There are many sweet and even savory treats that can be made by adding palm sugar or brown sugar. To understands the differences between these types of sugar, will help you to try new recipes. Furtherly, for you who are considering living a healthy lifestyle, switching from granulated sugar to the use of brown and palm sugar can be an alternative that is worth a try.
However, maybe you still need some information about these types of sugar. Because brown sugar and palm sugar tend to have almost the same texture and color, even though if you look closely, there are many differences between them. Here are the tree main differences you should know
1. Sugar Content
Generally, brown sugar is made from 95 percent sucrose and 5 percent molasses. Sucrose consists of 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose. While palm sugar is made of 70 percent sucrose and the rest is made up of individual molecules of fructose and glucose while palm sugar is about 80% sucrose. So basically these both types of sugar consist of the same molecule, namely sugar.
Perhaps one of the biggest differences in brown sugar compared to palm sugar is its origin. Brown Sugar is white sugar added with molasses in sugar cane juice. The molasses gives the sugar a brown color, while in the production of ordinary white sugar the molasses will be separated from the sugar cane juice. There is about 10 percent of molasses in brown sugar.
Palm sugar is made in two stages to produce granulated, block, or liquid sugar. First, the sap is taken and collected from the tree. Then the sap is placed in a large skillet and cooked over medium heat until the water content evaporates.
The cooking process causes caramelization so that the sugar turns brown. When buying palm sugar, make sure you check the ingredient label to make sure that the palm sugar you buy is pure, does not contain cane sugar. Because there are most producers add cane sugar into palm sugar to save production costs.
2. Taste and Texture
Brown sugar and palm sugar have a very similar taste, that is, they taste like caramel. However, if you look closely, the textures of these types of sugar are different.
Brown sugar has a slightly moist texture due to the addition of molasses. Since this sugar is derived from white sugar, the grain size is fine and uniform. Brown sugar will dissolve easily in liquids such as melted butter.
Unlike brown sugar, palm sugar has much larger grains because they are made by drying the sap. The production process of palm sugar is done naturally, so the processing causes the taste and texture to be less conspicuous than brown sugar. Palm sugar doesn’t dissolve well when mixed with butter and can leave a grainy pattern on baked goods. However, it will dissolve well when mixed in water so it can be added to various beverages such as coffee or tea.
3. Nutritional Content
Nutrition in one tablespoon of palm sugar and brown sugar, contained at least 4 grams of carbohydrates in the form of sugar, equal to 16 calories per tablespoon.
However, to the more scientific reason, brown sugar contains calcium, iron, copper, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, and magnesium. These nutrients exist because of the addition of molasses to brown sugar.
Palm sugar naturally contain vitamin C, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron and copper and also contains inulin which is a type of dietary fiber. Inulin acts as a prebiotic that feeds the good bacteria in the gut. Effects on the body In a study aimed at assessing the glycemic index of sugar, palm sugar has a lower glycemic index (50) than brown sugar (64)