What is sugar: its types and chemical composition of sugar

A person who is accustomed to sugar, which he consumes daily, can be very diverse. Sugar is obtained from various plants, it is in one form or another found in many food products. There are many kinds of sugars, which are differently absorbed by the body, contain different amounts of nutrients.

Today we will tell you what kind of sugar is.

Beet sugar

Ordinary white sugar in the form of sand, cubes and powder. Due to instant dissolution in the tongue, the powder seems more sweet, so it can be used to reduce the total amount of sugar consumed.

Brown sugar

It can be both beetroot made from digested syrup and cane.

Cane sugar

Imported from India by the Arabs, it was first used in the Middle East. In the 15th century, sugar cane carried out its main voyage to the New World, and then plantations of brown cane sugar were discovered in America.

Its crystals are covered with reed molasses, it is more fragrant. In marinades, baking and as a supplement to coffee prefer dark sugar with a more pronounced flavor. In delicate desserts with cream, a banana, "light" sounds are more pronounced.

Demerara

One of the popular types of cane sugar, which originally came from the homonymous district in Guyana( South America).The crystals are relatively solid and large, sticky, having a golden brown color.

Muscovado

Cane sugar, which has a pronounced smell of molasses, usually unrefined. These crystals are larger than those of plain brown sugar, very sticky and fragrant.

Turbinado

Partially refined processed raw sugar, a significant portion of the molasses from which is removed by steam or jets of water. Its color varies from light-golden to soft-brown.

Malt sugar

Malt sugar is obtained from malt - fermented product from sprouted, dried and coarse ground cereals. In Japan, malt sugar, produced from starchy rice or millet, has been used for more than two thousand years. Malt sugar is much less sweet than sucrose;it is added to bakery products and various baby food products.

Sorghum sugar

Sorghum sugar is a kind of sugar, which is obtained from sorghum saccharatum juice( Sorghum saccharatum) - plants of the cereal family, in stems containing up to 18% of sugar. In China, from ancient times, sorghum is obtained from sorghum( sorghum honey).

During the Civil War in the northern states of the United States tried to put the production of sorghum sugar on an industrial basis. But the extraction of sugar from sorghum juice was not economically effective - the juice contains many mineral salts, gums and invert sugar, so the yield of pure crystalline sugar is very small.

Chemical composition of sugar

Glucose is the simplest kind of sugar. It is he who is assimilated by the circulatory system. The human body processes carbohydrates and all sugars into glucose. Only this form of sugar is taken up by cells and used to obtain energy.

Sucrose is the name for solid table sugar. By chemical composition, this is one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose. It can be granular, lumpy or in the form of powder. It is the final product of sugar beet or cane processing.

Maltose is found in cereal crops, mostly in barley. Its composition is two molecules of glucose.

Black molasses is sugar, which remains as a by-product in the production of table sugar. It is a thick syrup. Contains a lot of useful substances. The darker the molasses, the more its nutritional value and the more useful substances it contains.

Brown sugar is table sugar in which molasses are added, as a result of which it acquires a brown color.

Fructose is sugar contained in honey and fruits. It is absorbed by the body very slowly, it does not enter the circulatory system immediately. It is widely used and is one of the main types of sugar. Because of the name, there is a misconception that fructose, like fruit, contains many nutrients. In fact, used alone, fructose is no different from other sugars.

Lactose is a type of sugar found in milk and dairy products. To assimilate lactose, the body needs a special enzyme - lactase, it helps the digestion of sugars, so that they are absorbed into the walls of the intestine. The organism of some people produces lactase in small amounts or does not produce at all. Milk sugar in these people is poorly digested.

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