What is Sucanat?

Sucanat

Sucanat (which stands for Sugar Cane Natural), is a whole cane sugar.

It's an alternative sweetener prepared by crushing the stems of freshly-cut sugar cane to extract the plant’s juice, and then turning the juice in a vacuum tunnel at high temperature to evaporate the water content. The dried whole food product is then milled to a powder of dry porous granules that retains the same vitamin and mineral content as the original juice.

Sucanat keeps together the two products that typical sugar processing tries to separate – sugar and molasses. The initial pressing of the sugar cane plant contains all of the elements of both sugar and molasses. Through the refined, white sugar-making process, these two products are separated. All of the nutritional benefits of the sugar cane plant remain with the molasses leaving the refined, white sugar as “empty calories.”

Unlike brown sugar where molasses is simply added back to sugar for color, in sucanat, the molasses and sugar are kept together from the beginning of the process. This creates a dry sweetener with a smaller proportion of sucrose than refined white sugar, fewer calories, and is loaded with vitamins and minerals. It is an excellent source of iron, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium & chromium, which helps balance blood sugar.

Sucanat is healthier than refined sugar, which is further treated with lime or phosphoric acids, filtered, deodorized and bleached so that all nutrients are removed as molasses and only the simple sucrose remains.

Because Sucanat still contains all of the cane's natural molasses, it has a deep brown color and a distinct, natural molasses flavor that enhances many foods.  Sucanat crystals are bonded naturally, forming a granule that is easier to blend with the other ingredients and creates a smoother texture in baked goods.

Sucanat contains antioxidants, including phenols such as hydroxycinnamic acids and sinapic acid, and flavonoids such as tricin and apigenin. Both phenols and flavonoids reduce “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol content in the blood and help prevent heart and artery diseases, as well as scavenging peroxidases. Refined white sugar does not contain antioxidants.