Refined vs. unrefined sugar
"Sugar is a major life force and our bodies need it as fuel to feed the ongoing fire of life's process. The sugars in whole foods are balanced with the proper minerals. The energy obtained from breaking down and assimilating these sugars is of a constant and enduring nature. When natural sugar is refined and concentrated, the life force is dispersed and the natural balance upset.
Refined sugar passes quickly into the bloodstream in large amounts, giving the stomach and pancreas a shock. An acid condition forms which consumes the body's minerals quickly. Thus calcium is lost from the system, causing bone problems. The digestive system is weakened and food cannot be digested or assimilated properly. This leads to a blood-sugar imbalance and to another craving for sugar. Refined sugar delivers high energy and enables one to keep working, but unfortunately, it is addicting and contributes greatly to disease and unhappiness. While in very small amounts it can be used as medicine, in large amounts sugar leads instead to obesity, hypoglycemia, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, anemia, immune deficiency, tooth decay, and bone loss; it contributes to herpes, yeast infections, cancer, pre-menstrual syndrome, menstrual problems, and male impotence; it weakens the mind, causing: loss of memory and concentration, nervousness, shyness, violence, excessive or no talking, negative thought, paranoia, and emotional upsets such as self-pity, arguments, irritability, and the desire for only sweet things in life."(2)
"Refined sugar is implicated in all of our contemporary degenerative health problems." (3)
General useful information
"The sweetness found in grains, dairy, meat, legumes, and some vegetables like squash, carrots and yams strengthens the spleen-pancreas and helps build energy. These foods satisfy the sweet tooth.
'Empty sweets', to use a Chinese medical term, are those primarily composed of simple sugars (sweet fruits, juices, honey, sugar, and other sweeteners). These foods give a short-term energy boost by increasing the amount of sugar in the blood. When concentrated or used in excess, sweets damage the spleen-pancreas. Excessive use leads to chronic fatigue, bodily weakness, edema, and various digestive problems.
Sweeteners composed of maltose, a complex carbohydrate, are relatively more healthful. Barley malt and rice syrup, for example, take longer to assimilate than the more simple sugar molecules do. (...)
Other sweeteners contain glucose, fructose and sucrose and are more problematic because they are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, stress the whole metabolism, and suppress the immune system. Such sweeteners cause the pancreas to secrete more insulin to monitor the amount of sugar going into the blood, and extra adrenaline from the adrenal gland is also mobilized to monitor the blood sugar level. Simple sugars provide a few hours of increased energy, which are followed by energy depletion and an emotional low aptly known as "the sugar blues". Thus sweeteners that contain sucrose are best used occasionally and with discretion. These include carob, date sugar, honey, maple syrup, rapadura, and sorghum molasses. (...) Strive to avoid fructose, fruit juice concentrate, granular fruit sugar, isomol, malitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol (and aspartame)."(5)
- "The best source of sweetness is a diet of whole vegetal foods that are chewed well to bring out their natural flavor and sweetness. All complex carbohydrates such as grains, legumes, and vegetables become sweeter the longer they are chewed. (...)
- "Be wary of so-called 'natural' sweeteners such as fructose, brown sugar, and turbinado sugar. They are nearly as refined and concentrated as white sugar and have similar effects.
- "(...) Salty foods [and proteins] (...) create a craving for sweets (...). Most animal foods - meats, fish and cheese - are high in protein and (...) should be used sparingly to avoid sugar cravings.
- "Sweeten desserts with fruit, fruit juices, rice syrup, barley malt, stevia, unrefined sugar (unrefined cane juice powder), maple syrup, molasses, or amasake."(2)
Some alternatives and their pro's and con's
"Some people are aware that white sugar is one of the worst foods and are replacing it with equally large amounts of honey. Honey is highly refined by bees and has more calories than white sugar. It is much sweeter and is assimilated directly into the bloodstream very quickly. However, honey does contain some minerals and enzymes and thus does not upset the body's mineral balance as much as sugar. For centuries, honey has been used as a medicine."(2)
(And that's exactly how I use it too - not as a food or a sweetener, but as a medicine. )
"Our recommendation is to use the least concentrated, least sweet, and most nearly whole-food sweeteners [: rice and barley grain malts (syrups or powders), and amasake.] (...) At least half the composition of these grain-based sweeteners are nutrients found in whole grains; they also contain good percentages of complex sugars (...). This smooths out the blood-sugar peaks and valleys associated with the consumption of highly refined sweeteners."(2)
"A relatively healthy alternative [for those who have yet to wean themselves from sugar's shocking sweetness] is granules of unrefined, dried cane juice (...). It is made by simply evaporating the water from whole sugar cane juice. (...) It is not to be confused with brown sugar or various kinds of raw sugar; it has far more mineralization and other nutrients to help prevent tooth decay and the plethora of diseases brought on by all refined sugar. (...) (The [following] other naturally processed sweeteners [: maple syrup, sorghum molasses, barbados molasses, rice syrup and barley malt, honey, fruit juices, fruit syrups and date sugar, and amasake] also possess a full complement of nutrients.)
Several food producers are acutely aware of the advertising advantage of no longer listing "sugar" as an ingredient. Now they still put in refined sugar but list it as "dried cane juice" or "cane juice" (or "cane sugar", bva). However, when dried cane juice is highly refined, it is simply another name for refined white sugar. To be certain of a whole-food product, choose unrefined dried cane juice."(2)
And Rebecca Wood on unrefined, dried cane juice or "rapadura":
"Because its vitamins, minerals and micronutrients are intact (...), rapadura does not pass as quickly into the bloodstream as sugar does. If used in excess, however, it contributes to the same health problems as sugar. (...) Today, I'm aware of only one domestic brand of unrefined, evaporated cane juice. This granular organic rapadura is available at natural food stores (...) from Rapunzel Pure Organics.
(...) Avoid the numerous highly refined sugar products that mimic rapadura."(4) "These (...) include, but are not limited to: brown sugar, cane crystals, evaporated cane juice, Demerara sugar, dried cane juice, granulated cane juice, milled cane, molasses, muscovado sugar, natural milled cane sugar, plantation white, raw cane juice, Sucanat, turbinado sugar, unrefined cane sugar, and yellow-D sugar."(3) So all these are NOT unrefined, according to Rebecca Wood.
"Fruit juices can be recommended because of their availability and the relatively low sweetness their watery content provides. When they are concentrated into fruit syrups, however, their sugar content becomes very high. In contrast to the grain ferments, the fruit juices and syrups are much further from being whole foods, i.e., from having the multiple nutrients of whole foods."(2)
Footnotes:
(2) Paul Pitchford, "Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition", North Atlantic Books; 3rd edition (2002), pp.189 - 194
(3) Rebecca Wood, "The new whole foods encyclopedia: a comprehensive resource for healthy eating", foreword by Paul pitchford, revised and updated ed., 1999, Penguin Books, p.328
(4) id., p.285
(5) id., p.331
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