Sugar Nutrition UK - Essay Example

"Sugar Nutrition UK" is a perfect example of a paper on food and nutrition. Despite the conventional belief that the only type of sugar is the white-granulated table sugar found in our homes, there are different types of sugar classified by their different sources and characteristics. In order to expound more on the different types of sugar, this expose elucidates on the different types of sugar, the ways of producing sugar from the main sources of cane and beet, the health issues related to its consumption, and countries that produce sugar.

            To begin with, sucrose is the most common type of sugar from which we derive the table sugar we use at our homes. Sucrose comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. Conversely, fructose comes from fruits while lactose comes from milk. On the other hand, glucose is sugar coming from honey and sweet fruits and comes in other names such as dextrose, corn sugar, or grape sugar (Herbst). Other types of sugar include granulated sugar, which is highly refined sugar from sugar cane or sugar beets. In addition, there is superfine sugar, which is extra-granulated and commonly referred to as castor sugar in Britain. Furthermore, there is confectioners’ sugar resulting from crushing granulated sugar into a fine powder called icing sugar in Britain. Furthermore, there is brown sugar commonly, which is a combination of white sugar and molasses. Finally, there is decorating or coarse sugar whose granules are four times larger than granules of granulated sugar (Herbst).

            From the above literature, most of the sugar comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. There is only one distinct difference in the production of sugar from cane and beet. According to the Sugar Nutrition UK, the process of producing sugar from cane starts with cutting and shredding into small pieces of the harvested cane. After this process, crushing of sugar takes place between heavy rollers and the spraying with hot water while adding lime to clean the juice resulting from the spraying with hot water. The brown liquid resulting goes through the process of filtration to produce a thin juice with the juice undergoing a boiling process under intense heat to produce thick syrup. The process of separating crystals and molasses takes place in a centrifuge with a production of raw sugar, for exportation, taking place. This raw sugar undergoes refining to remove impurities in the production of pure crystals of white sugar. Sugar extracted from sugar beets undergoes almost a similar process. However, in addition to lime, there is an addition of carbon dioxide in cleaning the juice (Sugar Nutrition UK).

            Sugar is usually in a simpler chemical structure in comparison to starch. In this regard, there is a health implication of raising the blood sugar levels in an individual (Beaser and Campbell). In this regard, an increase in blood sugar levels puts an individual at risk of type 2 diabetes. In addition, since sugar is in a simpler chemical structure, it has more calories than starch and in effect can put individuals at risk of obesity (Beaser and Campbell). On the other hand, experts point out that consumption of added sugar has a link to measures that can increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases amongst adults as well as adolescents (Welsh et al.). Finally, another wide known health effect of taking sugar is the risk associated with tooth decay.

            The Sugar Nutrition UK notes that the world’s total production of sugar stood at 154,854,000 metric tons in 2009/10. On the other hand, the group also noted that the total production of sugar from cane in the world was 119,716,000 metric tons while the production of sugar from beet was 35,138,000 metric tons (Sugar Nutrition UK). Finally, the top countries in order of production are Brazil, India, China, Thailand, Mexico, and Australia all producing sugar from the cane. On the other hand, France, Germany, the USA, Russia, and Turkey are the top five producers of sugar from beet (Sugar Nutrition UK).

            Although not conclusive, this expose elucidates some basic facts about sugar from the different types to various countries producing sugar from different sources such as beet and cane. On the other hand, the production of sugar from beet and cane is similar apart from the addition of carbon dioxide while manufacturing sugar from beet. Finally, the expose gives some of the widely known health risks associated with the consumption of sugar such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, tooth decay, amongst other risks associated with sugar consumption.

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