Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar?

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Brown sugar gives many people the impression of being healthier. And is brown sugar the healthier alternative to white sugar? Or is cane sugar healthier?

Sugar is the new fat. Few foods are as discredited as the sweet sin. It’s said to make you fat, sick, and addicted. Unfortunately, many foods, such as cakes, chocolate, or jam, taste so good precisely because of sugar because the sweetness is an essential flavor carrier, just like fat.

White sugar is the most commonly used in recipes and for sweetening. The difference is that it is more refined than brown sugar. Sometimes we use honey, syrup, or agave syrup, but in the end, table sugar is the leading sugar, I,.e. sucrose.

However, because of the concern for their health, many people are looking for an alternative. However, sugar substitutes do not have the best reputation either; many cause digestive problems (we know this from sugar-free sweets) or have an excessive number of calories. In the end, not much is gained in terms of nutrition. For this reason, many health-conscious people turn to brown sugar or cane sugar – in the belief that it is healthier and that they are doing something good for their diet with the supposedly “healthy sugar.“ But are brown sugar or cane sugar healthy?

Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar?

To determine whether brown sugar is more beneficial than white sugar, it is first worth looking at the calories. There are calories in all sugar – whether brown or white, table sugar, brown sugar, or cane sugar.

However, the answer is surprising: in terms of calories, the two types have nothing in common: brown sugar and white sugar both have 400 calories per 100 grams. So the color is not decisive.

If it’s already nothing when it comes to calories, can brown sugar, unlike white sugar, at least attack our teeth less? Unfortunately, we have to disappoint you here; in this respect, nothing is gained with brown sugar compared to household sugar.

Also, for the teeth, the color of the sweetness makes no difference. Brown and white sugar are both bad for the teeth and promote the development of caries. So, in plain English, it doesn’t matter which one we eat when it comes to sugar. Teeth suffer equally from sucrose, brown sugar, or cane sugar.

Is brown sugar that healthy?

Unfortunately, no. Strictly speaking, brown sugar is an intermediate product from which white sugar is produced during further processing. It still contains residual molasses, where the darker color comes from.

Theoretically, the brown variant contains slightly more minerals, but they do not affect health in such small quantities. Incidentally, the organic variant is not healthier either. In the case of organic, only the raw material is different. It is of organic quality, which is usually better for the environment.

Cane sugar healthy: is brown sugar the same as cane sugar?

No, even between brown sugar varieties must be differentiated again. Brown sugar is obtained from sugar beets, cane sugar in turn from sugar cane. But even cane sugar is not healthier than white sugar.

There is, therefore, no difference in health between white and brown sugar. However, it should be noted that brown sugar usually spoils much faster because it has higher water content.

By the way: Even though sugar is unhealthy, the same applies here as with many other things: The quantity counts. If you watch out for hidden sugars in food, you can even bake a cake with regular sugar. Even nutrition experts eat sugar – but in moderation.