As far as I can tell, those packets of raw sugar have the same calories as refined sugar, with 1/10th the ability to sweeten. So if you wish to sweeten your coffee, for example, you end up consuming about 5x the sugar, than if your stupid coffee shop just offered regular damn white sugar. Why? Why does this stuff exist? Who prefers it?
I suspect marketing bullshittery. I’ve bought “sugar in the raw” a few years ago to try, and it reminded me of back in In high school chemistry II in which I did an experiment where I took a brand name sugar and a lower budget brand sugar and examined it under a microscope. The budget brand sugars’ crystal structure was larger but hollow. Weighing the two by volume showed less mass for the budget brand. Putting the same volume of the two in a mortar and grinding with a pestle yielded less volume for the budget brand which means for the same volume you’re getting less sugar.
I believe that “sugar in the raw” does the same thing to give you less for more price, but compounds it’s marketing by telling you it’s unprocessed and more natural. Maybe that’s true but you’re certainly getting less product for the price. One would think less processing would cost less. The only difference from the experiment was that you were paying less for less. Kind of interesting how business ethics have changed over the years.
But isn’t it all sold by weight? The same with how the calories are counted?
Yes, that is why the whole argument is a fallacy. I am all for eating the rich and taking down the corporations, but this one is off base. The “in the raw” generally means it is A. Made from sugarcane not sugar beats, and B. Unbleached.