sweeteners period. Even the zero calorie stuff is evil for me in some ways. It’s a poor substitute and just makes me crave the real deal.

Of course it is refined, but a little less refined. It is more refined that brown sugar, less refined than white sugar.

Sugar's main fault is that it is super-high calorie per weight.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:


Sugar's main fault is that it is super-high calorie per weight.

Shouldn't we turn a negative into a positive and say that, "Sugar packs a lot of caloric energy into a small portion, just like fat."?

Let's call them dense calories and not all fluffy like a rice cake.

I don't think your body knows or cares that the sugar is brown instead of white or in corn syrup form.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888: Sugar's main fault is that it is super-high calorie per weight.

And that's all there is to it. Carbs, sugar, whatever. There is nothing inherently evil about it. Your body proceeds with the chemical reactions as it has for millions of years. As you said, the ease of taking in 500 calories of sugar vs 500 calories of green beans will put the weight on FAST.

There are many kinds of sugar. Table sugar (whether refined or not) is sucrose. HFCS is essentially a mix of glucose and fructose. Sucrose is a "double sugar" and is a compound made up of both glucose and fructose. Sucrose is produced from either sugar cane or sugar beets, and enzymes in saliva break the bond and release the glucose and fructose into the body. Glucose also occurs naturally in some fruits and honey. Fructose also occurs naturally in fruits and honey. All sugar taken into the body eventually emerges as glucose and fructose.

This article discusses the differences: https://www.healthline.com/nut...ose-glucose-fructose.

flashguy

A sugar spike will normally cause the body to convert them into try-glycerides, which is a form of stored fat. The total energy is not really the problem, it is the spike in blood sugar levels which causes insulin to be released. Insulin is a storage hormone. When you get sleepy after eating a doughnut, this is because insulin is being released and that you are packing on fat.

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
Why buy any sugar at all? I have not purchased or cooked with sugar for years. Well some honey 1.5 years ago, but none since.

Also carbs turn to sugar in your gut, so best to limit those as well.

+1000.

There's some pretty complex physiological interactions between the pancreas, liver and adrenal glands that high-octane sugar can befuddle in short order, at least in some people.

The resulting struggle to stabilize blood glucose levels within 'normal range' has effects beyond the mere 'calorie surplus' model.

If the old cult classic "Sugar Blues" doesn't answer some of your questions, take a look at some of the more recent editions of "Guyton's Physiology". It's a fascinating study.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I don't think your body knows or cares that the sugar is brown instead of white or in corn syrup form.

Heresy! While the sugar haters hate all sugar, they hate some sugars more than others.

But sugar cubes are OK....right? I mean they're cubes, so....yeah..

Sugar/Carbs cause a spike in blood glucose, which causes a spike in insulin to reduce the high blood glucose.

Reduce how? Vaporize it? Teleport it to another dimension? Super charge you brain so you solve FTL space travel? Super charge your body so you spontaneously run double marathons?

No. Largely, it is converted to fat. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. If a diabetic always injects insulin in the same spot they will get a small fat pouch there. It's what it does.

Sugar -> High BG -> High insulin -> You get fat

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
It is more refined that brown sugar, less refined than white sugar.

Brown sugar is only kind-of sort-of less refined than white sugar.

The way commercial plain-ol' "brown sugar" is made is that you take fully refined white sugar and add some molasses (which you took out when you were refining it) back in.

So it has some of the stuff in it that is taken out when you refine white sugar, and in that sense is less refined, but it gets there by having even more processing done to it.

From a health standpoint, I don't think it really matters either way. There's no evidence that less-refined sugar is any better for you than refined sugar.

I do think that less-refined sugar TASTES better than brown sugar, though. Like brown sugar, it has a strong flavor, so you can't really replace white sugar with it without changing how what you're making tastes.

Really lightly-refined sugar looks like either brown rocks or sandy tan dirt depending on whether it is ground up or not. It comes under a lot of different names from different parts of the world, in stores here I usually see it called "whole cane sugar" or "muscovado sugar."

"Sugar in the Raw" or turbinado sugar is somewhere in the middle... they use centrifuges (turbinado comes from the same root as "turbine") to spin out some, but not all, of the molasses.

Sucrose, refined or not, and simple carbohydrates have the exact same net effect on your body. It’s terrible for you and causes all kinds of problems.

Anybody ever study how a PET scan works? Anyone concerned that it essentially shows high concentrations of sugar in your body...cause cancer cells eats sugar folks.

The whole “refined” thing really means proceeded in any form. Meaning not from fruit (whole fruits not juices). Refined flour is a different story because it’s so processed and fine (power like) that it absorbs into your blood crazy fast.

If you avoid white sugar but slam honey or potatoe chips the end result is the exact same.

If you're going to add sugar to things, use unrefined honey. It's about as healthy as sugar can get.

I have reduced sugar and carbs from my diet. I have been using Stevia instead of sugar for years.