Ever since I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, my wife and I have been taking a very close look at the ingredients of the foods we buy. We’d already been trying to cut out the corn syrup and other crap, so to us it’s just one more item to avoid in the supermarket.
So the other day, she brought home a breakfast cereal that claimed in large, bold letters on the front, “no sugar”. Reading through the ingredients, there’s not one mention of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, beet juice, etc. But the number one item: dehydrated cane juice.
I haven’t been able to find much non-biased information on dehydrated cane juice, mostly just websites promoting its miraculous wholesomeness and organic something-or-other. It sounds a lot like snake oil to me.
Isn’t dehydrated cane juice…sugar? I mean, to make ordinary table sugar, they crush the cane plant and collect the juices, boil the juices to remove the solids, then let it cool down and crystallize. DCJ appears to skip the removing-of-the-solids step, but that’s about it. Do these solids confer some kind of health benefit to DCJ? How can they claim “no sugar” with DCJ in the ingredients? What does the FDA say about DCJ?
It’s impure sugar. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/kitchentips/sweeteners.html Unrefined Dehydrated Cane Juice: Similar in composition to unrefined brown sugars at 85–95% sucrose, unrefined dehydrated cane juice is generally made by extracting and then dehydrating and in some cases crystallizing the cane juice, with minimal loss of the original flavor, color, or nutrients during the production process. These are minimally processed, full-flavored sweeteners that can be substituted 1:1 for white sugar.
IMHO the taste may be better- but it’s still full of sucrose/simple carbs.
Yep. It’s sugar. They have a couple different names they can use for a lot of food ingredients, and with sugar taking some heat lately, some people are switching to calling it dehydrated cane juice. Also, I would wager that people are busily developing allergies to certain types of sugar, so unless the food lists specifically what the sugar is, they might not buy it (e.g., somebody may be allergic to sugar beets, but not sugar cane).
I need to double-check the package, but I believe the “carbohydrates from sugar” line is significantly higher than the “total carbohydrates” line. Which, again, makes me look at the “no sugar” label and go “huh?”
On preview: Title should read “What’s the deal with dehydrated cane juice?” Sheesh, preposition trouble. :smack: