Ten interesting facts about sugar that you should know. Interesting facts about the largest desert in the world - Sahara Interesting facts about sugar

Doctors recommend consuming no more than 20 grams of sugar per day for women and no more than 36 grams for men. A typical can of cola contains at least 39 grams, which is equivalent to 10 cubes. Excess sugar consumption not only causes type 2 diabetes, but also has many unwanted side effects on the human body.

Is the pleasure worth the consequences to which you subject yourself? These 10 little known facts help you decide.

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1. It's addictive

Sugar triggers the release of the hormone dopamine in your brain's pleasure center, which is why many people develop a real addiction, which is one of the main causes of childhood obesity.

Researchers at the James Cook Institute have found that sugary water is even more attractive to mice than cocaine. In humans, addiction may be unconscious, but it often leads us to buy sugary foods or overindulge in desserts.

2. It is the main cause of belly fat

It is widely known that the liver converts sugar into fat when it cannot process it. But what you may not have known is that most of this fat is concentrated in the abdominal region, rather than distributed evenly throughout the body.

3. Sugar feeds cancer cells

Excessive sugar consumption causes an increase in insulin levels, which leads to a higher risk of cancer. Malignant cells use more sugar, but this is not the only harmful effect. Too much sugar leads to inflammation, which in turn leads to cancer.

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4. Sugar affects the skin

Elevated blood glucose levels negatively affect the condition of the skin, reducing its elasticity and increasing the likelihood of wrinkles. The process of the reaction of sugar molecules with collagen is called glycation.

5. You may be eating too much sugar, even skipping dessert.

Sugar is present in the most unexpected products, and in fairly large quantities. Ketchup and bread are quite high in sugar, as are many sauces in both traditional and international cuisines. Some popular sauces can contain up to 66 grams of sugar.

6. Added sugar is worse than naturally sweet food.

Natural sugar is made up of lactose and fructose. Few people know that sugar added to food is characterized by a disproportionately high content of fructose.

You can't overload your liver with fruit, but candy and artificially sweetened foods will cause your liver to turn excess fructose into fat.

7. Sugar is just as toxic to the liver as alcohol.

More often than not, the fat produced by the liver from sugar ends up in your waist, but sometimes it remains and causes the same damage to liver tissues as alcohol. The worst thing about fatty liver of non-alcoholic origin is that not only overweight people are affected by it. Liver damage can also occur in those who abuse sugar while remaining in a normal form.

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8. Sugar makes you overeat.

Excessive consumption of fructose disrupts the hormonal balance. It can cause leptin resistance by affecting the production of the hormone responsible for satiety. When a person develops this condition, he consumes more food, but at the same time does not feel satisfaction from eating.

9. Excess Sugar Affects the Brain

Studies in rats and humans have shown that consuming too much sugar affects the brain, potentially damaging memory and causing overall brain aging.

10. Sweet tooth may be hereditary.

Some people are more prone to overconsumption of sugar and becoming addicted.

Genetics can influence levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for bouts of hunger. This means people with natural sugar cravings need to be even more careful.

There are 2 largest deserts in the world - the Sahara and Antarctica. The first thing that comes to mind when the phrase “Sahara desert” is endless sand and unbearable heat. "Sahara" is so simply translated - "sand". Our desert is really huge - its area is about 9 million square kilometers and is about 30% of the area of ​​the whole continent - Africa. So, Interesting Facts about the Sahara.

Nature

Sahara desert - interesting facts about animals and plants. It is amazing how living organisms can survive at all in such a dry and hot area. Millions of years of evolution have made them resistant to such weather conditions and taught to take advantage of any situation.

No matter how uninhabitable this place seems at first glance, about 4 thousand species of animals live here.

Even such an arid and hot area as Death Valley (not to be confused with the desert in the United States, there is also an arid place with a similar name in the Sahara) is inhabited by various animal species. Surprisingly, among them there are 13 species of fish.

The lizard Moloch lives here, whose body is dotted with microscopic channels that collect all the moisture from environment and send it to Moloch into the mouth. Buried in wet sand, the lizard can get drunk.

The desert area is also inhabited by scorpions, monitor lizards, snakes and camels. The latter can feed on thorns and cacti, extracting moisture from them.

Plant roots can stretch up to 20 meters deep. In this way they get moisture from groundwater.

The smallest representative of the cats lives here - the sand cat, whose body is only up to 40 centimeters in length. Another 30 cm is occupied by the tail.

Weather

What about the weather in the Sahara Desert? Interesting facts never cease to amaze us:

1. The temperature fluctuations are amazing. For example, during the day we can observe heat over 50 degrees, and at night it will be very cold, and the temperature will drop below zero.
2. Twice in history, snow has been recorded on the Egyptian part of the Sahara.
3. Monthly precipitation on average does not exceed 20 mm. For example, in St. Petersburg this figure is 662 mm, and in Moscow 708 mm. Rains in the desert (besides the fact that they are very rare) do not even have time to soak into the ground - the temperature does its job and the moisture immediately evaporates.
4. Once every few decades, heavy rain can fall in a separate place, after which the area is transformed, turning into a flowering steppe - plant seeds can wait a long time for moisture and germinate when it appears.
5. Approximately once a century in the desert snow falls in such quantities that you can play snowballs.
6. In Saudi Arabia, which does not belong to the Sahara, but is geographically its continuation, there is no river that would flow all year round - they all dry up for a certain period, and then reappear.

Surely you have heard about such a concept as “oasis”, and wondered: “Where, in fact, does it come from?”. The fact is that under such oases you can find a huge underground lake, which in terms of water volume will surpass any terrestrial one. Trees and lakes in such oases feed on these sources.

Peculiarities

The interesting facts about the desert do not end there. Undoubtedly, the desert is a real miracle of nature and a unique phenomenon. Have you ever seen geographic objects move right in front of your eyes?

• Dunes have this property. With the help of the wind, they can move from place to place.
• And the winds in the desert blow almost always because of the relatively flat surface of the earth. You will be very lucky if at least 25 days a year are windless.
• By the way, the dunes reach up to 200 meters in height.
• The highest point in the Sahara is Emi Kouso at 3415 meters.
• The Sahara has not always been a desert. About 5 thousand years ago, people lived on its modern territory. Naturally, people would not settle in a scorched wasteland. There were lakes everywhere and trees grew. After the onset of the desert, people came to the Nile Valley, forming the ancient Egyptian civilization.

The desert can be deceiving. It happens that in the distance one sees a water surface, which a person can take for an oasis. But as soon as he gets close to it, the vision disappears. It's called a mirage. A mirage appears when there is excess heat that evaporates moisture. Moisture, in turn, refracts light, as a result of which various objects appear on the horizon that do not actually exist. The Flying Dutchman is a sailor's tale, which just arose because of the mirages that the sailors saw.

There are probably no people who do not like sugar. It is interesting to know what sugar is, how it is useful, and maybe dangerous for our body. We have selected for you interesting facts about sugar.

A monument to sugar has been erected in the Czech Republic, or more precisely, sugar - refined sugar, it was the Czechs who were the first to come up with the idea of ​​​​compressing sugar into cubes.

The second known monument to refined sugar was opened in 2010 in the city of Sumy in Ukraine on the 355th anniversary of the city.

• All confectionery products (sweets, cookies, pies, ice cream and much more), as well as drinks (Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and others) contain a huge amount of sugar, up to 90%.
• Sugar is produced from both cane and sugar beets. But the interesting thing is that cane sugar is yellowish in color, and it is slightly healthier than beet sugar, as the body absorbs it faster and easier.
• Curiously, scientists are ambivalent about the benefits of sugar. Some insist that when sugar is consumed, a person produces the hormone of happiness, and such people are cheerful, smiling, and friendly in life. Another point of view is based on the fact that sugar in large quantities adversely affects the human pancreas and liver.
• It is also helpful to know that sugar is addictive. There is even an opinion that sugar is to some extent a “drug”, in the good sense of the word.
• They learned how to make fuel for cars from sugar, and what is most interesting, the release of batteries is expected soon, in which sugar wakes up to play the role of an electrolyte.
• As you know, doctors recommend giving babies water in which sugar is slightly diluted, this is done so that sucrose enters the baby's brain, thereby stimulating the mental development of the child.
• According to astronomers, particles similar in properties to sugar have been found in space.
• Sugar is an ingredient in many medicines.
• There is no fat in sugar, therefore, it does not affect the fullness of a person.

Sugar is a sweet product that a person learned to extract from sugar cane quite a long time ago. This perennial herb of the genus Saccharum was cultivated in India as early as 3000 BC. When in 327 BC. e. Alexander the Great's warriors set foot on Indian soil, their attention among countless miracles was attracted by an unknown white solid substance of sweet taste - the first raw sugar in the history of mankind.

This was told to mankind by the Greek historian Onesikrit, who accompanied Alexander the Great on campaigns and was amazed by the fact that "in India, the reed gives honey without bees." The Indians called the sweet crystals, which were extracted from sugarcane juice, "sakkara", from the ancient Indian "sarkar" (literally: "gravel, pebbles, sand, granulated sugar"). The root of the word subsequently entered many languages: in Greek saccharon, in Latin saccharum, in Persian šdkdr, in Arabic sukkar, in Italian zucchero, in France first zucre, then sucre, in England sugar, in Spain azъcar, in Germany's Zucker and finally Russia's "sugar".

It is about this sweet substance, which is sometimes called the "sweet life", then the "white death" that will be discussed today. As expected, first we will plunge a little into Her Majesty's history.

Man has always had an instinctive attraction to the taste of sugar, so the history of sugar is intertwined with the history of nature, which generously gave us thousands of plants and fruits containing sugar.

Sugarcane and honey, in the several millennia that preceded the industrial age, established themselves as the favored suppliers of sugar to mankind. Sugarcane, indeed, contained a highly concentrated, easily extractable sugar, sucrose, which was fairly simple to produce artisanally and not difficult to store.

Sugarcane has been used since the primitive times and has been cultivated since ancient times. According to the most recent theories, the botanical origin of "sacharum robustum" originates in New Guinea and adjacent islands. From here, sugar cane first of all moved to the east, settling in the Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Fiji Islands. Later, sugarcane moved west and northwest, reaching the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Indochina and China.

Sugarcane, brought by the Arabs from India, began to be cultivated in the Middle East as early as the 3rd century BC, and, most likely, it was the Persians who were the first to make a kind of refined sugar by repeatedly digesting raw sugar. It is quite natural that the enterprising Spaniards and Portuguese, who got acquainted with this sweet plant from the same Arabs, eventually founded its plantations in the Canaries, Madeira and Cape Verde. There was no need to talk about the benefits - at the beginning of the 14th century in England they gave 44 pounds sterling for 1 pound of sugar, which, in terms of modern prices, is about $ 1 per teaspoon. That is why in the Middle Ages sugar remained a curiosity and was even considered a medicine. However, a number of historians dispute this opinion, believing that, although sugar was sold in pharmacies in the Middle Ages, in this case, pharmacists acted as ordinary shopkeepers who were instructed to "supply fellow citizens with sweet gingerbread and sugar."

Indian heritage tells us that sugar cane has been known and used since antiquity by the inhabitants of the Bay of Bengal. Near Rajmahal, there are the ruins of the city, which bore the name Gur (Sugar) and even Bengal itself was called differently Gur or Gaura (country of sugar). In ancient Indian poems, the virtues of sugar are described, to which mythology ascribes a divine origin. In China, they learned about "cane sugar" for many millennia BC. Jews mention several times in old testament cane sugar brought from India and China.

It seems thanks to Neark, admiral of Alexander the Great, that Westerners learned about the existence of sugar cane 325 years before Christ. Nearc, who explored the Indian Ocean, spoke of reeds that yield honey.

Despite the fact that the historical origin of sugar is surrounded by mystery and darkness, it is known for certain that the word sugar has an Indian etymology.
The Sanskrit term "sarkara" gave birth to all Indo-European versions of the word sugar: sukkar in Arabic, saccharum in Latin, zucchero in Italian, seker in Turkish, zucker in German, sugar in English, sucre in French.
Sugar caravans.

Around the 3rd century BC, Indian and Persian traders began to carry sugar to the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, to Egypt and Arabia. Many ancient writers wrote about white matter and its possible uses in medicine and nutrition.

In the first century AD, the historian Pliny, in his work on natural history, speaks of sugar as follows: “Arabia produces sugar, but that from India is more famous. It is honey obtained from cane. It is white………., breaks with teeth, the largest pieces are the size of a hazelnut. It is only used in medicine." (Historia Naturalis, Book II, 17). Based on this text, it can be concluded that sugar now became a solid form product, which facilitated its transportation by caravans through Central Asia to the Mediterranean ports, from where it was further sent to Greece and the Roman Empire.

However, the use of sugar remains rather limited until the time when the Arabs invaded Asia in the 7th century, bringing sugar cane from there and attempting to acclimatize it in the Mediterranean countries they occupy. Thus, sugar cane was able to take root first of all in Egypt, then in the Nile Valley and Palestine, on the Jordan coast. The Arabs taught the Persians the art of making hard sugar. Under their influence, sugar cane soon conquers Syria, all of North Africa, Cyprus, Rhodes, the Balearic Islands, then the south of Spain.

Meanwhile, Christian Europe practically ignores this exotic product, which gradually appears in the royal courts and some pharmacists, arriving with caravans from distant Asia.

Thanks to the crusaders since the 12th century, sugar is gaining more and more fame and distribution. They open in Syria and Palestine sugarcane plantations cultivated by the Arabs. Thanks to their efforts, the precious cane is based on the Greek archipelago, Sicily, in southern Italy and France.

The new "spice" is sold by pharmacists at very high prices and in various forms: powdered sugar, cone-shaped, shapeless sugar heads.

The East remains the main supplier of sugar Western countries whose needs are constantly growing.

The sugar trade begins to develop and Venice, which exercises a monopoly of trade with the eastern Mediterranean, becomes the sugar capital of Europe. In the 14th and 15th century, Venetian merchants pick up sugar from India in Alexandria. This sugar is processed and refined in Venice, where, in the middle of the 15th century, the sugar processing industry was born.

After the sugar took on a cone shape, it was shipped throughout Europe. Documentary sources claim that from 1319 Venice supplied England with 100,000 livres of sugar at a time.

At the beginning of the 15th century, sugar cane reached the Atlantic Islands. Don Henri, regent of Portugal, in 1420 captures Madeira and cultivates sugar cane brought from Sicily there with great success. The Spaniards are also starting to grow cane on canary islands. The products of the Atlantic Islands begin to compete with the East. In 1497, Vasco de Gama opened the Cape of Good Hope, which opened the way from India to the Portuguese navigators, who would soon force the Venetian merchants out of the sugar trade. Now Lisbon is becoming the capital of sugar processing and supplies it to most of Europe.

Sugarcane discovers America

The discovery of the New World marked a turning point in the history of sugar. After his second trip, in 1493, Christopher Columbus planted sugarcane originating from the Canary Islands in Saint Domingo.

Around 1505, sugar was made for the first time on this island, the cradle of sugar production in the New World. In 1518, there were already 28 sugar factories in San Domingo, the right to import sugar into Spain allowed Charles Quint to build a palace in Madrid and Toledo. From San Domingo, the sugarcane culture extended from 1510 to 1520 as far as Puerto Rico, Cuba and Jamaica.

Simultaneously, sugar cane was introduced into Mexico by Fernando Cortes in 1519 and into Peru by Francesco Pizarro in 1533. The Portuguese, who conquered Brazil in 1500, planted sugar cane there after 1520.

The impetus was given and all the new countries discovered and colonized during the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century are covered with sugar plantations.

Describing his journey through the Spanish colonies in 1620, Antonio Vasquez de Espinosa notes that he met plantations equipped with factories for the production of sugar in almost all the countries he visited, from Mexico to San Juan and Chile, as well as in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay.

It was not until the first half of the 17th century that the French in Martinique and Guadeloupe, in their turn, made an attempt to grow sugar cane and produce sugar.

The British, who colonized Barbados (1627), set up a sugar industry there (in 1676, Barbados could export 400 ships of sugar to England, 150 tons each). The history of the colonization of the Antilles is colored by the ongoing struggle for it by several countries: Spain, Holland, England and France.

Martinique and Guadeloupe continue their sugar expansion: in 1790, Martinique's production was 11,300 tons and Guadeloupe's production was 10,600 tons. The French introduced sugar cane to Louisiana in 1751.
The Caribbean is a sugar granary.

Zone Caribbean was for 3 centuries a real world "sugar granary". Meanwhile, sugarcane continued its world tour around the globe. He finds a surprisingly favorable site in the French Isles indian ocean. Lille de France (Mauritius) and Bourbon Island (Reunion) are covered with sugar plantations. Continuing its journey, sugarcane conquers Indonesia, Formosa, the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands.

At the beginning of the 19th century, sugarcane completed its journey around the world. It lasted 2000 years. Starting its journey from the Pacific Islands, sugar cane has conquered all continents.

Many countries started sugar production, some stopped it, because its growth has always been subject to the laws of competition.

This first part of his story shows us that sugar is an international product, it is a food, like spices, that travels non-stop, and that is most often consumed by people thousands of miles from where it is produced.

Since that time, the European nations, the main consumers of sugar, have been trying to achieve self-sufficiency by creating sugar production in their colonies. They have their own trading network, transport and processing. Sugar factories appear in all major European ports. After Venice and Lisbon, Antwerp becomes in the 16th century the first sugar center in Europe. In England, the number of sugar factories grew, in Germany there were already several factories at the end of the 16th century (Dresden, Ogsburg), there were already 25 of them at the end of the 18th century. Rouen, Nantes, La Rochelle, Marseille become the main centers for the production of sugar for France.

On the eve of the revolution, France acquired the first place in the trade and production of sugar in Europe; most of the sugar, which she received mainly from the Antilles, was sent further to the north of Europe, to Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia. France also becomes one of the largest European consumers of sugar (about 80,000 tons in 1789).
Continental blockade breeds beet sugar.

The French Revolution of 1789 and the international conflicts it created paralyzed the French sugar trade, which was completely dependent on maritime transport. In 1792, France is at war with Great Britain, whose powerful fleet interferes with regular communication with the American colonies. From the first unrest there was a restriction in the consumption of sugar, the price of which in 1795 increased 10 times compared to the beginning of the revolution.

The situation worsens when Napoleon establishes the Continental Block (Berlin, November 21, 1806), which closes all continental ports to English trade. French islands in the hands of the British. In 1808, sugar could not be found in Paris or any other major European city. And so the idea was born to produce sugar in France, based on a plant growing on the continent, arousing the interest of numerous researchers. Sugar beet becomes the most suitable plant for sugar production.

Since 1575, Olivier de Serres has described the presence of sugar in this plant in his work The Theater of Agricultural Culture. Much later, in 1745, the German chemist Marggraf presented his chemical experiments to the Berlin Academy of Sciences in order to extract real sugar from various plants growing on the continent. In his scientific work, Marggraf urged his compatriots to start growing sugar beet and sugar production. In 1786, Marggraf's pupil, Frederick Ashard, built the first experimental factory, the results of which were so satisfactory that factories were built in Silisia and Bohemia in the following years. The fame of Ashard's works is enormous. In France, two small sugar factories were built in the Paris region, in Shelley and Saint-Coin. However, the results they achieved were mediocre, as the sugar they produced was inferior in quality to cane sugar and at a high cost.

Cane sugar began to successfully conquer Europe from here, having reached Russia around the 12th century.

Russian word"sugar" goes back to the Sanskrit "sarkara" (sarcara), "sakkara" (sakkara). These names refer to condensed juice, unrefined sugar crystals that have become the subject of trade. The basis of this name of sugar entered many languages ​​of the world.

However, only in the 16th century did it first appear on the royal table as an “overseas commodity” in connection with the development of maritime trade through Arkhangelsk ....

What is sugar?

The entire range of sugar can be divided into groups depending on its appearance. It is white crystalline, unrefined (brown), and liquid sugar. There are various types of sugar produced specifically for the needs of the food industry, and many of them are not intended for sale in stores directly to the public.

crystal sugar

Crystalline sugar is the most familiar type of sugar to consumers worldwide. It is granulated sugar, consisting of white crystals. Depending on the size of the crystal, granulated sugar provides the unique properties of granulated sugar. These properties are in demand by food companies in accordance with their specific needs. In addition to the size of the crystals, special additives add variety to the types of sugar.

Regular Sugar. Sugar commonly used in household use. This is exactly the white sugar that most cookbook recipes have in mind. The same sugar is most widely used by food companies.

Fruit Sugar. Smaller and better quality than regular sugar. Used in dry mixes such as gelatin desserts, pudding mixes and dry drinks. The high degree of crystal homogeneity prevents smaller crystals from separating or settling to the bottom of the package, which is an important quality of good dry mixes.

Pekarsky (Bakers Special). The size of the crystals is even smaller. As the name suggests, this type of sugar was created specifically for industrial baking of muffins.

Ultrafine (Superfine, Ultrafine, Bar Sugar, Caster Sugar). The smallest crystal size. Such sugar is ideal for pies and meringues with a very fine texture. Due to its easy solubility, ultrafine sugar is also used to sweeten fruits and frozen drinks.

Confectionery powder (Confectioners Sugar, Icing Sugar). The basis of confectionery powder is ordinary granulated sugar, ground into powder and sifted through a fine sieve. Approximately 3% corn starch is added to prevent sticking. The powder is produced in various degrees of grinding. It is used for glazing, in the confectionery industry and in the production of whipped cream.

Coarse Sugar. Sugar with a crystal size larger than regular sugar. A special processing method makes this sugar resistant to changes at high temperatures. This property is important in the production of sweets, confectionery and liqueurs.

Sugar dusting (Sanding Sugar). Sugar with the largest crystals. It is used mainly in the baking and confectionery industries for sprinkling products. The facets of the large crystals reflect the light, giving the products a sparkling look.

Unrefined (brown) sugar

Brown sugar consists of sugar crystals coated in treacle syrup with a natural flavor and color. It is produced either by special boiling down of sugar syrup, or by mixing white sugar with molasses.

There are many varieties of brown sugar, which differ mainly in the amount of molasses (molasses) they contain. Dark brown sugar has a more intense color and stronger molasses flavor than light brown sugar.

Light brown sugar is used in the same way as white sugar. Dark brown sugar has a rich flavor that makes it a specific addition to various foods.

Liquid Sugar

There are several types of liquid sugar that have been used in the food industry. Actually liquid sugar is a solution of white sugar and can be used wherever crystalline.

Sugar with the addition of molasses is an amber-colored liquid. It can be used to give products a specific flavor.

Finally, invert syrup. Inversion or chemical breakdown of sucrose gives a mixture of glucose and fructose. Such sugar is used only for industrial purposes.

And now about the benefits and harms of this product.

One of the highest levels in the ranking of the most popular products is sugar. As a rule, many people add sugar to tea, coffee, or complete their meal with some kind of dessert. At the same time, when it comes to the benefits and harms of sugar, everyone confidently asserts that this sweet pleasure has a detrimental effect on human health. The people came up with sugar by no means attractive names: “the main enemy of mankind”, “sweet death”, “ White death". At the same time, during the war years or in difficult times of famine, people always stocked up on this sweet product.

Mother nature arranged it so that the human body cannot cope without providing sugar. Numerous fruits, vegetables, nuts contain an abundance of organic natural sugar fructose, which is quite easily absorbed by the body. From early childhood, if a person does not receive carbohydrates in their natural form from healthy foods, he automatically reaches for sweets, chocolate, cakes and gradually gets used to these far from useful sugar substitutes. As a result, excessive sugar dependence of many people, which is also called "sugarholism", involuntarily turns out. People who have grown up eating grapes, dates, dried fruits, sweet vegetables, and honey will not crave sugary foods.

What is the benefit and harm of sugar, why does a person simultaneously love and fear this sweet product? Despite the fact that sugar is the main source of energy for our body, in recent times a significant increase in the number of people suffering from diabetes.

Entering the body, sugar under the influence of digestive juices is broken down into glucose and fructose, and enters the bloodstream. Insulin, produced by the pancreas, normalizes blood sugar levels, distributing it throughout the cells of the body. Excess sugar accumulates in the body, turning into not quite aesthetic folds of fat on the abdomen, thighs and other places. After the excess sugar has been removed into the “repositories”, the blood sugar level decreases and the person feels hungry again.

A persistent increase in blood sugar levels can cause the pancreas to stop producing enough insulin. With a lack of insulin, sugar fills the blood, causing diabetes. If the patient does not adhere to a diet and does not control the amount of sugar eaten, the consequences can be the most severe, up to diabetic coma and death.

Considering the question of the benefits and harms of sugar, it must be noted that, despite the fear of the threat of diabetes, this sweet product is sometimes called the “joy vitamin”. When brain cells are severely deficient in glucose, moderate sugar consumption will effectively increase performance, actively reduce fatigue and bad mood, and reduce headaches. At the same time, this sweet product is the main cause of calcium burning, a huge amount of which is spent on the absorption of refined sugar. As a result, acid rises in the oral cavity, pathogenic bacteria develop, which leads to dental caries. This is considered an important factor when discussing the benefits and harms of sugar.

Excessive consumption of sugar leads to an imbalance in the amino acids of the diet, because when refining this sweet product, almost all mineral salts are removed, necessary for the body person. This causes a metabolic disorder that contributes to obesity, serious diseases of the endocrine glands, blood, and brain. And the B vitamins removed during sugar refining significantly increase the risk of mental and nervous diseases, polyneuritis.

But still, sweets are everywhere heavily promoted and advertised. Manufacturers of sweets, chocolate, caramel, soft drinks are extremely interested in selling them. Therefore, sugar is quite closely connected with the financial interests of many countries of the world. If you are not able to fight your own weakness, then replace the usual sugar with bee honey or marmalade, which will bring tangible benefits to your body. And it’s better to lean on fruits and dried fruits, because fructose is much more useful, talking about the benefits and harms of sugar. Try to lead an active lifestyle, find other sources of pleasure, then you will be less drawn to sweets.

So how much is Sahara Do you need to eat to keep fit? Scientists around the world have been trying to answer this question for many, many years. And only in April 2003, the most authoritative World Health Organization issued its verdict. According to pundits representing the Organization, a healthy person with sugar should not exceed 10% of calories from daily ration. If you translate grams into pieces of refined sugar, it will come out quite decently - 10-12 pieces.

But the fact is that the daily norm includes not only sugar, which we add to tea, coffee or porridge, but also the sugars contained in the rest of the food we eat. Meanwhile, a can of carbonated drink, for example, can contain about 40 grams of sugar! After drinking such a jar in the afternoon and drinking sweet coffee with milk in the morning, we already exceed the quota in terms of quantity Sahara. But what if we are offered a cake at work, but it is inconvenient to refuse? That's it.

Tireless Americans have calculated that the average US citizen gets about 190 grams of sugar per day from food. This is an excess of the permissible norm by 3 times. As for the average Russian, then, according to Soyuzrossahar, on average, only in its pure form (sand and refined sugar) eats 100 g per day. Can you imagine?

Firstly, it was found that sugar substitutes, although not as high in calories as simple sugar, but significantly increases appetite. Thus, the person still begins to gain weight. Secondly, they should not be consumed in large quantities at all, since this can result in indigestion.

And finally, many doctors believe that sugar substitutes are, in principle, harmful to the human body. So, in many countries, the sugar substitute cyclomate (30 times sweeter than sugar) is banned for use, as scientists fear that it can cause kidney failure. Other sweeteners have also been repeatedly accused of being harmful - some doctors, for example, believe that saccharin has carcinogenic properties. However, no hypothesis has yet been proven.

Is it true that now sugar is less sweet than before?

With the advent of sugar produced from raw sugar on the Russian food market, there is an opinion among buyers that raw cane sugar is less sweet than beet sugar. This opinion is erroneous and completely unfounded.

Commercial granulated sugar produced at sugar factories from raw cane and sugar beets meets the requirements of one State standard. Both of them are a product with the same content (at least 99.75%) of the same chemical compound - sucrose.

One and the same chemical compound has well-defined physical and chemical properties, regardless of origin. Therefore, solutions of cane and beet sugar that are identical in concentration, i.e. solutions of equal concentrations of sucrose cannot have different properties, in particular, different sweetness. So the sweetness of tea does not depend on the type of raw material from which the sugar is made, but on the number of spoons of sugar that you put in it.

Although there is another opinion:

Sugar is the common name for sucrose, which refers to water-soluble carbohydrates - valuable nutrients that provide the body with the energy it needs. The sucrose for the product called "sugar" is extracted from the juice of sugar beet and sugar cane. Is beet sugar different from cane sugar? If a we are talking about white sugar that we are used to, and not about brown sugar, then no. The final product as a result of technological operations loses any taste differences.

In addition to sucrose, natural sugars also include fructose (found in fruits and honey), maltose (found in germinated grains, also called malt sugar), glucose (often called grape sugar, but found in honey, fruits and vegetables) and lactose ( milk sugar).

As a rule, two main types of sugar go on sale: regular and refined. We are accustomed to call refined sugar in the form of cubes, but granulated sugar can also be refined. Refined is the designation of the product of the highest purification, superior in quality to ordinary sugar. In Russia, there are currently two normative documents, regulating the requirements for product quality: GOST 21-94 for granulated sugar and GOST 22-94 for refined sugar.

Distinctive features of a product called "granulated sugar" - an increased content of impurities: coloring, mineral and other substances. Impurities cause the color of the sand and a reduced degree of sweetness compared to refined sugar. Variety of granulated sugar powdered sugar, these are crushed crystals of granulated sugar with a size of not more than 0.2 mm.

Refined sugar, unlike sand, contains fewer impurities removed during refining. It is sweeter, although, to be honest, this difference is not dramatic. But the color of refined sugar differs from the color of granulated sugar - it is pure white, without impurities, a bluish tint is allowed.

And much more than the WHO and the American Heart Association recommend: 6 teaspoons a day for women and 9 for men. On average, a person eats four times more, about 70 kilograms per year. Where do you think? The thing is that there is a so-called hidden sugar, and it is in almost all types of store products - sausages, bread, pasta, sauces. Such sugar has little nutritional value, but a lot of extra calories.

Fact two: sugar is not only sweet In science, sugar is any kind of carbohydrate. Whereas in the people this concept means, as a rule, only one of all varieties of carbohydrates - sweet. It's called sucrose.

Fact three: a gram of sugar is only a quarter of a teaspoon And not a spoon with a slide at all, as many people think (and are mistaken). So when you stir a spoonful of sugar in a cup of coffee, know that now you "take" half of your daily allowance!

Fact four: sugar ... useful Yes, yes. Useful. But in reasonable volumes (the same 6-9 teaspoons). Moreover, without sugar, a person will not last long. Sweet sugar, as mentioned above, is sucrose. And it, in turn, consists of fructose and glucose, one of the main sources of energy for humans. Therefore, giving up sugar is completely harmful to the body. When we consume glucose, it stimulates the release of serotonin, which affects a person's mood, sexual function, sleep, memory, learning, and also appetite. No wonder sweet things make us feel so good.

Fact five: many "harmless" drinks are actually full of sugar Fruit juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, and so on, surprisingly, are at the top of the list of products in terms of sugar content. A recent study showed that drinking two of these drinks a day increased the risk of obesity and visceral fat by 26% compared to those who limit themselves to sugary liquids.

Fact six: Corn syrup is not the best sugar substitute Corn syrup is found in many foods. It is believed that this is a good sucrose changer. However, it is chemically and nutritionally identical to white sugar (that is, zero utility), but both have a high calorie content. Corn syrup is much sweeter than sugar, so it is added to all sorts of foods. Another reason why it is used in many foods and drinks is that it can be easily mixed as a syrup with different formulations.

Fact seven A: Not all sweeteners are vegetable Asparkame, sucralose, neotame, stevia. Many people think that all of these four most famous vegetable sweeteners. This is not true. Only stevia is vegetable. It is produced in different forms (granules, syrup, etc.), but in any case, it is a product from the leaves of a plant called stevia. This sweetener can be up to 300 times sweeter than regular sugar, yet has zero calories. True, sometimes stevia sweeteners can leave a bitter aftertaste.

Fact eight: "-ose" does not necessarily mean bad sugar The "ose" suffix at the end of a word (galactose, sucrose, sucralose) indicates some type of sugar. But not necessarily for table sugar, that is, harmful. Sucrose, for example, is the sugar found in highest concentration in sugar cane and sugar beet. Lactose is the natural sugar in milk. Sucralose is an artificial sweetener.

Fact nine: "Zero Calories" Doesn't Mean No Sugar Beverages labeled with this label actually contain fewer calories by reducing sugar. However, a substitute is used instead, that's the whole trick. Plus the rest, sometimes not harmless, components, as the World Health Organization constantly reminds. According to its experts, such drinks are one of the factors in the development of many global diseases.

Fact ten: Brazil is number one in the world in sugar production And not China or India at all. Brazil is the world's leading sugar producer, and the country's crop is exported to more than 100 other countries.

Fact eleven: diabetes does not cause diabetes There is no direct connection between the first and second. Diabetes is more often caused by a genetic predisposition, lifestyle, something else ... However, there is an indirect connection - being overweight and eating a high-calorie diet, which often includes a lot of added sugar, can increase the risk of developing diabetes second type.