Sugar

Sugar^[1] is the common name for several chemical substances, some of which taste sweet. Mostly, it refers to sucrose, lactose, or fructose. Sugar is in certain kinds of food, or it is added to make it sweeter.

Regular or pure sugar, or sucrose, is extracted from sugarcane or sugar beet. Brazil produces the most sugar per person and India's total consumption of sugar is the highest for a country.^[2] Fructose is the sugar that is in fruits.

Sucrose and fructose are both made by two smaller sugars. Glucose is the more common of these smaller sugars. The human body changes regular sugar into the smaller sugars.

Sugars are a kind of carbohydrate. That is, sugars are made from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.^[3] Carbohydrates can be simple carbohydrates or complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are made of only one or a few of the smallest sugars. Complex carbohydrates are made of many of the smallest sugars.

Sugar can be different colors. For example, brown sugar has molasses in it, and is often used in baking.

There are 387 calories in 100 g of sugar.^[4]

1. ↑ IPA: /ˈʃʊgə/, En-us-sugar.ogg (help·info)
2. ↑ International sugar statistics http://www.illovosugar.com/World_of_sugar/Sugar_Statistics/International.aspx Archived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback Machine
3. ↑ You can think of this as "carbon + water".
4. ↑ "Calories in 100 G Sugar". www.nutritionix.com. Retrieved 2021-07-11.