Is "raw" sugar better for you than white, processed sugar? Why?

Yes and no.

Yes: Raw sugar has more of the vitamins and minerals that are naturally-occuring in the sugar cane, which means that it's less of an 'empty carb' than white sugar.

No: Sugar is sugar, and all of it causes your blood insulin to spike, which causes your body to take any pre-existing sugars in your blood and turn them into fat and stick them onto your gut. Non-nutritive sweeteners like agave, stevia, or others may be a better alternative, but watch out for Splenda and it's ilk: due to a loophole in FDA law, Splenda is in fact 98% pure sugar, yet is allowed to call itself sugar-free.

Normal white sugar is made by adding chemicals to bleach it out and processing it to make it look uniform. Raw sugar is made by evaporating sugar cane juice without adding chemicals and with a lot less factory processing. I believe synthetic chemicals to be harmful to our bodies, and factory processing to be unnecessarily hard on the environment.

No, there is no difference yo...

So many think. It is "natural" and does not hit your system with as sudden a jolt of calories as refined sugar. That could be good.

Sugar begins as sap in sugarcane plants, which are crushed to release what is called sugar juice. The juice is heated, which creates a thick dark molasses containing sugar crystals. They spin that in a centrifuge to remove the molasses. What's left is white granulated sugar. Brown sugar is brown because it has some of the molasses added back to the white sugar.