The refined sugar substitute I use the most is Evaporated Cane Juice. It is the same sugar, at the beginning, as refined sugar. It just isn't sent to a refining factory after the first 24 hours of processing. So it only goes through the first 3 steps (see post here for more info). It is still sugar and should be used in moderation, but a much healthier form of sugar. There are a lot of sugars out there that say 'Organic sugar', and I'm not sure what that means. I've heard some say that it is just refined sugar with a little molasses added to it after it has gone through the entire refining process. Because I don't know for sure I stick with Evaporated Cane Juice. When you are buying organic sugar just look at the ingredients listed on the back of the package to make sure. If it says organic sugar and molasses as the only ingredients then I would personally stay away from it. And that is just because I don't know any more information about it. Study it out before you commit to buying a lot of anything.
You can buy Evaporated Cane Juice at Health Food stores, some grocery stores, and at Costco (it's MUCH cheaper at Costco). Evaporated cane juice also comes in a brown sugar form and powered sugar form, though I usually just like to make my own powered sugar from my evaporated cane juice at home. 
The next substitute I like to use is Honey. Honey has been around for ever. My kids love honey! We go through it pretty quickly so I buy it in these huge 60 pound buckets. I mostly use honey in my breads, some muffins, and pancake syrup. There are some things that you can't use honey in place of sugar. It really depends on the recipe.
The next substitute I'll talk to you about is, Agave. It is a wonderful replacement for Corn Syrup, sugar, and honey. Agave is a plant. It is grown in hot climates. There are several different types of Agave plants. The most popular is Blue Agave. Agave nectar or syrup is made from the sap of a 7-10 year old plant. There are both light and dark nectar's. Agave is a low glycemic index sweetener, which means it doesn't raise and lower your blood sugar like sugar and honey will. And the blue agave plant is the most stable on the glycemic index. The taste is a little like honey but not as sweet as honey is. I've heard it said that if you don't like honey you'll like Agave. I think their both fine, thought I do like honey a little more if you're eating it straight from the bottle.
Some bloggers have said that it doesn't have the same properties of corn syrup so you can't make hard candies out of it. I'm not a scientist but I'm here to tell you you can!!! We make tons of home made suckers in my home and we do it with agave. It is slightly different with temperature and things that I'll get into in another post when I tell you how you can make your own suckers at home too. So for now just take it from me it works!
You can buy Agave pretty much everywhere. I've seen it in most grocery stores I've been in (sometimes it's hard to find), the Health Food Stores of course, and now Costco is carrying it too and again it is much cheaper there.
Hope that helps, Happy Substituting!!
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