Sugar - Where It Comes From Plus Some History

What is acknowledged as sugar is in actuality a crystalline carbohydrate that can be found plus extracted from a variety of organic forms. Fructose, sucrose plus lactose are all sugars. All three come from different sources. Sucrose comes from plant life, lactose is sourced largely from milk in addition to lastly, fructose comes mainly from fruits.

Strangely enough, sugar was not always the abundant resource that anyone could buy back then. For example, Europeans only discovered sugar during the Holy Crusades around about the 11th century AD.

Only those with great affluence had access to sugar during those periods. By the 18th century, around 30000 tons per year was being processed by Britain alone. No longer rare or hard to attain, it is openly accessible to people from all walks of life. The fact that sugar prices are governed in individual countries have something to do with it.

There are many kinds of sugar accessible to the general public these days. And the vast majority of it come from two main sources. The sugar cane plant as well as the sugar beet plant. Sugar cane used to be the leading cash crop between the two. Sugar beets however are enjoying an emergence in popularity among farmers.

This is due mainly to the disparity in costs incurred when extracting sugar. Sugar beets need only a single refining process while sugar cane requires two. In terms of taste however, sugar cane has always produced sugar that is thought to taste better.

Brazil is the worlds foremost producer of sugar, followed by India along with the European Union. Forty percent of the worlds sugar is sourced from these three regions. South East Asia's richest man, Robert Kuok is dubbed the sugar king as he invested a great deal in sugar refineries all across Malaysia.

In the 70's, he produced up to 80 percent of Malaysia's total sugar production. Sugar consumption in Malaysia has seen never-ending increase due to the sizable majority of products that use sugar such as ice creams, candies and chocolates. Artificial sweeteners have not really made a big impression in the country as most of us here favor the real thing.