Evaporated Cane Juice

If you ever happen to look at food labels, you may have run across this: "Evaporated Cane Juice"(ECJ). It seems to be commonly found in organic products and other 'health' foods. I noticed it one day, and it got me thinking...how is that different than plain old sugar? Is it really more healthy or are they just trying to pull a fast one on me? So, being the curious fellow I am...I googled it.

Here's what I found:

Basically, Evaporated Cane Juice is sugar that is a little less processed. Wikipedia has a good section on sugar cane processing. There are two schools of thought about ECJ...

1) Any carbohydrates that are less refined are better, and the less refined product has more nutrients
2) The two products are nearly identical in chemical composition, yet not in price...so save your cash

Here are two sources that claim health benefits:

Evaporated cane juice is a healthy alternative to refined sugar. While both sweetners are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. Therefore, unlike refined sugar, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=120#nutritionalprofile

This site compares many different types of sugar products:

http://www.floridacrystals.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.EvaporatedCaneJuice

Here is a blog that does not believe the benefits out weigh the increased cost:

Evaporated cane juice and plain old sugar are unequivocally the same, α-D-fructofuranosyl β-D-glucopyranoside (aka, sucrose, table sugar).

http://webercam.com/2008/04/evaporated-cane-juice-vs-granulated.html

It seems to me that it is very similar to regular sugar. All things being equal, it does have higher amounts of certain nutrients, so it probably is a bit better. The B vitamins that it provides are readily found in many other common foods, however. Organic ECJ seems to be a popular way to sweeten organic products, so environmentally and ecologically it may come out ahead.

I rarely do much baking and do not use very much granulated sugar at all. Since the price is much higher, I probably would not buy ECJ over regular white sugar. However, when checking labels, now I know what the term means and can purchase accordingly.

Other sugar posts:
Evaporated Cane Juice: Part II
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Caramel Apples
Sugar and the Environment
Alternative Sugar Names