The Difference Between Brown Sugar vs White Sugar

Is it really true that some people believe brown sugar is much superior to white sugar? Whether it is true or not we need to first understand what composes of brown sugar and its differences from white sugar.

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What Is Brown Sugar?

Brown sugar is sugar that is based on rich sucrose with molasses. It can be made through several processes whether it can be non-filtered or filtered and has a slight brown color to it due to the molasses remnants.

Not just that but brown sugar can also be made from the addition of molasses to the commercial white sugar that most of us normally use. The majority of the brown sugars in the market will be from the final process of adding molasses from sugarcane to white crystal sugar that is filtered in the factories.

The brown sugars that are made this way will have a coarser texture compared to the first step mentioned above. The molasses can be separated easily from the white crystal sugar by simply washing them off.

Natural Brown Sugar

Before unraveling the truth about the benefits of brown sugar, let us go deeper into the process of how its made.

Natural brown sugar, raw sugar or whole cane sugar is a sugar that retains a portion of molasses within them. Considering that there are more molasses in natural brown sugar, this means that it contains lesser nutritional value and minerals compared to regular commercial sugars.

Some of them have specific terms or names as well as some unique features to them. Based on these differences, it can be sold with names such as Turbinado, Demerara, and also raw sugar if it was made through the centrifuge process at a high degree.

Brown sugar is produced from semi-volatile sugar cane juice that has been crystalized first before it undergoes the centrifuge process mentioned earlier. This is to remove almost all the molasses content within them.

All the sugars stated previously and other dark brown sugars will either undergo centrifuge at a minimum rate or not at all.

Only In Developing Countries

Generally speaking, these types of sugars are mostly made in small factories in developing nations all over the world since most of these small factories do not have centrifuge technology or an industrial-level vacuum.

Instead, the sugar will be boiled in a very hot pan using firewood until the sugar cane juice reaches around 30% of its original volume and the formation of sucrose crystals starts to occur.

Later, they will be poured into a mold to be hardened or in a cooling pan before they are forced out and crushed into smooth sands.

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Benefits of Brown Sugar, Is It Really True?

Many people believed that the benefits of brown sugar are far much healthier than regular white sugar since they have a different taste and are more palatable. This health trend has pioneered several aspects of life such as the production and sale industry, drinks, and food based on brown sugar.

Some of the health claims that were made were that brown sugar is capable of relieving cramps during menses and acting as an anti-aging.

But are all these claims really true? Are all these benefits provided with scientific evidence or is it just purely based on experience alone?

The question of the health benefits of sugar will be further explained below.

Benefits of Brown Sugar VS White Sugar

It can simply be answered as there is not a single health benefit that was scientifically proven or any research that can be related to brown sugar.

It is highly probable that feeling healthy and great was due to simply taking it and experiencing the placebo effects afterward.

From the side of nutrition, however, there are not many differences between brown and white sugar on top of commercial filtered white sugar. All the minerals that are contained in the sugars are due to the molasses content.

Despite that, the number of vitamins and minerals is far too low to give any significant or meaningful effects to consumers.

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In A Nutshell

Due to this purpose, many nutritionists conclude that there are no benefits when it comes to taking brown sugar as an alternative to the readily available commercially filtered white sugar.

Because of that, you would not have to feel guilty when taking white sugar compared to the so-called "healthier" choice.

This is due to the fact that there are not any distinct differences between the two and several other factors will give a much more significant effect on your health such as the quantity and your diet patterns.

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