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in Enzyme Nutrition by Dr. Howell he mentions that white sugar caused heart disease in 68 of 80 pigs who were fed white sugar – no heart disease in the control group. also, this site has a good explanation
However, if you’d prefer to see articles written by scientists (not raw foodists) perhaps someone else can contribute – i haven’t yet looked for information from medical journals.
The raw cane sugar isn’t the same as “white sugar” that is super-refined, I thought – I’m also interested to know – I haven’t used the raw sugar because I have just felt that it’s not the best thing for me, but I’m curious as to why?
It isn’t raw. It is heated during it’s processing like all packaged sugars are even molasses, brown sugar, demerara etc
From Wikipedia: In a sugar mill, sugarcane is washed, chopped, and shredded by revolving knives. The shredded cane is repeatedly mixed with water and crushed between rollers. The cane juice is next mixed with lime to adjust its pH to 7. This mixing arrests sucrose’s decay into glucose and fructose, and precipitates out some impurities. The mixture then sits, allowing the lime and other suspended solids to settle out, and the clarified juice is concentrated in a multiple-effect evaporator to make a syrup about 60 percent by weight in sucrose. This syrup is further concentrated under vacuum until it becomes supersaturated, and then seeded with crystalline sugar. Upon cooling, sugar crystallizes out of the syrup. A centrifuge is used to separate the sugar from the remaining liquid, or molasses. Additional crystallizations may be performed to extract more sugar from the molasses; the molasses remaining after no more sugar can be extracted from it in a cost-effective fashion is called blackstrap. Raw sugar has a yellow to brown colour. If a white product is desired, sulfur dioxide may be bubbled through the cane juice before evaporation; this chemical bleaches many color-forming impurities into colourless ones. Sugar bleached white by this sulfitation process is called “mill white,” “plantation white,” and “crystal sugar.” This form of sugar is the form most commonly consumed in sugarcane-producing countries.
Well, regardless of its effects on blood sugar (which in my experience are dismal), “raw” cane sugar is only raw in the sense that it is not refined—as far as I know, it is NOT actually “raw” as in “not heated over 118F” or whatever temperature you prefer. Unless you’re buying/picking an actual piece of sugar cane, chances are that “raw” sugar is actually the result of boiling.
Wow, good! Thanks for the info, guys!
I’d just use raw cane juice:
“Evaporated cane juice is a healthy alternative to refined sugar. While both sweetners are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. Therefore, unlike refined sugar, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane. Cane juice is available throughout the year.”
“http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=120”;
I think evaporated cane juice is not heated and it would be easy to find out by contacting the company that makes it, but the question remains-why does David Wolfe say that cane sugar is toxic even if it is raw? I don’t think he is just whistling Dixie even if he does look like Howie Mandel lol.he does have a lot of knowledge. Deal or no Deal??
Evaporated cane juice is not necessarily (most likely) NOT raw. Just as most dried fruit are bake dried and not sun dried, evaporated cane juice is evaporated at heats above what most people here would consider raw. If you’re going to use a sweetener, use raw agave nectar or unheated honey.
Two things to note: Not all companies selling “raw agave nectar” are actually selling raw agave nectar. One company I know for sure is making raw agave is Madhava. I have personally talked to the founder, and he has walked me through the process they use to get agave nectar. Wholesome Sweeteners raw agave nectar, however, IS NOT raw. They are only allowed to put “raw” on their bottles because there is no regulation on the use of the word.
Additionally, not all raw honey is “raw” either. This one is kind of harder to figure out because of the wide variety of companies selling “raw” honey. My suggestion is to find a local bee farmer and buy your honey from him/her, because they will be able to tell you for sure whether the honey is raw or not.
I hope this info helps.
grassdude—no clue. when i was in fiji someone offered me raw sugar cane to suck on (freshly cut) and it was really yummy. in its pure form i can’t see that it would be that bad. if it’s “evaporated” (even below 115 degrees) then it becomes a concentrated sweetener, which are not ideal on a raw diet for sure.
RishiFromRoshis, I was told by a reliable source that Madhava Agave is not raw. I don’t know what to believe anymore about a lot of stuff being raw.
speaking of the raw cane, i got some from the markets and was going to put it through the juicer… has anyone else tried that? how does it work? Pianissima- i used to enjoy fresh sugar cane straight from the field when visiting friend’s farms as a kid… so good. apparently sugar cane is a form of grass, not unlike wheatgrass… and there actually benifical minerals in it… anyone know any more on the topic? i think i remember angela stokes drinking sugar cane juice on her juice feast…
It rots your teeth and is horrible for the body. WF has an agenda and I wouldn’t listen to them telling us that it’s a healthy alternative, lol. I’m surprised they said that:-)
My advise to anyone would be to severely limit concentrated oils and sweetners, period. There is nothing inherently healthy about ingesting concentrated things like olive oil or syrup. I”m NOT saying olive oil is bad. I’m just saying it’s a concentrated source of fat and should be used sparingly. The syrups, like agave or maple for example, are not in their natural state and are very concentrated also. The body doesn’t react quite right when we force it to use these concentrates as food. I think one of the points of raw food eating is to eat as close to nature as we can. Believe me, I love olive oil right off a spoon, but I’m really careful about using it at all, haha.