Today while looking for some information about sucralose.. I bump into this and the question the other day cross my mind. What's the differences between white sugar and brown sugar? Why is brown sugar better?
No need to explain, you all should know what is sugar right? Something be defined as sweet by our taste buds.
But do you know...?
Natural brown sugar or known as raw sugar is produced from the first crystallisation of sugar cane, and therefore free from additional dyes and chemicals. It contains higher mineral content, notably calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron. And this minerals comes from molasses. It also has slightly lower caloric value than white sugar due to the presence of water. That is why brown sugar is better.
BUT.. However, nowdays most of the brown sugar is produce by introducing molasses to pure white sugar due to better control of the color and size of the final product (business matters), and this color easily reveal by simple washing. This brown sugar do contains the minerals from molasses but the content is too micro that it doesn't make any differences. So..?! Why choose the expensive when the nutrient doesn't make big differences? Brown and white sugar = same. Unless you opt for natural brown sugar. (else you handmade yourself by sugar cane (: )
Come to sucralose.. do you know? I know you don't :p
Although I had been using sucralose as one of my raw ingredient in my experiment for such a long time, I never really thought about what is the real meaning of sucralose. (Yeah.. I don't do the research if I am not force to :p)
Sucralose is a derivate of sucrose (sugar) and taste 600 times sweeter than sugar. So the benefit of sucrose comes up to: you only need to use very little of it, it is not recognized by the body as carbohydrates and thus is zero-calories, it doesn't cause tooth decay and is safe for everyone.
Confused? I am so sure you all come across sucralose before as .. it is actually the artificial sweetener, a replacement of sugar, and is available in the supermarket. (er.. or maybe it is only me never come across this.. but it is due to I am too healthy and doesn't need to avoid calories and high sugar content stuffs to look for alternatives of sugar :p )
However.. the fact is sucralose (and the siblings of it: aspartame, saccharide, acesulfame potassium) synthesize from sucrose and appear to be inert metabolically (calories-free thus suitable for diabetic) might be stored in the body simply because this synthetic molecule is not found in nature and our body is not equipped to metabolize it.
Chemically, sucralose is produced by chlorinating sugar molecules, whereby 3 hydroxyl groups is substitute by 3 chlorine atoms. And we know that chlorin causes cancer! This chlorinated molecules actually accumulated in body fat and will come haunt the body many years later and it will cause autoimmune disease.
Research shows that currently stevia, from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana plants, (you guys remember? the plant we learn in Cameron!) have the safest profile to replace sugar. But still it is best to try avoid too much of sweet stuffs (avoiding me is exceptional). Replace it with pure clean water instead.
Actually I got a long story to write but I left my organizer in the office and this article above is just based on what I remember. Hope I don't miss out the important points.. If I do, I'll update tmr! ;) ... So, to end up today's finding.. avoid chemical synthesized stuffs. It is not so proven to be safe to our body system. Interesting finding. Tomorrow research will be about menthol.
Update tomorrow if got the info ;)
Stay healthy ok?!
