'Tis the season for baking goodies, so I want to share with all of my bakers some important facts about refined sugar.

Way back when the states were just coloniers and the harvesting and transport of cane sugar from the Carribean was a crude and unsanitary process, rats and mice were an advisary to be recond with aboard the transport ships.  Sugar in its raw form is a yummy and nutritious treat for uour bodies.  High in nutritional value, similar to honey, natural cane sugar is packed with the minerals; potassium, calcium, and iron.  In an attempt to make it less desirable to the rodents producers began refining it.  The result was dead rodents! 

In 1957 Dr. William Coda Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals, leaving only "empty" calories.   Without the essential vitamins and minerals that were supplied by the plant our bodies are unable to properly digest these calories.  In order to metabolize the refined product our body draws upon its own stores of essentials depleting itself and creating imbalances and harmful byproducts in our system.  To learn more about this subject and for for practical substitutions please follow the following links:
 http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/refined-sugar-the-sweetest-poison-of-all.html

http://www.steadyhealth.com/about/health-baking.html

http://www.healthychild.com/sugar-and-sweeteners/life-is-sweet-a-guide-to-using-healthy-sweeteners/