refined sugar vs sweetening

refined sugar and sweetening both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
refined sugar	Yes	No	No	No
sweetening	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, sweetening is a hypernym of refined sugar; that is, sweetening is a word with a broader meaning than refined sugar:

refined sugar: a white crystalline carbohydrate used as a sweetener and preservative
sweetening: something added to foods to make them taste sweeter

Other hypernyms of refined sugar include sweetener.

refined sugar (noun)	sweetening (noun)
a white crystalline carbohydrate used as a sweetener and preservative	the act of adding a sweetener to food
	an improvement that makes something more agreeable
	something added to foods to make them taste sweeter