Re: Sources of Foods (Grains)

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Kim wrote:

> Sugar beet provides a lot of sugar to the US, and so the byproduct of
> molasses you may be feeding your horse is probably from this source. 
> Unfortunately (which is probably why I'm unofficial), I  do not have any
> hard numbers about the % of molasses from cane and from sugar beet. Just

According to the _Encyclopaedia Britanica_ (and information source that I
consider to be eminently reliable) 

"molasses, syrup remianinag after sugar is cristalized out of cane or beet
juice...Cane molasses usually contains about 14 percent invert sugar, a
mixture of glucose and fructose, compared with about 1 percent in beet
molasses."

No that wasn't a typo, that's ONE percent in beet molasses.

Which leads to the very real question.  What is all the other stuff that
is contained in molasses???  Everything else that is in the sugar
cane/beet besides sugar (which has been processed out).  Presumably this
is all the vitamins, minerals, etc. that the plant picked up from the soil
while it was growing.

To know whether molasses is good food for horses one needs to look WAY
beyond its sugar content.

kat
Orange County, Calif.