Sugar - Wikipedia Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Chemistry Toggle Chemistry subsection 3.1 Monosaccharides 3.2 Disaccharides 3.3 Polysaccharides 4 Sources 5 Production Toggle Production subsection 5.1 Sugar 5.2 Sugarcane 5.3 Sugar beet 5.4 Refining 6 Forms and uses Toggle Forms and uses subsection 6.1 Crystal size 6.2 Densities 6.3 Shapes 6.4 Brown sugars 6.5 Liquid sugars 6.6 Burnt sugars and caramels 6.7 Other sweeteners 7 Consumption Toggle Consumption subsection 7.1 Nutrition and flavour 8 Health effects Toggle Health effects subsection 8.1 Obesity and metabolic syndrome 8.2 Cancer 8.3 Cognition 8.4 Tooth decay 8.5 Nutritional displacement 8.6 Recommended dietary intake 9 Society and culture 10 In interstellar space 11 See also 12 References 13 Sources 14 Further reading 15 External links Toggle the table of contents Sugar 183 languages Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Aragonés Ænglisc العربية ܐܪܡܝܐ الدارجة مصرى অসমীয়া Asturianu Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Башҡортса Basa Bali Boarisch Žemaitėška Bikol Central Беларуская (тарашкевіца) Беларуская Betawi Български भोजपुरी Banjar বাংলা Brezhoneg Bosanski Català 閩東語 / Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ Нохчийн Cebuano Tsetsêhestâhese کوردی Čeština Чӑвашла Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Esperanto Español Eesti Euskara Estremeñu فارسی Suomi Na Vosa Vakaviti Føroyskt Fɔ̀ngbè Français Frysk Gaeilge Kriyòl gwiyannen Gàidhlig Galego Avañe'ẽ ગુજરાતી Wayuunaiki Hausa 客家語 / Hak-kâ-ngî עברית हिन्दी Fiji Hindi Hrvatski Kreyòl ayisyen Magyar Հայերեն Արեւմտահայերէն Interlingua Bahasa Indonesia Igbo Ilokano ГӀалгӀай Ido Íslenska Medžuslovjansky Italiano ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ / inuktitut 日本語 La .lojban. 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Sweet-tasting, water-soluble carbohydrates This article is about the class of sweet-flavoured substances used as food. For common table sugar, see Sucrose. For other uses, see Sugar (disambiguation). Sugars (clockwise from top-left): white refined, unrefined, brown, unprocessed cane sugar Sugar is a class of sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double sugars, are molecules made of two bonded monosaccharides; common examples are sucrose (glucose + fructose), lactose (glucose + galactose) and maltose (two molecules of glucose). White sugar is almost pure sucrose. During digestion, compound sugars are hydrolysed into simple sugars. Longer chains of saccharides are not regarded as sugars, and are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Starch is a glucose polymer found in plants – the most abundant source of energy in human food. Some other chemical substances, such as ethylene glycol, glycerol and sugar alcohols, may have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugar. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants. Honey and fruits are abundant natural sources of simple sugars. Sucrose is especially concentrated in sugarcane and sugar beet, making them efficient for commercial extraction to make refined sugar. In 2016 the combined world production of those two crops was about two billion tonnes. Maltose may be produced by malting grain. Lactose is the only sugar that cannot be extracted from plants, as it occurs only in milk, including human breast milk, and in some dairy products. A cheap source of sugar is corn syrup, industrially produced by converting corn starch into sugars, such as maltose, fructose and glucose. The first form of Sugar came from cane Sugar which was domesticated in Polynesia by Papuans and Austronesians before Austronesians spread Sugar to India and China eventually reaching the rest of the world.[1][2][3] Sucrose is used in prepared foods (e.g., cookies and cakes), is added to commercially available ultra-processed food and beverages, and is used as a sweetener for foods (e.g., toast and cereal) and beverages (e.g., coffee and tea). Globally, on average, a person consumes about 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of sugar each year. North and South Americans consume up to 50 kg (110 lb), and Africans consume under 20 kg (44 lb).[4] The use of added sugar in food and beverage manufacturing is a concern for elevated calorie intake, which is associated with an increased risk of several diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders.[5] In 2015 the World Health Organization recommended that adults and children should reduce their intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake, encouraging a reduction to below 5%.[6] Etymology [edit] The etymology of sugar reflects the commodity's spread. From Sanskrit śarkarā, meaning "ground or candied sugar", came Persian shakar and Arabic sukkar. The Arabic word was borrowed in Medieval Latin as succarum, whence came the 12th-century Old French sucre and the English sugar. Sugar was introduced into Europe by the Arabs in Sicily and Spain.[7] The English word jaggery, a coarse brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin: Portuguese jágara from the Malayalam cakkarā, which is from the Sanskrit śarkarā.[8] History [edit] Main article: History of sugar Sugar cane plantation Although many fruits naturally have sugar, only a few have enough to be cultivated specifically for sugar production, of these the oldest and first is the Sugar cane. Cane sugar was first used by men in Polynesia before being spread to India.[9] There are 2 centers for domestication of sugar cane Saccharum officinarum was domesticated by Papuans in New Guinea, and Saccharum sinense by Austronesians in South China and Taiwan. After contact with Papuans, Austronesians spread both types of sugar canes Eastward to Polynesia and Westward to West and North China as well as India. Saccharum barberi was only cultivated in India after the introduction of S.officinarum.[10][11][12] From India sugar would eventually spread to the Middle East and reach Europe and the rest of the world. Sugar cane was first used by people in Polynesia however scholars speculate on their possible use of granulated sugar because of the simple process required to make it. However no definite consensus on if they produced it or not is agreed upon among scholars and the oldest credible written evidence for the production of granulated sugar which made storage much easier dates to ancient India.[13][14][15] Divise species of sugar cane exist in both Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia such as species native to India (Saccharum barberi and S. edule) and New Guinea (S. officinarum).[16][17] One of the earliest manuals describing Sugarcane is in a Chinese manuscripts dating to the 8th century BCE which describes sugar cane and sugar production from India.[18] Nearchus (admiral of Alexander the Great), the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides and the Roman Pliny the Elder also described sugar.[19] In the mid-15th century, sugar was introduced into Madeira and the Canary Islands, where it was mass-produced. Christopher Columbus introduced it to the New World, leading to sugar industries in Cuba and Jamaica by the 1520s.[20] The Portuguese took sugar cane to Brazil. Beet sugar, the starting point for the modern sugar industry,[21] was a German invention.[22][23] Beet sugar was first produced industrially in 1801 in Cunern, Prussia.[23] Sugar became a household item by the 19th century, and this evolution of taste and demand for sugar as an essential food ingredient resulted in major economic and social changes.[24][page needed] Demand drove, in part, the colonisation and industrialisation of previously under-developed lands. It was also intimately associated with slavery.[24][page needed] World consumption increased more than 100 times from 1850 to 2000, led by the United Kingdom, where it increased from about 2 pounds per head per year in 1650 to 90 pounds by the early 20th century. Chemistry [edit] Sucrose: a disaccharide of glucose (left) and fructose (right) Scientifically, sugar loosely refers to a number of compounds typically with the formula (CH2O)n. Some large classes of sugars, ranked in increasing order of molecular weight are monosaccharides, disaccharides, or oligosaccharides. Monosaccharides [edit] Main article: monosaccharide Monosaccharides are also called "simple sugars", the most important being glucose. Most monosaccharides have a formula that conforms to C nH 2nO n with n between 3 and 7 (deoxyribose being an exception). Glucose has the molecular formula C 6H 12O 6. The names of typical sugars end with -ose, as in "glucose" and "fructose". Such labels may also refer to any types of these compounds. Fructose, galactose and glucose are all simple sugars, monosaccharides, with the general formula C6H12O6. They have five hydroxyl groups (−OH) and a carbonyl group (C=O) and are cyclic when dissolved in water. They each exist as several isomers with dextro- and laevo-rotatory forms that cause polarised light to diverge to the right or the left.[25] Fructose, or fruit sugar, occurs naturally in fruits, some root vegetables, cane sugar and honey and is the sweetest of the sugars. It is one of the components of sucrose or table sugar. It is used as a high-fructose syrup, which is manufactured from hydrolysed corn starch that has been processed to yield corn syrup, with enzymes then added to convert part of the glucose into fructose.[26] Galactose generally does no…