The Sweetest Poison on the Shelf

Approximately 13% of the sugarcane sap is sucrose. It is removed from the fibrous cane by soaking it in hot water and squeezing the pulpy mash through three sets of heavy rollers. The extracted liquid is dark grayish-green in color and very acidic. Lime, sulfur dioxide, and/or phosphoric acid are added to the raw juice, which is then boiled several times to remove impurities. The crystallized sucrose is removed via centrifugation, packaged, and sent to refineries.  There, the process starts all over again. The crystals are washed, dissolved in hot water, and then centrifuged several times to remove the residual pulp and other impurities.

One of the final steps involves passing the slurry through bone char to remove impurities to whiten the appearance. The filtered product is crystallized, spun, dried, and packaged — ready for supermarket shelves as the white sugar we are familiar with.

Bone char is made from grinding bones from dead cattle and pigs and then roasting them in a kiln.  The bones, procured from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Argentina, are sold to traders in Scotland, Egypt, and Brazil, who turn them into char and sell it back to the sugar industry. 

The fibrous cane left behind is known as bagasse. It has a range of uses, including turning into fuel to generate energy for the sugar manufacturing process. It is also used as fiber for paper production and can be used for animal feed.

Sugar is Not Food

The refining process makes sucrose into only empty calories, completely removing any residual vitamins, minerals, and fiber present in the original sugarcane. Without them, refined sugar in not only a non-nutritional substance, it is actually an “anti-nutrient.” 

In this stripped-down state, the body cannot process this refined substance. Sucrose leaches vitamins and minerals from the body, placing a demand on digestion, detoxification, and elimination. Is it any wonder that Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a UK cardiologist and science director of Action on Sugar, said: “Added sugar has no nutritional value whatsoever and causes no feeling of satiety.”

Major by-products of sucrose production are molasses, soft brown sugar, English coffee sugar, and candy sugar. Molasses is the thick syrup that remains after the sucrose crystals are removed after the precipitation process. Sold as syrup, the molasses is often used to make alcoholic beverages, particularly rum.  Soft brown sugar is white granular sugar that retains some molasses. Large, brown sugar crystals with a caramel flavor are packaged and referred to as English coffee sugar. This sugar is a mixture of partially purified sucrose and a residual of molasses. Sucrose granules that remain very large in size are packaged as candy sugar.

Organic sugar is made from evaporated cane juice. It retains some molasses, which gives it a darker color, and a few antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins B6 and C. Organic sugar is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides or herbicides. However, if packaged food is simply labeled “organic,” it can contain up to 30% genetically engineered food or other contaminants.

Turbinado sugar is a less processed option than white sugar and retains a small amount of molasses. Sugar In The Raw is a brand name for turbinado sugar. It is made by spinning sugarcane through special turbines, creating crystals that are larger than traditional table sugar. Any type of sugar created by sucrose processing has no nutritional value.