Sugar, by Spencer

What is sugar? C₁₂H₂₂O_11, commonly known as sugar, is the basis of all life. Sugar gives the body energy, and is digested quickly and turned into glucose, which people use for energy. Sugar is actually the only way for red blood cells and the brain the get energy.

            What should be a daily intake? Sugar should be 10% or less of a person’s daily calorie intake. Each gram of sugar contains 4 calories. If a person eats a lot of sugar at one time, their blood sugar could raise a lot, which increases the possibility of getting diabetes. On average a person should consume 2000 calories a day, so 200 of hose should be from sugar.

            Where do we get sugar? You can get sugar from a lot of different things. Such as candies and sweets to things like fruits and vegetable. A person should know the difference between the types of sugar in the diet. Things with added sugar such as candy bars, soda, etc., are low in nutrients and high in bad sugars. Eating too much of this unhealthy sugar could lead to diabetes, cavities and weight gain. Fruits dairy products and vegetables contain natural sugar, which is actually good for you, and are high in nutrients. These sugars are needed and should be consumes every day.

            What is saturation and how do you saturate sugar? When you add sugar to water, the sugar dissolves into the solution, but you can’t do this forever. When you reach the point where you can’t dissolve any more sugar the water, it is saturated. However the saturation amount/levels is different depending on the temperature of the water.

            There are different types of sugar:

White sugar: The most common type of sugar. It is the sugar you would normally put on your cereal or find in a sugar bowl.

Powdered Sugar: It is the same as white sugar, but it is ground into smaller particles.

Course Sugar: This sugar has larger pieces than the white sugar. It is formed when sugars high in sucrose are allowed to crystallize.

Brown Sugar: It is just like white sugar, but molasses has been added to it. The molasses, as you may have guessed changes the sugar brown and changes the flavor.