I don't doubt that white sugar is damaging to arteries and effects the microstructure of arterial walls, but I'm skeptical that there's a statistically significant difference between white and brown sugar for cardiovascular health. Can you cite any studies that break out white vs. brown sugar?
White table sugar is nearly 100% sucrose and water, while brown sugar has a tiny percentage of molasses and iron, and perhaps traces of other minerals.
I'm skeptical that the tiny percentage of iron and molasses present in brown sugar is protective of arteries. Also, any sucrose in your blood is in solution, not crystaline. What's the mechanism for this "scratching", and why isn't it (as you imply) also present with brown sugar?
I'm not saying you're wrong, but the most plain reading of your post suggests a mechanism (physical scratching, presumably from microcrystaline sucrose) that doesn't make sense to me. Does the sucrose form some large complex with some serum protien, where it's formation is inhibited by something in the molasses present in brown sugar? (Unless someone is massively iron deficient and consuming massive amounts of brown sugar, white vs. brown sugar should have no measurable effect on iron levels in the body.) Or, did you not mean to imply that brown sugar is any better for your arteries than brown sugar?
At work, those times I put sugar in my coffee, I do use brown sugar, but I do it for the difference in flavor and recognize that when mixed into coffee, I'd likely fail a blind taste test. At home, I don't pay the extra cost of brown sugar.
>I don't doubt that white sugar is damaging to arteries and effects the microstructure of arterial walls, but I'm skeptical that there's a statistically significant difference between white and brown sugar for cardiovascular health. Can you cite any studies that break out white vs. brown sugar?
I have no studies to cite right now, my son just did a research paper for school on the effects of white processed sugar though. He may have something, but I feel this would require more effort than just googling this.
The source I got from this was a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, who treated my friend. I would consider this a reputable source. (but hard to properly reference)
Modern brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses added back to it. I have no sources for this though, just info I've run into, and my experiences with real brown sugar (looks nothing like the stuff in the store). Look up Sucanat, a brand of unprocessed sugar, it still has the molasses in it, but it's dry. :P
Edit: This article from Mayo Clinic seems to saying the connection between refined sugar and heart disease is unclear, the message I got from my friend (through doctor at Mayo) was that it was not unclear.
Also, another friend (don't talk to her as much so I forgot this one) is that refined sugars cause inflammation in arteries. I can't recall if she had gone to Mayo as well, but that was from her doctor as well.
Ahh, you sound confused by the sugar industry marketing.
Brown and "raw" sugar are still processed sugars by many definitions. For instance, see [https://www.cancercenter.com/discussions/blog/natural-vs-ref...] Brown, raw, and white sugar are all extracted and highly concentrated from the harvested plant products. When you read about processed suger in medical research, they're almost certainly making a distinction between extracted and concentrated sugars vs sugars that are still bound in plant products such as fruits.
I don't doubt that these studies and the Mayo Clinic doctor warned your friend about processed sugars. However, they were almost certainly directing towards fruits and vegetables and away from white sugar, brown sugar, and "raw" sugar (which is a marketing term for a still highly processed sucrose extract from plants).
And while we're throwing around Mayo Clinic doctors, my dad recently retired, but he was a practicing physician who did his residency at the Mayo clinic, and he certainly considers brown and "raw" sugar to be processed sugar.
>Ahh, you sound confused by the sugar industry marketing.
I don't think so, I agree with you. All of those sugars are processed. What did I write that made you think otherwise?
I don't need a doctor to tell me if something is bad for me or not, but it seems to be very useful for many people, hence the Mayo sources. But my point in referencing Mayo was also to demonstrate that this is becoming common knowledge.
Sucanat is simply juice from a cane plant with the water removed. This is not a "processed sugar". My personal opinion is this is a plant extract.
I don't doubt that white sugar is damaging to arteries and effects the microstructure of arterial walls, but I'm skeptical that there's a statistically significant difference between white and brown sugar for cardiovascular health. Can you cite any studies that break out white vs. brown sugar?
White table sugar is nearly 100% sucrose and water, while brown sugar has a tiny percentage of molasses and iron, and perhaps traces of other minerals.
I'm skeptical that the tiny percentage of iron and molasses present in brown sugar is protective of arteries. Also, any sucrose in your blood is in solution, not crystaline. What's the mechanism for this "scratching", and why isn't it (as you imply) also present with brown sugar?
I'm not saying you're wrong, but the most plain reading of your post suggests a mechanism (physical scratching, presumably from microcrystaline sucrose) that doesn't make sense to me. Does the sucrose form some large complex with some serum protien, where it's formation is inhibited by something in the molasses present in brown sugar? (Unless someone is massively iron deficient and consuming massive amounts of brown sugar, white vs. brown sugar should have no measurable effect on iron levels in the body.) Or, did you not mean to imply that brown sugar is any better for your arteries than brown sugar?
At work, those times I put sugar in my coffee, I do use brown sugar, but I do it for the difference in flavor and recognize that when mixed into coffee, I'd likely fail a blind taste test. At home, I don't pay the extra cost of brown sugar.