We satisfy our sweet tooth with fruits and honey, and with extracts of grains, herbs, vegetables, tree sap, and grasses. All of these products contain sugar in different forms. As if these choices were not enough, chemists have created artificial sweeteners to meet the demand for sweet alternatives to sugar. In recent years, refined sugar, also known as white sugar or granulated sugar, has become the preferred sweetener. Not only is it unhealthy to skew the diet to one ingredient, but it also severely restricts the palate.
Refined sugar has many functions in food other than providing sweetness.
In small amounts, added sugar helps yeast begin producing gas for raising yeast dough. Sugar tenderizes doughs and batters, helps brown baked goods, and makes the crumb of these products moist. It aids in the structure of cakes. It is the white sugar in cookie dough that helps spreading to occur during baking. For these reasons, we suggest replacing only one half of the refined sugar in a recipe with another type of sugar.