Doctors recommend consuming no more than 20 grams of sugar per day for women and no more than 36 grams for men. A typical can of cola contains at least 39 grams, which is equivalent to 10 cubes. Excess sugar consumption not only causes type 2 diabetes, but also has many unwanted side effects on the human body.

Is the pleasure worth the consequences to which you subject yourself? These 10 little-known facts will help you decide.

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1. It's addictive

Sugar triggers the release of the hormone dopamine in your brain's pleasure center, which is why many people develop a real addiction, which is one of the main causes of childhood obesity.

Researchers at the James Cook Institute have found that sugary water is even more attractive to mice than cocaine. In humans, addiction may be unconscious, but it often leads us to buy sugary foods or overindulge in desserts.

2. It is the main cause of belly fat

It is widely known that the liver converts sugar into fat when it cannot process it. But what you may not have known is that most of this fat is concentrated in the abdominal region, rather than distributed evenly throughout the body.

3. Sugar feeds cancer cells

Excessive sugar consumption causes an increase in insulin levels, which leads to a higher risk of cancer. Malignant cells use more sugar, but this is not the only harmful effect. Too much sugar leads to inflammation, which in turn leads to cancer.

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4. Sugar affects the skin

Elevated blood glucose levels negatively affect the condition of the skin, reducing its elasticity and increasing the likelihood of wrinkles. The process of the reaction of sugar molecules with collagen is called glycation.

5. You may be eating too much sugar, even skipping dessert.

Sugar is present in the most unexpected products, and in fairly large quantities. Ketchup and bread are quite high in sugar, as are many sauces in both traditional and international cuisines. Some popular sauces can contain up to 66 grams of sugar.

6. Added sugar is worse than naturally sweet food.

Natural sugar is made up of lactose and fructose. Few people know that sugar added to food is characterized by a disproportionately high content of fructose.

You can't overload your liver with fruit, but candy and artificially sweetened foods will cause your liver to turn excess fructose into fat.

7. Sugar is just as toxic to the liver as alcohol.

More often than not, the fat produced by the liver from sugar ends up in your waist, but sometimes it remains and causes the same damage to liver tissues as alcohol. The worst thing about fatty liver of non-alcoholic origin is that not only overweight people are affected by it. Liver damage can also occur in those who abuse sugar while remaining in a normal form.

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8. Sugar makes you overeat.

Excessive consumption of fructose disrupts the hormonal balance. It can cause leptin resistance by affecting the production of the hormone responsible for satiety. When a person develops this condition, he consumes more food, but at the same time does not feel satisfaction from eating.

9. Excess Sugar Affects the Brain

Studies in rats and humans have shown that consuming too much sugar affects the brain, potentially damaging memory and causing overall brain aging.

10. Sweet tooth may be hereditary.

Some people are more prone to overconsumption of sugar and becoming addicted.

Genetics can influence levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for bouts of hunger. This means people with natural sugar cravings need to be even more careful.

Every day, but not many people know about its properties, origin and its substitutes.

This article contains a selection of interesting facts and information about this sweet product, which is incredibly popular with almost all peoples and strata of society.

1. So, let's start with the fact that sugar is a pretty versatile product. After all, it is used as food by all peoples in all countries of the world, and it has long been known to the most developed cultures of mankind. And he is called universal due to the fact that sugar is put not only in tea or food for food, it is also used for various preparations, pickles, and even first and second courses.

2. A terrible statement that sugar is nothing but white death happened to many in childhood. This is how parents often scare their sweet-toothed children so that they do not eat a lot of goodies. For those who doubt, it should be noted that this is true: sugar is able to remove nutrients from the human body, one of them is calcium, which is very important for the body. Because of this feature of white sweet crystals, bones can break down and caries can appear. Because of it, arthritis and muscle atrophy develop, an excess of sugar often leads to blood diseases and hemophilia.

3. There are many types of sugar. In addition to the well-known granulated sugar and refined sugar, there is also sawn sugar, it is sawn off from a lump of sugar. Burnt sugar or candy is prepared even at home, it helps well with colds.

4. Among the most exotic varieties of sugar can easily be attributed to malt sugar, which is made from rice or millet. This species has been used by the Japanese for many millennia. It is good for adding to baby food and for making muffins. In China, candy is prepared, it is found in 3 types - yellow, white and dark colors. It is very difficult and long to produce it: first, the syrup is boiled for 10 days, then washed in water with lime and dried. The result is granules that dissolve in water for a long time. And the population of Southeast Asia uses the golden yageri toffee to sweeten food. This sugar is made from the sap of the sugar palm, has a pleasant taste and is usually packaged in bars.

5. The source of our usual sugar is usually sugar cane or beets. Even at the time of the discovery of America by Columbus, there was a real sensation associated with the cultivation of sugar cane and the extraction of sugar itself. For a very long time, this sweet product was available only to the rich, as it was grown on the plantations of America, and only then was transported by ship to Europe. Sugar became cheaper beet, which served as a cheap analogue of cane, because it can be grown in a harsher climate.

- If you consume excessive amounts of sugar, it can lead to wrinkles due to the fact that sugar is deposited in reserve in the collagens of the skin, making it less elastic. The good news is that if you reduce your sugar intake, this process is reversed;

- In India, about 2000 years ago, crystal sugar was made from cane. When Alexander the Great reached Indian territory, he was surprised by the process of obtaining honey without the use of bees (that is, artificial honey from sugar);

— In 1747, the German chemist Andreas Marggraf discovered that the sugar in sugar beet is identical to that in sugar cane. This discovery paved the way for the production of sugar in the northern regions - the first sugar factory, receiving sugar from beets, began work in 1802;

Can you eat 16 sugar cubes in one sitting? Did you know that 500 ml of Coca-Cola contains the equivalent of 16 cubes of sugar, and when you use it, all this sugar in dissolved form enters your stomach;

- Drinks with synthetic sweeteners (not natural sugar) can lead to obesity, as the lack of sugar in them "cheats" our body, forcing it to absorb more drinks;

By the way, you can solve the problem of excess weight in many different ways: from ordinary physical exercises and eating only selected foods to using a wide variety of chemical preparations, about one of which, for example, the Herbalife website will tell.

- Artificial sweeteners - aspartame (E951) and saccharin - were obtained by accident. The first in the process of oxidation of 2-toluenesulfonamide, and the second - in the course of experiments to obtain a cure for ulcers. Scientist James Schlatter accidentally dipped his finger into the resulting substance, and after licking it, found that it was sweet;

- The strongest sugar substitute is lugduname, it is almost 300,000 times sweeter than sugar. This means that in order to sweeten, for example, a cup of tea, instead of two teaspoons of ordinary sugar (about 10 g), one crystal of this wonderful substance (30 millionths of a gram) is enough. And a kilo package of lugdunam can “sweeten” an entire 10-lane Olympic pool;

- One type of sugar - glycolaldehyde was found even in accumulations of interstellar dust billions of kilometers from our planet. When it reacts with other types of sugar, ribose is formed - the basis of DNA and RNA, substances that are found in any living organism. Two assumptions can be made from this. The first is that life on Earth could originate precisely during the interaction of the components of such a dust cloud, and the second is that it is possible that life exists not only on Earth;

- If you mix glucose, corn syrup and saltpeter, you get one of the types of rocket fuel that is used by lovers of model rocket science; - In the USA, an interesting medicine is produced in tablets called Obecalp. Its main component is sugar, and such tablets are prescribed for children with minor health complaints. What is the peculiarity of this medicine? Read the title backwards;

Glycosamide (a type of sugar) works as an immunosuppressant in mice, and xylitol (sugar alcohol) can prevent infections in children.

- A monument to sugar has been erected in the Czech Republic, or more precisely, sugar - refined sugar, it was the Czechs who were the first to come up with the idea of ​​​​compressing sugar into cubes. The second known monument to refined sugar was opened in 2010 in the city of Sumy in Ukraine on the 355th anniversary of the city.

- All confectionery products (sweets, cookies, pies, ice cream and much more), as well as drinks (Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and others) contain a huge amount of sugar, up to 90%.

Sugar is produced from both cane and sugar beets. But the interesting thing is that cane sugar is yellowish in color, and it is slightly healthier than beet sugar, as the body absorbs it faster and easier.

— Curiously, scientists are ambivalent about the benefits of sugar. Some insist that when sugar is consumed, a person produces the hormone of happiness, and such people are cheerful, smiling, and friendly in life. Another point of view is based on the fact that sugar in large quantities adversely affects the human pancreas and liver.

- It is also useful to know that sugar causes a certain dependence on oneself. There is even an opinion that sugar is to some extent a “drug”, in the good sense of the word.

- They learned how to make fuel for cars from sugar, and what is most interesting, the release of batteries is expected soon, in which sugar wakes up to play the role of an electrolyte.

- According to astronomers, particles similar in properties to sugar have been found in space.

Sugar is an ingredient in many medicines.

- There is no fat in sugar, therefore, it does not affect the fullness of a person.

It's no secret that the abuse of sweet foods carries a lot of dangers: from excess weight to the development of serious diseases of the heart, liver and endocrine system of the body. Nevertheless, even the most vigilant adherents of a healthy lifestyle continue to exceed the daily intake of glucose every day. The reason for this is sweeteners and sweeteners, which are found in most familiar foods. Vinegret - about which names on the labels should be a stop signal when buying and why.

1. Hidden threat.

According to statistics, sugar is added to 74% of all finished products that end up on store shelves. If, when accounting for the sugar eaten per day, you counted only those few spoons that were added to food and drinks during the day, then this is self-deception. The norm of sugar consumption per day is 30 grams (6 teaspoons). But when you factor in snacks at work, desserts at lunch, and sweet yogurt for breakfast, the real figure is truly daunting: on average, each person eats a total of 100 to 140 grams of sugar a day. Monitor your own diet throughout the day, carefully recording all the sugar in your food. Most likely, the result will unpleasantly surprise you.

2. How would it be in Russian?

To confuse vigilant buyers, manufacturers use at least 61 synonyms for the word "sugar" on product labels. Some of the most popular sweeteners include glucose, dextrose, maltose, molasses, sorbitol, fructose, barley malt, and many varieties of syrups, from corn to cane.

3. Deceptive maneuver.

One of the main sweeteners that inspires confidence in almost everyone is fructose. Despite the harmless name, which evokes associations with healthy fruits, fructose has almost the same effect on the liver as alcohol does: it destroys it and causes pathologies.

4. Big races.

The claim that sugar helps to cope with a bad mood is not true. The quick effect of a chocolate bar or cookie, whether it is an energy boost or an attack of euphoria, is associated with an increase in insulin levels in the blood, which is invariably followed by a sharp decline: after all, as a result, sugar drops below the norm, which leads to dizziness, apathy, fatigue, nausea, severe irritability and entails other symptoms of hypoglycemia.

5. Mathematical analysis.

Just one can of soda per day increases the likelihood of dying from cardiovascular disease by about a third. The reason is obvious: the very high sugar content. For example, half a liter of cola contains the equivalent of about 16 teaspoons of sugar.

One of these points may be the cause of poor health or problems with getting rid of extra pounds. No one talks about the complete exclusion of sugar and its derivatives from the daily diet. And yet, it is worth starting to closely monitor the amount of sweets eaten and competently limit the number of desserts and sugar-containing foods - then the result in the form of improved health, skin, hair, and therefore mood will not be long in coming.

Mankind consumes sugar in all its manifestations, without even thinking about what kind of "sugar" his body needs. We eat cereals, pasta, flour and chocolate, fruits, both ours and exotic, without realizing how much we need this very "fuel".

What is sugar, do we need it or not, and what

We present all the most interesting facts about sugar about this wonderful "gasoline" for a person.

A bit of history

Sugar in the common people, and sucrose - in a scientific way, came from India thanks to the Egyptians. They were such "intermediaries" between India and Europe. In Russia, he appeared in the XI-XII centuries. Then only the prince and nobles could "taste" it. Domestic production began to improve in 1809 thanks to our own raw materials - beets.

Varieties

Popular beet sugar or refined white is present in the life of each of us thanks to Napoleon, who since 1806 was able to create a "fruitful" and solid ground for its production.

Cane sugar until the 19th century was an item of luxury and wealth. And the development as such, he received thanks to Columbus, who carefully transferred this plant of "chicness" to Haiti from the Canary Islands. This culture had enormous opportunities even then to satisfy the population of Europe.

Brown sugar, which is gaining more and more popularity every day, is actually more high-calorie and has a lot of impurities. This is the same cane sugar, only unrefined.

Here are some more interesting facts about sugar

• thanks to the cultivation of cane in Suriname, New York came into the possession of Britain in 1674.
• about 1 million slaves from the African continent were brought by Europeans to the plantations of Jamaica and Barbados to harvest cane from 1701 to 1810.
• Tsar Peter I issued a decree to produce sugar in 1718.
• In the 18th century, the German chemist Markgraf brought sugar to the state of "solid".
• in the 19th century, Russians paid 3 rubles for a pound of sugar, despite the fact that a piece of beef was 2 kopecks, and a chicken cost 5 kopecks.

And finally

Of course, everything has changed since the 19th century, not to mention what happened before. Sugar has become extremely popular, businessmen make huge money on this production, and the consumer always has something to choose from on store shelves.

Be careful when buying this or that type of sugar, and then everything "eaten" will only benefit you. It was written about the beneficial properties of sugar.

For facts about the harmful effects of sugar on the human body, see this video. Or in the player below.

There are 2 largest deserts in the world - the Sahara and Antarctica. The first thing that comes to mind when the phrase “Sahara desert” is endless sand and unbearable heat. "Sahara" is so simply translated - "sand". Our desert is really huge - its area is about 9 million square kilometers and is about 30% of the area of ​​the whole continent - Africa. So, interesting facts about the Sahara.

Nature

Sahara desert - interesting facts about animals and plants. It is amazing how living organisms can survive at all in such a dry and hot area. Millions of years of evolution have made them resistant to such weather conditions and taught them to take advantage of any situation.

No matter how uninhabitable this place seems at first glance, about 4 thousand species of animals live here.

Even such an arid and hot area as Death Valley (not to be confused with the desert in the United States, there is also an arid place with a similar name in the Sahara) is inhabited by various animal species. Surprisingly, among them there are 13 species of fish.

The lizard Moloch lives here, whose body is dotted with microscopic channels that collect all the moisture from the environment and transport it to Moloch in the mouth. Buried in wet sand, the lizard can get drunk.

The desert area is also inhabited by scorpions, monitor lizards, snakes and camels. The latter can feed on thorns and cacti, extracting moisture from them.

Plant roots can stretch up to 20 meters deep. In this way they get moisture from groundwater.

The smallest representative of the cats lives here - the sand cat, whose body is only up to 40 centimeters in length. Another 30 cm is occupied by the tail.

Weather

What about the weather in the Sahara Desert? Interesting facts never cease to amaze us:

1. The temperature fluctuations are amazing. For example, during the day we can observe heat over 50 degrees, and at night it will be very cold, and the temperature will drop below zero.
2. Twice in history, snow has been recorded on the Egyptian part of the Sahara.
3. Monthly precipitation on average does not exceed 20 mm. For example, in St. Petersburg this figure is 662 mm, and in Moscow 708 mm. Rains in the desert (besides the fact that they are very rare) do not even have time to soak into the ground - the temperature does its job and the moisture immediately evaporates.
4. Once every few decades, heavy rain can fall in a separate place, after which the area is transformed, turning into a flowering steppe - plant seeds can wait a long time for moisture and germinate when it appears.
5. Approximately once a century in the desert snow falls in such quantities that you can play snowballs.
6. In Saudi Arabia, which does not belong to the Sahara, but is geographically its continuation, there is no river that would flow all year round - they all dry up for a certain period, and then reappear.

Surely you have heard about such a concept as “oasis”, and wondered: “Where, in fact, does it come from?”. The fact is that under such oases you can find a huge underground lake, which in terms of water volume will surpass any terrestrial one. Trees and lakes in such oases feed on these sources.

Peculiarities

The interesting facts about the desert do not end there. Undoubtedly, the desert is a real miracle of nature and a unique phenomenon. Have you ever seen geographic objects move right in front of your eyes?

• Dunes have this property. With the help of the wind, they can move from place to place.
• And the winds in the desert blow almost always because of the relatively flat surface of the earth. You will be very lucky if at least 25 days a year are windless.
• By the way, the dunes reach up to 200 meters in height.
• The highest point in the Sahara is Emi Kouso at 3415 meters.
• The Sahara has not always been a desert. About 5 thousand years ago, people lived on its modern territory. Naturally, people would not settle in a scorched wasteland. There were lakes everywhere and trees grew. After the onset of the desert, people came to the Nile Valley, forming the ancient Egyptian civilization.

The desert can be deceiving. It happens that in the distance one sees a water surface, which a person can take for an oasis. But as soon as he gets close to it, the vision disappears. It's called a mirage. A mirage appears when there is excess heat that evaporates moisture. Moisture, in turn, refracts light, as a result of which various objects appear on the horizon that do not actually exist. The Flying Dutchman is a sailor's tale, which just arose because of the mirages that the sailors saw.