Explore the sweet world of sugar with our fun and educational guide! Learn where sugar comes from, its food uses, and cool sugar facts. Perfect for young learners’ curious minds
Did you know that learning new facts, especially about something sweet like sugar, can be super fun? Sugar isn’t just something that makes our cookies and cakes delicious. It’s also a fascinating topic to explore!
These facts about sugar will allow you to discover where it comes from (like sugarcane fields or busy bees making honey) and the cool ways it’s used in our food. Each new fact is like a piece of a puzzle, and the more we learn, the bigger and more colorful our puzzle gets! Just think about it: you could become a sugar expert and share all these sweet facts with your friends and family. How cool is that? So, let’s dive in and find out all the amazing things about sugar together!
Facts About Sugar
- Sugar is found in unlikely places, such as tonic water, marinades, crackers, bread, fat-free dressing, and tomato sauce.
- Overeating sugar can overload your body’s detoxification system and cause a lot of damage to your entire body over time.
- A compound called lugduname is the sweetest compound known—more than 200,000 times as sweet as table sugar.
- Too Much Sugar Makes You Insulin Resistant
- Sugar serves the dual purpose of increasing the thickness of the milk and enhancing the sweetness of the cocoa.
- Cane sugar beats beet sugar.
- The word “sugar” originates from the Sanskrit word sharkara, which means “material in a granule form.”
- The only taste humans are born craving is sugar.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends people consume less sugar than is found in one regular soda per day.
- More than half the 8.4 million metric tons of sugar produced annually in the United States comes from beets.
- The tallest sugar cube tower measured 6 feet, 10 inches, and was built by Camille Courgeon of France on July 1, 2013. The tower used 2,669 cubes and was built in 2 hours and 59 minutes.
- According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, it was found that sugar has a similar effect on the brain as cocaine.
- The American Heart Association, however, recommends as little as 45 grams of sugar for men, and 30 for women.
- A 2013 study found that at least 180,000 deaths worldwide are linked to sweetened beverage consumption. The U.S. alone accounted for 25,000 deaths in 2010.
- The three main categories of sugar are monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polyols.
- Worldwide, people consume 500 extra calories a day from sugar, which is roughly the amount of calories needed to gain a pound a week.
- W e consume more sugar than we think.
- Sugar is only found in high enough concentrations to make sugar crystals from two plants – sugarcane and sugar beet.
- One 20 oz. bottle of Coca-Cola has 65 grams of sugar. This is the same amount of sugar in five Little Debbie Swiss Rolls.
- Sugar cane was first domesticated in New Guinea around 8000 BCE.
- Sugar doesn’t spoil. It has no expiration date!
- Eating sugar can give you wrinkles.
- Too much sugar can lead to tooth decay.
- Sugar is one of four Specialized Commodities in Agiblocks.
- It suppresses your immune system
- Sugar is a mood-altering substance that can make you feel happy, but it can also make you feel sad.
- Sugar has been around for well over 10,000 years.
- People in India have been crystallizing cane sugar for at least 2,000 years.
- Sugar can be used as fuel.
- There are 37 different species of sugarcane and they all crossbreed with one another.
- The scientists who discovered sucralose (Splenda) were trying to make an insecticide. An assistant thought he had been instructed to “taste” a sample he had been asked to “test.”
- Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugar cane.
- Cutting back on sugar may help your skin retain its flexibility.
- Christopher Columbus introduced sugar cane seeds to the New World, specifically to Hispaniola, on his second voyage in 1493.
- Sugar is found in the fibers of all plants as a byproduct of photosynthesis.
- One study cited by Johns Hopkins says that a high sugar diet leads to a 38% greater risk of heart disease.
- In the form of glucose, sugar serves as an immediate energy source for the brain.
- Sugar is a Top 5 soft commodity.
- In Europe, it started as a luxury.
- India is the world’s largest consumer of sugar.
- Just one 12 oz. can of soda a day adds enough sugar to a person’s diet to boost their odds of developing heart disease by one third.
- The sugar glucosamine works as an immunosuppressant in mice, and xylitol (a sugar alcohol) can prevent ear infections in kids. Sweet!
- A 32 oz. Gatorade bottle has 36 grams of sugar, which is like eating 5 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
- Sugar is toxic to most microbes.
- Sugar is grown and/ or refined in 17 states across the U.S.
- Sugar cane is usually grown in large plantations or cane fields. It can yield up to 44 pounds (20 kg) of sugar for every 11 square feet (1 square m) of land.
- Too much sugar can increase the overall risk for heart disease.
- Sugar is naturally white. When the sugar is initially extracted from the plants, it has a golden color because of the non-sugar materials attached to and within the sugar crystals.
- Overconsumption of sugar has been linked to lower cognitive abilities.
- Sugar found naturally in milk, fruit, and vegetables does not count as free sugars.
- Excess sugar consumption has been linked to cancer production.
- It has been shown that sugar speeds up the aging process by speeding up oxidation and cell division in the body.
- Two different types of plants provide the world with most of its sugar: sugar cane and sugar beet.
- This sweetener is also a preservative.
- When poured into a wound, sugar granules will soak up moisture that allows bacteria to thrive.
- Sugar is found in all plants.
- Sugar is a good source of energy.
- Sugar is actually a calorie-dense food, meaning it has more calories than other foods with similar weights.
- Sugar was introduced in the West as a spice, not a sweetener.
- Heinz ketchup contains 1 teaspoon of sugar in each 1 tablespoon serving.
- A teaspoon of sugar has 15 calories.
- European royalty would make giant sugar sculptures called ‘subtleties.’
- When sugar was first introduced to England in the twelfth century, it was grouped with other tropical spices like ginger, cinnamon, and saffron, and used by the very wealthy to season savory dishes.
- In the 16th century, a teaspoon of sugar cost the equivalent of five dollars in London.
- When we consume sugar, the brain releases dopamine and serotonin in response to the sweet taste.
