Raw sugar... what is it and is it 'healthier' than other sugar?

[OverRated]

I don't really understand what the difference is. Can anyone help?

Raw sugar has not been refined.

I think the refining processes break down the naturally occuring longer chain sugars into smaller more uniform units.

May be wrong though.

it's less refined than white sugar for example, and easier for the body to breakdown as it's closer to it's natural state

Googling seems to suggest that vitamins andminerals present in the raw sugar are lost be refining.

refined sugar is "pure(r) sugar" and has lost lots of other goodies.

Shrek's last post is correct

Sugar cane is crushed to break the cell walls, letting the juice out - the juice being the plant's "blood" has sugar and everything else in it. Boiling it produces a very dark brown substance and sugar begins to crystallise out. In the first stages you get 'raw' sugar (the brown is impurities) and thick molasses; the more you refine the whiter the sugar and the clearer the leftover syrups. (I used to remember the order - molasses, treacle, golden syrup etc.) but that disk is reading a blank these days.

Oh, ok - thank you. I looked on wikipedia but didn't really find the info very helpful! Maybe it's just me being rather slow today.

Actually there wasn't very much, that was very readable on Wiki for a change...I looked at a broader spectunm of google results