Sugar is a soluble carbohydrate that is found in the food and drinks we consume. Sugar comes in many forms necessary for the body to function. But, over the years, increased sugar consumption has caused a number of individual and public health issues.

See the fact file below for more information on Sugar, or you can download our 31-page Sugar worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

HISTORY

• The etymology of the word sugar is varied and reflects the spread of the commodity. From Sanskrit (śarkarā), conveying “ground or candied sugar,” came Persian shakar, followed by French sucre in the 12th century, then English sugar.  
• Since ancient times on the Indian subcontinent, sugar has been produced in Asia. The cultivation of this product widened to modern-day Afghanistan through the route of the Khyber Pass. Back then, honey was a natural source and often used for sweetening, and sugar was not cheap and plentiful. 
• In early times, people’s way of extracting sweetness was by chewing raw sugarcane. During the colonial era, using palm and coconut sugar in Java and other sugar-producing parts of Southeast Asia was preferred even after refined sugar cane became more available. 
• Native to the Indian subcontinent and other tropical areas in Southeast Asia, sugarcane has one of the earliest historical references in Chinese manuscripts dating to the 8th century BCE, which state the use of this product originated in the land of spices, India.
• Sugar remained non-essential to Indians until they discovered the process of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store and transport.
• Around the 5th century CE, crystallized sugar was found by the time of the Imperial Guptas. China then developed its first sugarcane plantations in the 7th century. Sugar became a staple and foundation of cooking and desserts in the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and China.
• With increasing demand in Europe, in August 1492, Christopher Columbus gathered sugar cane samples in La Gomera in the Canary Islands and introduced the collected products to the New World. 
• The cuttings were planted and harvested as the first sugar cane in Hispaniola in 1501. By the 1520s, numerous sugar mills had been founded in Cuba and Jamaica. The Portuguese then took sugar cane to the country of Brazil. 
• It took until 1600 for Brazilian sugar cultivation and production to exceed that of São Tomé, the main center of sugar production in the sixteenth century.
• Cane sugar became notorious for its use of slave labor and the terrible lives of cane plantation workers.
• Andreas Sigismund Marggraf and Franz Karl Achard are the two German chemists that built the foundation of the modern sugar industry. Until the early 19th century, sugar was a luxury in Europe. It became widely accessible due to the rise of beet sugar in Prussia and France. 
• Beet sugar was a German discovery and invention; in 1747, Marggraf revealed the discovery of sugar in beets and designed a method and process using alcohol to extract it. Achard, the student of Marggraf, then created an economical industrial way to remove sugar in its pure form in the late 18th century. 
• In 1783 in Kaulsdorf, Achard first produced beet sugar, and in the year 1801, the world’s first beet sugar production facility was established in Cunern, Silesia. The works of these two chemists were the starting point for the European sugar industry.
• Sugar’s popularity skyrocketed by the 19th century and was found in every household. Significant economic and major social changes resulted in the demand for sugar as an essential food ingredient. Until the late years of the century, consumers purchased sugar in loaves that had to be cut using implements named sugar nips. 
• In later years, granulated sugar was then sold in bags. Sugar cubes were also produced, invented by Jakob Christoph Rad, director of a sugar refinery. Rad made the first sugar cube in the world in 1841. He began sugar-cube production after being granted a five-year patent for the process on 23 January 1843. Another early sugar cube manufacturer, Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle, invented a different way of processing sugar cubes in 1872.

SOURCES

• Sugar is a term that refers to a broad category of all monosaccharides and disaccharides, the simplest carbohydrates. Monosaccharides include fructose, galactose, and glucose, while disaccharides include lactose, maltose, and sucrose.
• Three building blocks, also known as three simple sugars, make up all forms of carbohydrates. Fructose, galactose, and glucose are the three simple sugars known as monosaccharides, with the general formula C₆H₁₂O₆. To create more complex carbohydrates, they bond with each other. All carbohydrates, no matter how complex, to begin with, are broken down into three simple sugars – fructose, galactose, and glucose – when digested in the body.
• Fructose is one of the components of sucrose and belongs to table sugar. It occurs naturally in fruits; that’s why it is known as fruit sugar. It also found some root vegetables, honey, and cane sugar. Fructose is the sweetest of sugars. 
• Galactose is a component of the antigens commonly found on the surface of red blood cells that determine and distinguish blood groups. It doesn’t generally occur in the free state but is a constituent with glucose of the disaccharide lactose – which is also known as milk sugar. Galactose is less sweet than glucose.
• Glucose is the most well-known type found in plant juices and fruits. Glucose is the primary product of photosynthesis. Commonly used in manufacturing foodstuff is the widely known liquid form of glucose, glucose syrup.
• The compound sugars, known as disaccharides, are lactose, maltose, and sucrose, with the general formula C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁. They are created by combining two monosaccharide molecules, formed with the exclusion of a water molecule. 
• Sugars are naturally found in milk. Lactose is formed and made by combining a galactose molecule with a glucose molecule. Compared to children who have this enzyme, many adults do not produce the enzyme lactase to digest lactose. 
• Maltose is created during the germination of certain grains, such as barley. It’s then converted and altered into malt as the source of the sugar’s name. Compared with glucose, fructose, and sucrose, maltose is less sweet. 
• Table sugar is sucrose found in the stems of sugarcane and sugar beet roots. Sucrose is made up of two molecules, glucose, and fructose, naturally occurring in fruits and some roots. The various proportions of sugars in these foods and products determine and differentiate the sweetness range experienced when eating them. 

REFINING AND PROCESSING

• Sugar beets are a root crop that flourish in places where the soil is rich and the climate is cool. 
• The growing season of sugar beets is about five months long. They are much larger and heavier than the ones grown in backyards or grocery stores; the beets can weigh a whopping 3-5 pounds when harvested. Farms that grow sugar beets can be found in California, Colorado, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, etc. 
• Sugar cane can often be found in more tropical climates and grown as a perennial grass. Perennial means the crop doesn’t need to be replanted yearly.
• When sugar cane is collected and harvested, it’s cut just above root level, letting the new sprouts grow and be harvested in ten to twelve months. The cane grows up to 10-12 feet high and is naturally found and grown in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.
• Whether the sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beet, the purification and process are similar for each crop or plant. The results are pure sucrose. The only difference between the two plants is that the sugar beets are refined at a sugar beet factory or a single facility. In contrast, sugar cane undergoes processing at two facilities: starting at a raw sugar factory and finishing at a sugar refinery. 
• Once raw cane sugar has undergone a refining process, molasses is removed and refined sugar is created. The sucrose of raw sugar extracted from sugar beet or cane can be easily consumed because the refining process has removed unwanted tastes and color, resulting in refined white sugar.

DIFFERENT TYPES

• A lot of sugar varieties can be created through adjustments in refining, cleaning, crystallizing, drying the sugar, and varying the level of molasses.
• White granulated sugar is what you typically find at home and is the most common in recipes. Regular sugar granules are ideal for bulk handling because they are fine tiny crystals.
• Confectioners’ or powdered sugar is granulated sugar that has been ground to a fine powder and then sifted. This type of sugar is often used in whipping cream, confections, and icings because it dissolves well.
• Fruit sugar is much smaller but more uniform in crystal size than regular sugar. The uniformity of its crystal size prevents the sugar crystals settling at the bottom of a container. It is an essential quality in dry mixes. They are often used in desserts such as pudding, gelatin, and powdered drinks. 
• Compared with fruit sugar, baker’s special sugar is more refined, and as the name of this type suggests, it is mainly used and developed for baking. 
• Baker’s special sugar is commonly used for sugaring doughnuts, cookies, and cake recipes to create a fine crumb texture. 
• Also called bar sugar or caster, superfine sugar has the smallest crystal size among white granulated types. They are widely used in creating smooth or delicate food desserts such as mousse. With their fine crystals, they dissolve quickly, even in cold beverages. 
• With a larger crystal size than regular, coarse sugar makes it highly resistant to color change or, in other terms, inversion. Coarse sugar is often used in cooking or baking, and its essential characteristics are generally used in fondants, confections, and liquors.
• The last in white sugar, sanding sugar, is also widely used in baking or confectionery, such as a sprinkle or toppings on baked goods. It can have a  large or fine crystal size; both types reflect light and provide the product with a sparkling appearance.
• In brown sugars, the light one is often used in sauces. The dark brown has a stronger molasses flavor, generally used in barbecue, baked beans, and full-flavored food. Brown sugars contain more moisture.Also called Demerara Sugar or Raw Cane Sugar, Turbinado sugar is a partial process that retains much naturally present molasses. It has a mild brown sugar flavor, larger crystals, and blond color.
• Muscovado sugar is a very dark brown,  unrefined cane sugar with molasses that have not been removed, giving it a particularly strong flavor. It provides a sandy texture with slightly coarser and stickier crystals. It is also called Barbados sugar.
• Free-flowing brown sugar is powder-like but less moist than other regular brown sugars. As its name suggests, it doesn’t clump and is free-flowing because it is not moist and easy to sprinkle or measure. It is also called granulated brown sugar, perfect for topping on cereal.

HEALTH EFFECTS

• The World Health Organization (WHO) provides a technical report that serves as evidence of the risk of obesity of high intake of sugary beverages. Sugar is not a factor that causes obesity and metabolic syndrome, but it leads to unhealthy dietary behavior when over-consumed.
• The excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened food can develop Type 2 diabetes and obesity in adults and children.
• It was found through a 2019 meta-analysis that sugar consumption doesn’t improve mood but rather can lower the alertness of an individual and increase fatigue within 60 minutes of consumption. The consumption of high amounts of sugar-sweetened food was associated with higher rates of unhealthy behaviors and hyperactivity.
• Excessive sugar consumption can raise blood pressure and increase chronic inflammation, both pathological pathways to heart disease. Sugar also causes tooth decay and nutritional displacement. Sugar will decrease the consumption of food that contain essential nutrients, resulting in poor diet quality.
• The recommended dietary intake by World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that adults and children should reduce the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake and recommends a reduction to below 5%. 
• Moderation in sweets and nutritious food with added sugar or sugar-sweetened can be part of a healthy diet as long as the total carbohydrates fit in with and align with the daily carbohydrate goal.
• According to research data, the average American consumes 126.4 grams of sugar per day. That amount to nearly 500 calories, or a whole meal’s worth of energy, per day. In second place is Germany at 102 grams per day. 

Sugar Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Sugar across 31 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Sugar, a soluble carbohydrate that is found in the food and drinks we consume. Sugar comes in many forms, which are necessary for the body to function.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

• Boudhanath Stupa Facts
• Building Vocabulary
• What is My Symbol?
• How Did You Feel?
• Boudhanath at its Finest
• Boudhanath Stupa
• Bring it Alive
• Protecting Stupa
• Cultural or Natural
• The Eyes
• Stupa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you live without sugar?

Our bodies do not need sugar to stay healthy. But, if we overeat sugar, it can make us very sick. It can give us diseases like type 2 diabetes and memory loss and make us fat. Unfortunately, many people do not know that their drinks or food contain a lot of sugar.

Which sugar is healthier?

Brown sugar is a much healthier option when compared to white processed sugar. Creating this type of sweetener is kept entirely pure so you can receive all the nutritional benefits without worrying about any added chemicals or preservatives.

Why is sugar addictive?

Consuming sugar brings a rush of dopamine into the body, making it pleasurable to many.

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