You Ask, I Answer: Unrefined Sugar

I know you said in one of your newsletters that all sugar is the same in terms of calories and grams of sugar, but I still don't understand what something like "unrefined sugar" means.

-- Natalie Leon
Tampa, FL

You are absolutely correct that, at the end of the day, sugar is sugar. Brown, white, unrefined, unbleached... it makes no difference -- you are getting 16 calories (and four grams of sugar) per teaspoon.

If you want to get really technical, though, unrefined sugars do not go through one step in the processing system -- filtration with charcoal.

Many strict vegans and vegetarians will look specifically for unrefined sugars since the charcoal used for filtering with standard "table sugar" is often made from animal bones.