White sugar or brown sugar? This is the recurring question since white sugar has been demonized in favor of cane sugar. But what is really the difference?
White sugar is derived from sugar beet, a crop widespread in Europe, while cane sugar is obtained from sugarcane, a traditionally tropical plant now also grown in southern Italian regions.
No substantial difference in the composition of the two types of sugar. Both are composed of sucrose, which in turn consists of two sugar molecules that digestion breaks down into fructose and glucose.
Nutritionally, the two types of sugar are also comparable. Cane sugar is generally kept amber in color by a minimum of residual molasses, but physicochemical refining processes strip both types of sugar of any impurities. For better or worse, where it is exceeded, pure sucrose.
