Eating too much sugar can lead to the most serious consequences, but a moderate amount of it doesn’t seem to be harmful. Sugar is found in all the fruits and vegetables and, of course, people get a bunch of added sugar from processed foods and desserts.
1. On average, about 110,000,000 tons of sugar is produced every year worldwide.
2. Almost 70% of the sugar produced globally comes from a species of sugarcane, and the rest 30% from sugar beets.
3. The first mention of sugar dates back to the 4th century BC. The Greek historian Onesicritus, who accompanied Alexander of Macedon on his campaign to India, documented this unknown product.
4. Ripe bananas are sweeter than green because in the process of ripening the starch contained in them breaks down and turns into sugar.
5. Dates have a very high sugar content, 60% of the weight of the date palm fruit is sucrose. However, these sweet fruits are packed with plenty of nutrients, making them an excellent snack in moderation.
6. In the 18th century, about a million slaves were exported from Africa to the islands of Jamaica and Barbados to work on the sugarcane plantations.
7. One of the most powerful artificial sugar substitutes is lugduname, which was developed at the University of Lyon in France in 1996. Lugduname is 300,000 times sweeter than table sugar.
8. Sugar is not only used in food production but also in tobacco and plastics manufacture, in the pharmaceutical industry, and many others.
9. Sugar slows down food spoilage, as it, like salt, is a natural preservative.
10. The sugar packet was invented by Benjamin Eisenstadt, the founder of Cumberland Packing, or better known today as the Sweet ‘N Low company. He did not patent the idea, and after discussions with larger sugar companies, lost market share.
11. The average person consumes about 40 kg of sugar per year, including the one found in desserts, snacks, and other foods.
12. Finally, another interesting fact about sugar is that some animals can not taste sweet food. Scientists have found that, for example, cats do not have receptors that are responsible for the sweet taste, as a result of which they cannot respond to sugar molecules. The same goes for their wild relatives, including lions, tigers, and jaguars.
