Sucrose, a sugar everyone knows

Following my attempt to learn more about what I am eating and what the words on labels mean, I have started looking at the 50 names for sugar. Here is a break down on Sucrose, the most common type of sugar. Sucrose is so common that most people refer to it as table sugar.

Sucrose is found in many foods, including, bread, ice cream, candy, pastries, cookies, soda, fruit juices, canned fruit, processed meat, breakfast cereals and so much more. It is often an added ingredient in food production and a lot of recipes.

Since sucrose is a natural carbohydrate, it can be naturally found in a lot of plants and fruits.

Sucrose mainly gets extracted from sugar cane and sugar beets but can be extracted from other fruits and plants. The sugar is extracted using hot water and is then concentrated into a syrup to finally be crystallized into the form we recognise as table sugar. Glucose and fructose are the two compounds that makeup sucrose.

Other names for sucrose include:

• beet sugar
• refined sugar
• cane sugar,
• or just plain sugar.

While most dangers around too much ‘sugar’ consumption, from tooth cavities to diabetes, have been becoming common knowledge, and avoidance has been advised, it is almost impossible to avoid sugar in our current consumer market.