Q & A Thursday: which is better brown or white sugar?

Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Q & A Thursday

Carolyn asks is using brown or raw sugar better for you than using white sugar?

Brown sugar has a healthier reputation than white sugar. It’s often sold as “raw sugar” and has a natural, unprocessed image.

But, there’s little difference between the two.

What is brown sugar?

Brown sugar differs from white sugar because of its molasses content. Molasses is a dark syrup, that’s a by-product of sugar refining. When small amounts of molasses are mixed in with normal sugar crystals, it produces the texture, colour and flavour we see in brown sugar.

Brown sugar can be made in a couple of different ways:

1. Rather than refining sugar to a fine white powder, some of the molasses can be left in, to give brown sugar.
2. It can also be made by adding molasses back into fine white sugar.

The first process is the more traditional method for making brown sugar and this yields a less processed product.

However it’s the second method which is most commonly used today. It’s an easier manufacturing process because the amount of sucrose and molasses in the mix can be controlled. Producing brown sugar in this way gives a more homogenous product.

So most brown sugar is actually more processed than white sugar.

Any exceptions?

Muscavado or Barbados sugar is the main exception to this. It’s the darkest sugar and made by drying sugar crystals under a low heat – rather than adding molasses back into the sugar. This has a strong flavour, which can be great for baking but I doubt you’d use it in a cup of tea.

I suspect some organic brown sugars are made in the traditional way – but you’d have to check with individual manufacturers.

Nutritional value of brown vs white sugar

Molasses does have a different nutritional profile to sugar. In particular it contains minerals, such as calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium – which are not in white sugar.

However brown sugar is only 10 percent molasses. The other 90 percent is white sugar, so there’s little nutritional difference between the two, The minerals in brown sugar are only present in tiny quantities and you’d have to eat masses of the stuff to get any useful amounts.

And that amount of sugar definitely isn’t good for you.

Therefore the main reason to use brown sugar over white is the taste difference.

More information

• There’s a good article at New Scientist about this: I’m sweet enough
• Chow has more information about the different types of brown sugar: shades of brown.

What is Q & A Thursday?

This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.

If you have a question you’d like answered _send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.

03 April, 2008