Taste Of health - sucanat vs. rapadura

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Paula
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sucanat vs. rapadura
« Thread Started on Aug 21, 2005, 6:53pm »

It's not obvious I'm obsessed with sugar, is it?

Okay, I've read about rapadura recently and one message board (homeschool) had a post on sweeteners and rapadura was mentioned. I did some online research and came up with some info that sucanat, since it's new ownership in the mid-90's, is not the same as it once was. Rapadura is now the sweetener of choice. One of the ladies on the message board said the same thing and that Sally Fallon even agrees.

One site said this: (I've bolded a part of one of the last paragraphs for you to focus on).

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EATING HEALTHY

Some Sugars Are "Sweeter" To Your Body Than Others
by Robin Asbell

SUGAR BY ANY other name would still taste sweet, yes? After last month's article on the removal of minerals from the food supply and white sugar, we now face the sugar deluge of the holiday season. How to have your sweets and avoid all that white sugar? Consumers are faced with the question of which of the many alternatives that are made from sugar cane is best. Turbinado, Florida Crystals, Sugar in the Raw, Sucanat and Rapadura are just a few of the many sugar cane products that are marketed as healthier sugars. But are they?

To get to the issue of good and bad qualities in a sugar product requires an understanding of how sugar is made and how it works in the body. Sugar manufacturers insist that the only health problem that can be attributed to sugar is tooth decay, and that with proper hygiene that can be avoided. Less partisan nutrition experts at least look at sugar as nutritionally void and fattening. More holistic thinkers associate white sugar consumption with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, reduced immunity, and more.

The problem with white sugar lies in its refinement. When white sugar is made, sugar cane juice is put through a series of purifications. To get from the brownish juice to the white crystalline substance that dissolves and bakes so well takes chemistry. Cane is pressed, boiled, then filtered and repeatedly centrifuged and separated. The separation takes out the molasses, and with it, minerals and vitamins. The filters used by some, but not all, cane processors are made from burnt cow bone charcoal, which is why vegans give white sugar a wide berth.

Removing all the nutrients from a whole food, even if planning to replace some of them, makes refined sugar unbalancing. The sugar rush is the dumping into the bloodstream of quick burning glucose, which the body must process with insulin. Overusing that mechanism just plain wears it out, causing pre-diabetes and diabetes. Because calcium, chromium, manganese, zinc and copper are taken out of sugar, evidence suggests that the body sacrifices its stores of those minerals to process sugar. Even if sugar had no bad effect on its own, it replaces so many calories in the modern diet that nutritious foods are just not eaten. Americans consume an average of 140 pounds of sugar a year, and that a lot of calories. Sugar addicts are stuffing themselves but starving themselves.

Now that healthy eating is becoming more mainstream and health food stores are trying to widen their audience, sugars have come onto the scene that claim to be more healthful. Each manufacturer of a sugar cane product can tweak the process a bit to make it more whole, and no uniform labeling is required.

Most of the granular product, often called evaporated cane juice, is made just like regular brown sugar. If a sweetener has a shiny, crystalline look, it is refined white sugar with some molasses incorporated back in. Some manufacturers refine to a point, with a little less separation, and then call it raw or evaporated. The more the product tastes like a regular, refined sugar product, the better it will go over, and the misleading terminology makes it sound healthy.

Only one product is actually whole cane juice. Rapadura, made by Rapunzel Organic Foods is actually whole, organic cane juice. It is simply boiled, filtered and dried, then the hard lumps are ground. Sucanat, unfortunately, was made the same way as Rapadura until the company was acquired by a sugar company in the mid-'90s. In a move so cynical that it deserves mention, the new owners kept marketing Sucanat as whole dried cane juice, riding on its good reputation, but changed it to a refined product with molasses added. Both products are organic, an important factor because sugar cane can be heavily sprayed. If you buy molasses, stick to organic unsulphured. When molasses is spun off from cane juice, it can carry the pesticides with it, concentrating them. Sulphured molasses is made from less ripe, less sweet sugar cane, and sulphur fumes are applied to the cane to make it sweeter.

If you miss the flavor of sugar, try Rapadura. Its caramel flavor, with a tinge of molasses taste, can be substituted one for one for sugar in recipes. For a straightforward sugar substitute, Rapadura is the whole foods choice.

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What do you think? :-/

Paula

« Last Edit: Aug 21, 2005, 6:55pm by Paula »

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Paula
Married 24 years. Homeschooling mom to three children.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/pollyjo

Mom2boys
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Re: sucanat vs. rapadura
« Reply #1 on Aug 22, 2005, 5:38pm »

Paula,
I read that article on the change in sucanat a while back and was unable to substantiate any of the claims that the processing of it has changed. Mine has always been the same. Rapadura is another choice but it does not store well here in Florida. It becomes rock hard. I think that the key to sweeteners is to keep it all in moderation.

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Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food~~ Hippocrates

Tina- Faithful servant to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ,devoted wife to Jesse and busy Mom to Cody (14) and Brandon (11)

Paula
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Re: sucanat vs. rapadura
« Reply #2 on Aug 22, 2005, 6:37pm »

Thanks, Tina. Hmm...moderation...I'm not familiar with that word - I'll look it up in the dictionary.

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Paula
Married 24 years. Homeschooling mom to three children.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/pollyjo

Christy
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Re: sucanat vs. rapadura
« Reply #3 on Oct 25, 2009, 8:51am »

Poison taken in moderation can kill you. Adulteress sex in moderation can get you STDs, drugs in moderation can fry your brain, lying in moderation makes you untrustworthy... Moderation is for those things deemed healthy and good. Refined sugar does not fall into that catagory. Don't dilute the issue with non-applicable cliches.

Thanks for the info Paula. We've used sucanat on occassion, but will definitely be switching to organic rapadura.

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lisa
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Re: sucanat vs. rapadura
« Reply #4 on Oct 26, 2009, 7:22am »

I found this post yesterday on quirky cooking.com She states that the 2 are the same thing? Anyone??

Rapadura? Sucanat? Muscavado? Turbinado? Organic Raw Sugar? Which one of these sugars is the least refined? Which has the most vitamins and minerals? Are you confused?

A lot of people ask me, "What is Rapadura? Is it the same as Organic Raw Sugar? Why is it okay to eat Rapadura, but not okay to eat regular cane sugar, if they're both made from sugar cane?" So here's a short overview of these different sugars...

Rapadura is evaporated cane juice - it's also known as Sucanat. It is just the juice extracted from the cane in a press, which has then been evaporated to dry it into granules. It has not been heated and spun to change it into crystals, so it has a grainy texture.

Because Rapadura is not heated, the vitamins and minerals have been retained. It also still has the natural balance of sucrose, glucose, and fructose, and contains components essential for its' digestion. It is metabolized more slowly than white sugar, and therefore will not affect your blood sugar levels very much at all. Refined, crystallised sugars will raise blood sugar levels, and the more refined the sugar, the more it raises your blood sugar.

Muscavado, Turbinado, Demarara and even 'organic raw sugar' are all refined, though not as much as white sugar. They are the product of heating the cane juice until crystals form, then spinning it in a centrifuge so the crystals are separated from the syrupy juice, but still have some juice coating them. The syrupy 'juice' (molasses) contains vitamins and minerals, and is recommended for a healthy diet, but the crystals themselves are pretty much 'empty carbs.'

So once sugar cane juice has been heated and spun, the resulting sugar (Muscavado, Turbinado, Demarara, raw) is not as healthy a product as the evaporated versions. 'Raw' sugar is not really raw - it has been cooked, and a lot of the minerals and vitamins are gone. Still, it's better than refined sugar because it has a little of the molasses still clinging to it.

White sugar is refined much further... the raw sugar is centrifuged again, then the crystals are dissolved, boiled, and crystallized again into white sugar, and any lingering goodness has completely dissapeared! All other sugars--confectioner's (also called powdered or icing sugar), castor, superfine, etc--are all refined sugar of different sizes. Granulated refined sugars are pure sucrose and contain no nutrients beyond calories. They are a "pure" industrial product, and can hardly be considered a food. Some would say they are closer to a drug, which affects our bodies adversely and is very addictive. Not only do they not give anything beneficial to our bodies, they actually take away from the vitamins and minerals in what we are eating. People who get headaches from eating refined sugars usually find they have no problem with Rapadura.

Brown sugar is just white sugar mixed with molasses.

Some sugar is sold as 'organic' raw sugar, and people think this means it's unrefined - all it really means is that it's grown with organic agricultural methods, then refined as usual... the juice (molasses) has been removed, and there's not really any goodness in it.

If you are unused to the grainy texture of Rapadura, it can be ground in the Thermomix (or a powerful blender) to a fine powder to help it dissolve better. Rapadura can be used cup for cup as an alternative to sugar in all your baking and cooking. I buy my Rapadura bulk (12.5kg for about $73) through a local co-op. I always cut down the amount of sugar when converting recipes, just adding some raw honey or some crushed dates, or sometimes a pinch of stevia powder if I think it needs more sweetening. That way it doesn't end up too expensive an option.

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