CosBeauty Magazine #85

Should
we quit
sugar?
Myth busting:
raw vs white vs brown sugars
Hopeful sugar lovers have ventured the suggestion that brown sugar or
raw sugar might indeed by healthier than the super-refined white sugar
seen on most coffee-shop tables. Unfortunately, their hopes are dashed.
Although they go through slightly different processes, raw, white and
brown sugar are derived from the same source and hold very little
nutritional difference – ie, all are equally bad for you.
Sugar crystals are made from the juice of sugar cane or sugar beet.
The juice is filtered, evaporated, boiled – which produces molasses
– centrifuged and dried to yield raw sugar. White, or refined sugar,
undergoes further washing, bleaching, filtering, processing and drying.
Brown sugar is created through the addition of molasses to refined
white sugar.
Certainly, the myriad of health
problems associated with
high sugar intake is enough to
quieten anyone’s sugar cravings,
but is it healthy to eliminate
sugar from our diet completely?
Sugar is found naturally in fruits,
vegetables and dairy products,
which means that to eradicate it
completely from our diet would
leave us with little other than
meat and fats.
‘I am quite comfortable with
dietary sugars if they come from
whole foods such as fresh fruits
and vegetables, as the sugar
is diluted with water, fibre and
other nutrients,’ health expert
Professor Kerin O’Dea from
the Sansom Institute for Health
Research told the ABC.
As for added sugar, the
alternative options – in the form
of artificial sweeteners – are not
necessarily any better for you.
A recent study published in the
journal Nature found artificial
sweeteners interfere with gut
bacteria, increasing the chances
of obesity and diabetes.
‘Our findings suggest that
artificial sweeteners may
have directly contributed
to enhancing the exact
epidemic that they themselves
were intended to fight,’
the researchers from the
Department of Immunology
at the Weizmann Institute of
Science in Israel state.
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