• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Healthy Home Economist

The Healthy Home Economist

embrace your right to a lifetime of health

Get Plus
  • Home
  • About
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Archives
  • Log in
  • Get Plus
  • Get Plus
  • Log in
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Archives
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Living
  • Natural Remedies
  • Green Living
  • Videos
  • Natural Remedies
  • Health
  • Green Living
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Sweeteners / “Sugar in the Raw” is Not Really Raw at All!

“Sugar in the Raw” is Not Really Raw at All!

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Buy Sucanat As Your Healthiest White or Brown Sugar Substitute+−
    • Most White or Brown Sugar is GMO Beet Sugar
  • Sources for Sucanat and Other Natural Sweeteners+−
    • More Information

Sugar in the Raw claims to be raw unrefined cane sugar, but this is misleading marketing hype. When the processing is investigated, the truth about this product is revealed, plus what brands to switch to that truly ARE raw cane sugar!box of sugar in the raw

Sugar in the Raw. Mmmmmm. If a food is labeled as “raw”, what exactly does that mean anyway? To a consumer, it means that the food is completely unadulterated and has not in any way changed from its original natural form.

In other words, nothing has been added, removed, or heated to a temperature that would change any of the inherent nutritional characteristics.

Free Weekly Newsletter + Report on Secrets of Strong Immunity

Unfortunately, to food manufacturers, the definition of “raw” can be quite different. In fact, raw to Big Food can translate to a highly processed, industrialized food!

I’ve blogged before about how most raw cheese at the store is not raw at all in reality! And most recently, cold-pressed raw milk is not raw either.

Another fake raw food at the store that is fooling a whole lot of people from the emails I’ve been getting is the Sugar in the Raw product also known as turbinado sugar or natural cane sugar.

But wait!  There’s a “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval in the upper right corner of the Sugar in the Raw box!

Doesn’t that mean that the Sugar in the Raw product has been checked out and is legitimate in it’s labeling claims?

Apparently not.  Here’s what the manufacturer of Sugar in the Raw has to say about its product:

Enjoy sweet moments naturally with Sugar In The Raw®, our all-natural Turbinado sugar grown in the tropics. The hearty, golden crystals are never bleached, so they keep the rich flavor and color of their natural molasses. So go on, stir it in or sprinkle it on. Bake and cook with it too. Whatever you do, just do it naturally with Sugar In The Raw®.

It seems that just because Sugar in the Raw is unbleached makes it raw.

Perhaps that is what the USDA allows when it comes to labeling sugar products. To me, a sugar that is truly raw means much more than just unbleached. It means that nothing has been removed or added as well.

The wording on the package in the picture above is so sneaky because it leads the consumer to believe that the natural molasses is intact.  And, for Sugar in the Raw, a small amount of the molasses is indeed intact because it is a darker color than white sugar.

The truth, however, is that most of the molasses has been stripped away.

Sugar in The Raw can claim it is raw all day long, but I for one, know it’s not. And now you do too.

bowls of sugar in the raw and unrefined cane sugar

Check out the picture above which shows a bowl of Sugar in the Raw (right) next to a bowl of sucanat (left). Notice the dark brown color of sucanat which is a truly unprocessed, all nutrients and molasses intact sweetener. The sweetener labeled as raw sugar is anything but.

The sucanat is much darker visually demonstrating that Sugar in the Raw is a Fake. It is an adulterated product contrary to the sneaky claims by the manufacturer.

Buy Sucanat As Your Healthiest White or Brown Sugar Substitute

Sucanat is the best substitute for white or brown sugar in your recipes for cookies and cakes. It is best to bypass Sugar in the Raw or other turbinado sugar brands.

Florida Crystals is another processed sugar with molasses removed that attempts to masquerade as natural so beware.

Most White or Brown Sugar is GMO Beet Sugar

Another HUGE problem to watch out for is that most white or brown sugar in North America is partially or totally beet sugar. This sweetener is nearly always genetically modified. GMO beet sugar is visually and taste-wise completely indistinguishable from white cane sugar. Is beet sugar healthy? It comes from a vegetable after all. No, it is not!

Sugar from sugar beets is nutritionless and contaminated with gut destroying glyphosate residue. Nearly 100% of farmers growing it use Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets. The package must specifically state that the sweetener is cane sugar. Else it is almost certainly a mixture that is wholly or partially GMO beet sugar. Even brown sugar commonly contains at least some white beet sugar mixed with cane sugar molasses. The molasses from sugar beets is not fit for consumption.

To get the real thing, look for sucanat or sugarcane jaggery that is simply dehydrated cane sugar juice. Ancestral cultures in India enjoyed these sweeteners for thousands of years.

While sucanat is your best choice when trying to find a truly natural and unprocessed substitute for processed cane sugar, be careful not to overdo on the sucanat as eating too much can upset blood chemistry very much like white sugar or a fake raw sweetener like Sugar in the Raw.

It always pays big dividends to do a little checking before buying into any labeling claims.

Sugar in the Raw is just another clever marketing scheme designed to make money off of consumers who genuinely are trying to improve their diets but don’t have quite enough information to make a completely informed decision.

Sources for Sucanat and Other Natural Sweeteners

Please visit my Shopping Guide for a vetted list of vendors I buy from who offer quality sucanat, jaggery, coconut sugar, raw honey, maple syrup as well as other wholesome sweeteners.

Beware that popular “healthy” sweeteners like xylitol and other sugar alcohols as well as brown rice syrup used in many organic foods and baby formula are highly processed and not recommended. This is why making baby formula at home is a better choice than commercial brands.

More Information

Beware Grade B Maple Syrup Trickery

FacebookPinEmailPrint
Category: Sweeteners
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her eBooks Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

You May Also Like

How to Find the Best Raw Local Honey for Your Health

Malted Barley Compared to Other Traditional Sweeteners

Malted Barley Compared to Other Sweeteners

Yacon Syrup: Healthy Low Calorie Sweetener or Modern Hype?

Sucralose: Not So Splenda After All 3

Sucralose: Not So Splenda After All

swerve

SWERVE: The Ultimate Sugar Replacement?

Why is BEET SUGAR So Deadly for People and the Planet? 1

Why Beet Sugar is Deadly for People and the Planet

Going to the Doctor a Little Too Often?

Get a free chapter of my book Traditional Remedies for Modern Families + my newsletter and learn how to put Nature’s best remedies to work for you today!

We send no more than one email per week. You will never be spammed or your email sold, ever.

Reader Interactions

Comments (176)

  1. Shawna

    May 1, 2019 at 3:12 pm

    Yeah… That’s like saying that white unbleached flour is natural…because only some of it has been stepped away

    Reply
  2. Abdul Jalil

    Jun 21, 2018 at 12:37 pm

    Thank You Miss Sarah for EDUCATING “ME” about Sugar in The Raw. I will no longer consume this DECEPTIVE type of garbage.

    Reply
  3. CJ

    Jun 14, 2018 at 7:07 am

    I would imagine “raw” sugar just means slightly less processed. All I know is when I use white sugar I can feel my heart beat faster, which makes me have anxiety attacks sometimes. But raw or even brown sugar seems to digest slower, not causing this problem. Might also be the fact that non-white sugar is bulkier so I may just be using less sugar.
    In any event, interesting topic!

    Reply
  4. Albert

    Apr 21, 2018 at 7:12 am

    Thank you. Straightforward and informative.

    Reply
  5. Daniel Hilton

    Feb 15, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    Lots of sugar…..that’s the way i like it….

    Reply
  6. Brian

    Oct 25, 2017 at 2:16 pm

    Sarah, I highly disagree with what you are saying about the cane sugar, sugar in the raw, not being natural, i say to you Ba Humbug! This sugar is totally natural and pure!

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Oct 25, 2017 at 4:08 pm

      Well, if you consider cane sugar like Sugar in the “Raw” that has had most of the beneficial minerals removed to be “totally natural and pure”, that is your (misguided) choice!

  7. Michael

    Apr 11, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    Sarah,
    Turbinado sugar is produced by rapid spinning to remove some of the molasses but is not chemically processed like white sugar is. But based on your definition anything removed from a product is not natural. So are cashews, by your definition, not natural? Would you prefer to eat the cashews with the poisonous liquid attached? By my definition natural food has an ingredient that you can hold in your hand. The contents of Turbinado sugar is PURE cane syrup.

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Apr 11, 2016 at 3:35 pm

      Ummmm, molasses is not poisonous. Molasses is a valuable part of the cane syrup that is stripped away to be sold off separately maximizing corporate profits leaving the consumer with a cheapened and less nutritious end product. Your example is a poor analogy and does not in any way apply here.

  8. Mamima

    Feb 3, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    We didnt know about raw sugar until a few months back
    This “Sugar in the raw” brand was what we bought and we soon substituted it for white sugar
    One day however for a particular recipe..it ws required to mix the sugar with water..the water turned completely brown and the sugar became pure white like white sugar..is this because it is artificially coloured or because brown sugar is just like that?

    Reply
  9. John

    Jan 8, 2016 at 5:12 am

    Why is it the “LESS” processed foods cost TWICE as much as the MORE processed unhealthy foods. Sounds like someone is PROFITING on people’s desire for healthy foods, an awful racket that is promoted by ” healthy-living” advocates. A terrible practice in my mind, seems like ” healthy-living” advocates should ADVOCATE for lower prices, due to lower cost of processing the food. Unless like “global warming”, it is JUST a business to make wealth at people’ s expense

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Jan 8, 2016 at 7:31 am

      GOOD QUESTION!

    • Brian hughes

      Feb 3, 2016 at 4:39 pm

      Hey Sarah, thank you for the info. That cleared up a lot of my questioning on the sugar in the raw. Good detail and covering every question I was going to ask.

  10. Cindy

    Dec 23, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    Just curious (with all the complaining about “false” advertising) if you go
    into a store and purchase a roll of “Scotch” tape, do you get this frustrated
    when you find out there’s no actual whisky in the package? It’s a brand name,
    after all…

    Reply
« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

The Healthy Home Economist

Since 2002, Sarah has been a Health and Nutrition Educator dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. Read More

Check Out My Books

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Contact the Healthy Home Economist. The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service, Full Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, and Comment Policy.

Copyright © 2009–2022 · The Healthy Home Economist · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!