#Unprocessed FAQ: Sugar & Sweeteners

As of this morning, over 3,000 people have now taken the October Unprocessed challenge!  Incredible!  If you haven’t taken the pledge yet, please do it today. (If you already eat this way all the time, take the pledge and show your support! And if you think it’s too daunting, how about just for two weeks? Or even a day? Do what you can, and take charge of your health!) … We’ve got a lot of momentum, and this is turning into something really powerful. Keep it up! (and tell your friends!)

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about sugar and sweeteners, and whether or not they pass the Kitchen Test. In the past years of the challenge, the consensus seemed to be that date sugar, evaporated cane juice, raw/unfiltered honey, and maple syrup would all be acceptable sweeteners. An approximation of Turbinado and Muscovado sugars could probably be made at home, too, though the current industrial process to make them is probably a little bit different than what you’d be able to do at home.

Ultimately, sugar is one of those gray areas where you’ll need to figure out where it makes sense to draw the line for yourself (for artificial sweeteners, it’s much more of a no-brainer). Below are some more thoughts on a few of the most common ones, and if you want more details, check out my post on various sugars.

“Sugar”

Usually, the term “sugar” refers to bleached table sugar, those fine-white granulated crystals that come from sugar cane or sugar beets. The bleaching is done with sulfur dioxide, an ingredient that hopefully isn’t in your pantry.

The terms “sugar,” “granulated sugar,” “cane sugar,” “pure cane sugar,” “beet sugar,” and “table sugar” all refer to the bleached stuff.  So if you just see any of those on the ingredient list, it’s probably that (though the only way to know for sure is to ask the company).

Verdict?  Regular sugar doesn’t pass the kitchen test, but… some folks make exceptions for sugar — simultaneously making an effort to reduce their sugar consumption throughout the month. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Brown Sugar

Regular “Brown Sugar” (the kind you get in the box at the grocery store) is usually just refined table sugar with a small amount (3.5% to 6.5%) of added molasses (which is a byproduct of the sugar-making process in the first place)… but since it goes through the refining/bleaching process first, it doesn’t pass the kitchen test.

Verdict? Unprocessed Fail.

“Raw” Brown Sugars (Turbinado, Demerara, Muscovado)

I think it would be possible to make something similar to these sugar crystals at home, if you had some sugar cane stalks ready to go.  Although there are a couple of steps in the commercial process that you couldn’t do, I’m guessing you could still get the crystals if you’re patient enough (perhaps a countertop food dehydrator would help evaporation).

I’ve seen many articles refer to these sugars as “unrefined” or “raw,” and that’s a bit misleading. They may be raw if they haven’t been heated, but they’re certainly not “unrefined” — they are simply less refined than other crystalline sugars. They start with sugar cane, extract the juice, then heat it to evaporate the water. Once the sugar crystallizes, it is often spun in a centrifuge (hence the name turbinado) to further dry the sugar and remove some impurities.  (Demerara sugar is similar, but is originally named for the Demerara colony in Guyana.  It’s now produced in Mauritius.)

Muscovado sugar (also known as “Barbados Sugar”) is similar, but is dried without using a centrifuge.  Of these choices, Muscovado is likely to be the least processed and most likely to pass the kitchen test.

Verdict? Shoot for Muscovado if you can find it. Beyond that, you’ll need to decide what’s right for you.

Honey

When it comes to unprocessed sweeteners, honey is one of my favorites. It’s important to note that some brands will process the honey and strip it of some of its nutrients. If you can find a good “raw” honey, it’ll be the closest you can find to what you’d get if you actually kept bees in your own backyard.

My favorite brand so far is Really Raw — it’s a creamy, rich honey that even has bits of pollen and honeycomb floating on the surface.  (The downside is that it’s quite expensive.)

Verdict? Raw honey passes the test easily, the more refined brands are better than table sugar and I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s okay.

Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is my other sweetener of choice (though I still consume it in very small amounts!). Made from the sap of maple trees (the sap is collected and then boiled down), the process is fairly similar today to many years ago. Just be sure you’re getting real, 100% maple syrup — “Aunt Jemima” doesn’t count.

Verdict? Yep, Maple Syrup is good-to-go for October.

Agave

Often called “Agave Nectar” (thus giving it a more healthful tone), this sweetener comes from several species of agave plant.

I’ve heard people sing agave’s praises, specifically thinking it’s significantly less-processed than other sweeteners. That may or may not be true, as the sugar is extracted and processed through a few different methods, depending on the type of plant. It always requires more processing than honey, too.

Verdict? I’m pretty sure you couldn’t make agave syrup at home.

Brown Rice Syrup

Brown Rice Syrup is created by soaking/cooking brown rice with enzymes (usually from dried barley sprouts — meaning: barley malt) to break down the starches into accessible sugars.  The liquid is then strained off and reduced to a syrup. It may also be produced by cooking brown rice flour (or brown rice starch) with enzymes — so your mental picture of simply boiling a pot of brown rice isn’t necessarily accurate.

As a sidenote, brown rice syrup has a “health halo” surrounding it because it’s made with brown rice (this has become a big pet peeve of mine). Don’t be fooled: It’s still concentrated sugar.

Verdict? I don’t think you could make brown rice syrup at home, either.

Stevia

Real, honest-to-goodness stevia is just the leaf of the stevia plant. If you can find that (or grow your own), or can find a powder that’s truly just the ground-up leaves, it’ll pass the test.

But the name-brand white powders? You couldn’t make those at home. Here’s a great post from last year’s challenge about Stevia, Purevia, and Truvia.

Verdict? Real stevia is okay, but most of the stuff you can find at the store is not.

Artificial Sweeteners

I may be pointing out the obvious, but you couldn’t make saccharin, sucralose (Splenda), aspartame, Nutrasweet, Equal, acesulfame potassium, xylitol, erythritol, neotame, or any other of these kinds of sugar substitutes at home.

Verdict? Über-processed!

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I’m sure there are plenty of questions, as I’m just scratching the surface here — so let’s keep the conversation going in the comments below!

And here are some of my previous posts on sugar:

• Sugar is Sugar is Sugar is Sugar!
• What is the healthiest sugar? (Part 1)
• What is the healthiest sugar? (Part 2)
• What’s in a gram?
• What I do not eat High Fructose Corn Syrup

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“Sugar” Image © 2006 Pay No Mind, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.