A teaspoon of table sugar (about 4 grams) contains roughly 15 calories.

Sugar in its pure white granulated form does not spoil, meaning it effectively has no de facto expiration date.

Pure sugar contains no preservatives or additives. It is simply sucrose from plants, refined and washed.

Although we often see sugar already white, that color results from processing. Sugar from the plants is washed to remove molasses and plant materials.

Sugar is used in medicine to mask the bitter tastes of drugs. It was one of the first pharmaceutical ingredients employed for that purpose.

Sugar serves more than sweetness. In low fat chocolate milk for example, it helps increase thickness and enhance flavor.

Sugar has been used in wound healing. When applied to an open wound, sugar absorbs moisture and thereby helps inhibit bacterial growth.

Sugar is found in all plants. It is a product of photosynthesis, though only some plants contain it in high enough concentrations for commercial extraction.

Most commercial sugar (more than seventy five percent) comes from just two plants: the sugarcane and the sugar beet. The cane version dominates. Sugarcane accounts for about three quarters of global sugar production because of its climate and production advantages over beet sugar.

Sugar, or at least sugarcane, has been consumed for more than ten thousand years, with origins in places such as New Guinea and South East Asia.

When sugar was introduced into the West, for example England in the Middle Ages, it was treated as a luxury spice rather than a daily sweetener.

Our biology is wired to enjoy sweetness. The preference for sweet tastes in early development likely helped infants accept human milk and fruits.

The sugar beet industry has a long history. The first beet sugar factory was built around 1801.

Sugar substitutes, or artificial sweeteners, can be two hundred to seven hundred times sweeter than table sugar and are regulated food additives.

Even fruit juices, honey, and syrups, though natural, can contribute large amounts of free sugars and still need to be moderated.

Sugar was once so valuable that elite households kept it locked in sugar safes to protect it from theft.

Sugar cubes as we know them were developed in the early nineteenth century as a way to create uniform sugar pieces instead of loaves of sugar.

Despite its sweet image, sugar originally came from chewing raw sugarcane stalks, and later crystallization techniques were developed around 500 BC in India and China.

When people consume large amounts of added sugar, it can contribute to insulin resistance, high triglycerides, and may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.