Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content (natural brown sugar), or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar (commercial brown sugar).
Contents
Uses
Brown sugar is used very similarly to granulated white sugar but it provides a touch of extra flavor. Common uses for brown sugar include sweetening baked goods, beverages, sauces, and marinades.
Some varieties of natural brown sugar are also used to make alcoholic beverages like rum. Thanks to the granules and slightly acidic pH, brown sugar has also become a popular ingredient in body scrubs.
Benefits
Moister
Presence of the molasses in the brown sugar gives it more moisture, which enables you to have much more freedom in designing you food recipes that will give you denser and moister products.
More flavors and textures
Any competent cook can tell you that refined white sugar has very little of its on flavor and texture, but many variations of brown sugars are full of it. Some of the brown sugars that are famous because of their taste are Turbinado, Barbados, Muscovado and Demerara.
Sweetness ration
Brown and white sugars have almost the same sweetness ration, and they can be mixed or changed one for another in your recipes. Experiment a little with them, and see for yourself what new flavors will be brought with many brown sugar brands.
Skin protection
The natural texture of brown sugar resembles one of wet sand but is more abrasive and able to remove only dead skin cells and materials that clog the pores from your body. Because of that it can be used successfully as a skin treatment, slight moisturizer, and vitamin B enricher that will protect your skin from aging effects.
Calorie content and blood benefits
Same as white sugar, brown sugar can also boost your body’s energy for short periods of time, giving you temporary strength and wakeup in the moments when you feel weak. However, because it has no nutrients, sugars can only provide energy in short periods, after which we are left wanting for more. This effect is caused by the lowering levels of the naturally made hormone serotonin.
Cautions
None are known.
Interactions
None are recorded.
Other names
cane sugar
References
Source: SugarHistory.net, http://www.sugarhistory.net/sugar-facts/benefits-of-brown-sugar/
FoodReference, http://foodreference.about.com/od/Sweeteners/a/What-Is-Brown-Sugar.htm
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar