Brown Sugar Nutritional Value per 100g: Calories, Carbs and GI

Brown sugar nutrition per 100g starts from one USDA FoodData Central entry, 'Sugars, brown', because IFCT 2017 has no brown sugar entry; the USDA figures do not state which type of brown sugar was measured. The headline line: 380 kcal of energy and 98.1 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, which is nearly the whole weight, with 0.12 g of protein, 0 g of fat and 0 g of dietary fibre. White sugar and jaggery sit beside it in the table for scale.

Read the table with one caution: these are dry, per-100 g figures, and no real serving comes near 100 g. A level teaspoon weighs 5 g and a tablespoon 15 g, so the next section divides the numbers down to what a spoon actually carries.

Per 100 g raw, edible portion. Composition: USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), FDC ID 168833, NDB 19334; USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), FDC ID 169655, NDB 19335; IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN). GI: University of Sydney GI database. — means not reported. These are average values for the food; the label on a pack gives the values for that product.

One level teaspoon of brown sugar is 5 g, the standard household measure in the ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines. That spoon carries 19 kcal and 4.9 g of carbohydrate; a level teaspoon of white sugar carries 19.4 kcal, and the difference is rounding. A tablespoon (15 g) comes to 57 kcal and 14.7 g of carbohydrate, with 12.5 mg of calcium and 0.11 mg of iron.

In a drink the numbers run the same way. The brown sugar tea recipe on this site sweetens each cup with two teaspoons (10 g), which works out to roughly 38 kcal, with 9.8 g of carbohydrate, in the cup. The same two teaspoons in morning chai and two in evening chai are already 76 kcal of sugar alone.

Neither brown sugar nor white sugar is a protein or fibre food. Brown sugar holds 0.12 g of protein per 100 g, white sugar none, and both carry 0 g of dietary fibre; jaggery, for contrast, has 1.85 g of protein, though IFCT 2017 does not report its fibre. The ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines put the reason plainly: refined extracted sugars hold no vitamins or minerals, and sugar calories arrive without the fibre whole foods pair them with.

At the table this means swapping white for brown changes the colour and the taste, not the protein or the fibre, because there is almost none of either in the swap. If protein and fibre are what you want from a sweetener, no sugar of any colour is the place to look; dal, milk and whole grains are.

The University of Sydney GI database gives brown sugar a glycemic index of 71. That number rests on one entry, a brown sugar tested in China with six participants, and the database does not name the reference behind it. White sugar reads 70, the mean of 25 sucrose tests from many countries spread between 48 and 110; honey averages 63 across seven tests, from 49 to 87; and the database has no jaggery entry, so this page offers no GI for gur. On the University of Sydney scale, 55 and below counts as low and 70 and above as high, which places brown sugar at the start of the high band.

A GI is a ranking of carbohydrate foods from a standard test: ten or more healthy people eat a portion with 50 g of available carbohydrate, their response over two hours is set against the same people's response to pure glucose. The number belongs to the food as tested, not to a single spoon; the 5 g in a level teaspoon of brown sugar carries 4.9 g of carbohydrate, one tenth of the test portion. The 2021 international GI tables (Atkinson and colleagues) record how far a food's GI values can spread: whole-grain and whole-meal cereals showed wide variation in GI values, a spread the tables put down, presumably, to variations in how the foods were manufactured. The full GI reading for white sugar is on the white sugar glycemic index page.

The minerals people ask about are real but small. Per 100 g, brown sugar carries 83 mg of calcium, 0.71 mg of iron, 133 mg of potassium and 9 mg of magnesium, plus 28 mg of sodium, 0.03 mg of zinc and 1 mcg of folate; the same 100 g of white sugar holds 1 mg of calcium, 0.05 mg of iron and 2 mg of potassium. Jaggery is the mineral-heavy member of the family: 107 mg of calcium, 4.63 mg of iron, 488 mg of potassium and 115 mg of magnesium, which is why the two get their own comparison on the brown sugar vs jaggery page.

Scaling to a spoon shrinks the numbers to crumbs. The teaspoon with its 19 kcal brings 4.2 mg of calcium and 0.04 mg of iron; against the day's needs those are traces, not contributions, so the minerals in brown sugar are traces that come with the molasses and nothing more. The types of brown sugar and how the molasses stays in are covered in the brown sugar guide.

The ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines give adults a weight-control line — avoid sugar or restrict it to 20 to 25 g a day — and their 2000 kcal plate note is blunter: sugar must be restricted to 25-30 g a day, and cereals must be reduced to adjust the total calories. Brown sugar fills that allowance fast; five level teaspoons already make 25 g and about 95 kcal. The WHO guideline frames the same thing as a share of energy: keep free sugars, which include the sugar a cook adds, below 10 percent of a day's energy, with a further reduction below 5 percent suggested.

Two practical readings follow. First, the swap nobody needs to make for health: choosing brown over white saves 7 kcal per 100 g and changes nothing about the day's sugar total. Second, the swap worth making: less of whichever sugar is in the spoon, since the plate note counts every added sugar, brown or white, inside the same allowance. The brown sugar benefits page weighs what the molasses actually does for health.

How many calories in a teaspoon of demerara sugar?

About 19. A level teaspoon of demerara weighs 5 g, and at 380 kcal per 100 g that works out to 19 kcal, with 4.9 g of carbohydrate. White sugar at the same 5 g gives 19.4 kcal, so the two spoons barely differ in any calorie count. Demerara and brown sugar share the same USDA composition figures.

What is the glycemic index of brown sugar?

71, in the University of Sydney GI database, from a single brown-sugar test in China with six participants and no reference named; that is the high band, which starts at 70. White sugar averages 70 over 25 tests, so the one-point gap is not a real difference. Jaggery has no GI listed.

Does brown sugar have less calories?

Barely. Brown sugar gives 380 kcal per 100 g against 387 kcal for white sugar, a 7 kcal gap that disappears in a 5 g teaspoon, where both land at about 19 kcal. The lighter colour and the molasses do not come with a meaningful calorie saving.

What is the nutritional value of brown sugar?

Per 100 g: 380 kcal, 98.1 g of carbohydrate, 0.12 g of protein, no fat and no fibre, with 83 mg of calcium, 0.71 mg of iron and 133 mg of potassium as the molasses' traces. Per level teaspoon (5 g): 19 kcal and 4.9 g of carbohydrate. There is little else in the spoon.

Is brown sugar good for health?

Not in any way that separates it from white sugar. The molasses leaves small mineral traces, 0.71 mg of iron and 83 mg of calcium per 100 g, but the ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines note that refining leaves extracted sugars without vitamins or minerals, and the sugar share of the day's energy is what counts. Keep it inside the adult line of 20 to 25 g a day.

Does brown sugar increase weight?

Like any sugar, through the calories it adds. The ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines count foods high in fat and sugar among those whose regular consumption causes overweight and obesity, and sugar adds energy without nutrients. Five teaspoons a day is 25 g and about 95 kcal, so the amount, not the colour, decides.