Where Does Sugar Come From? Facts For Kids With A Sweet Tooth

Sugar can be harvested from a variety of sources.

Sugar is the thing that makes everything sweet. It is basically sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose.

To sweeten your candies and other food products, candy makers use various types of sugar, which are made of various products such as sugar cane, sugar beets, high fructose corn syrup, honey. The oldest records of the sugar refining process can be traced to India and date to around 100 CE.

Candies are just one type of sweet. There are so many sweet dishes, such as pie, cakes, ice cream, shakes, pudding. Of these contain sugar. The best kind of sugar you can eat is fruit. Yes, fruits have the same sugar as in your kitchen. Other than sugar, fruits also have many nutrients, which are necessary for your health. Sugar is known to be one of the most widely used ingredients in the food industry and the beverage industry. What can be sweet and healthy at the same time? It’s fruit. Do you like mangoes? Do you know that mangoes are the sweetest fruits? Read the full article and you will have more interest in sugar and its substitutes. Subsequently, you might also want to learn where sausage comes from and where tea comes from?

Where does brown sugar come from?

Brown sugar comes from the processing of molasses of sugarcane. Brown sugar is the unrefined or partially refined sugar that contains some amount of residual molasse, and this makes it look brown. Some sugar factories make brown sugar by mixing molasse with white sugar. This type of brown sugar is called commercial brown sugar. Brown sugar is softer compared to white sugar because of the presence of molasses, and this is why it is also called soft sugar.

Brown sugar comes in various varieties based on the amount of molasse. Mostly, brown sugars are considered to be healthier and rich in nutrition than any white sugar sweetener. But this is not proven yet. In fact, brown sugar has as many bad effects on your health as white sugar has. Both brown sugar and white sugar contain a similar number of calories, have the same sweetness level, and the same negative effects on your teeth, blood sugar, and weight.

Where does sugar come from in the USA?

Sugars comes from sugar cane and sugar beet. Sugar cane and sugar beets are grown in temperate climates, which is a perfect fit in the United States. Sugar cane and sugar beets need ample rainfall and a frost-free climate during the growing season to reach their full growth potential. The sugar factories in the USA use the juice of sugar cane and sugar beets to make sugar. The USA is one of the world’s largest sugar-producing countries. Refined sugar cane, processed sugar beets, and high fructose corn syrup are all commonly used in the USA as added sugars to sweeten your food and candies.

17 countries in the USA produce or refined sugar. Did you know that there is a Sugar Association in the USA which is the trade association for the sugar industry in the United States? Sugar refining factories generally operate near the farms so that sugar cane and sugar beets can easily be transported to the refining service centers. Other than the crops that are harvested in the USA, raw sugar is also imported in the USA for the refining process. This sugar is then refined and sent to grocery stores where your mom buys it to make sweets for you.

Where does the sugar we eat come from?

The cane sugar we have in our kitchen comes from plants. When plants perform the process of photosynthesis, there are a lot of things they make other than carbon dioxide. glucose is one of them. Glucose is one of the most common forms of sugar. A plant stores this sugar in various parts such as stem, roots, fruits. Fruits are the most common part of a plant to store sugar. This is why the fruits taste sweet. Mango has the highest amount of sugar among all fruits.

Glucose is just one kind of sugar that comes from plants. Another common form of sugar is sucrose. A plant moves sucrose from one part to another through the sap. The sap is a fluid that a plant uses to transport nutrients from one part to another. The most common tree from which we collect sap is the Maple Tree. We collect the sap and heat them to evaporate the excess water, and the final product is called Maple Syrup.

Sugarcane stores its sugar in its stem. Have you ever seen a sugar refinery? To make cane sugar, sugarcane is processed in the sugar processing mill and all the sweet juice they contain in its stem is extracted by squeezing them. Then this juice is also heated by the same process, like in maple syrup, to remove the excess water. But unlike the maple syrup which is in liquid form, the juice from sugarcane forms crystals instead of syrup. This is because of the chemical composition of the sugar that they form small squares which result in the sugar you have in your kitchen.

Other than maple trees and sugarcane, there are many more plants that are used to make the sugar for your kitchen. Another common plant is sugar beet. Unlike sugarcane or maple trees, sugar beets contain sucrose in their roots. The process of extracting sucrose from sugar beets is the same as for sugarcane.

Is honey healthier than white sugar?

Honey is created by honey bees which Winnie the Pooh loves. Honey bees make honey from flowers’ nectar. Other than honey bees, stingless bees also make honey.

Honey is considered healthier than white sugar because of its less processed nature and the presence of some small amounts of nutrients. But did you know that honey is high in calories as compared to white sugar and has a similar carbohydrate profile? Both white sugar and honey, are composed of glucose and fructose, but in sugar, the components are bound together to make sucrose. Honey contains a higher percentage of fructose, which is a healthier form of sugar, and the fructose, as well as the glucose, aren’t bound together, so it behaves differently than sugar. When you replace regular granulated sugar with honey, it is probably a good idea, according to researchers.

What are some healthy types of sugar?

Some of the healthiest types of sugar are listed below.

Raw and Unrefined Sugar: This sugar is free from chemicals and is a healthy choice to replace regular sugar. The taste resembles that of honey.

Palm Sugar Crystals: This sugar is extracted from the fruit of the palm tree and is widely used in multiple countries.

Organic Sulphurless White Sugar: Sulfur is used by several sugar processing units for the removal of impurities from the crystals. But over consumption of such sugar can be harmful to health.

Demerara Sugar: This is a semi-processed sugar that is available in a variety of flavors and has light brown crystals that are a bit chunky in appearance.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Where Does Sugar Come From? Captivating Table Sugar Facts For Kids then why not take a look at Curious Catfish Facts Explained: What Do Catfish Eat?, or The Historic 'Hungry Caterpillar': What Do Caterpillars Eat?