Random Facts- Cool facts to Impress Your Family Book 1

Facts-Sugar

1. There around 61 different names for sugar.

2.Crystallized sugar has been around a long time. People have been crystallizing sugar from sugar cane for at least 2000 years, but the joys of the sweet stuff didn't come to western shires for some time. When Alexander the Great's army found sugar in India, they were amazed at how honey could be produced without bees.

3. Sugar can be used as rocket fuel. Sugar is the main component of the fuel used in rockets by amateur rocket enthusiasts. If you burn sucrose with some corn syrup and saltpetre, you get sugar propellant, which is used to power small rockets.

4. Sugar hides in many foods. Sugar is added to many different types of food, including savory items. You know you have to cut back on candy, soda and cakes, to reduce your sugar intake, but it is also present in ketchup, processed foods and even bread.

5. Artificial sweeteners were found by accident. Sucralose, now sold in the shops as Splenda, was discovered by scientists trying to create a new insecticide. Apparently, a research assistant who misunderstood his instructions to test the new compound thought he had been told to taste it. He discovered that it tasted sweet.

6. Sugar doesn't rot your teeth. Tooth decay isn't caused by sugar, it's caused by the bacteria that feed off the sugar. These bacteria will actually feed off any carbohydrate, so starchy foods that can get stuck to your teeth can be just as damaging.

7. The sugar pill medicine. Children are sometimes prescribed a sugar pill marketed under the name of 'Obecalp', for minor complaints. When a doctor prescribes 'Obecalp', a pharmacist knows exactly what to do. Just read the name backwards!

8. You can be genetically addicted to sugar. Having a sweet tooth is not always just an excuse to eat too much candy. Scientists have found that some individuals have genetic variations that affect their production of a hunger hormone called ghrelin, which makes them want to eat more sugar.

9. Too much sugar can affect your memory. Eating sugar can accelerate the aging process of cells and of particular concern is the effect that this has on brain cells. In a study, scientists found that excess consumption of sugar can result in a loss of memory and a reduction in overall mental agility.

10. Sugary drinks are thought to cause around 200,000 deaths a year. A study carried out in 2013 estimated that approximately almost 200,000 deaths, worldwide, can be attributed to people drinking high sugar drinks and soda. Did you know, for example, that a single can of regular cola contains the equivalent of more, than twelve sugar cubes? When it comes to sugar, moderation is the key.

11. The sugar from cane and beet is identical. It was a German chemist, Andreas Marggraf, who discovered that the sugar obtained from sugar beet is identical to that obtained from sugar cane. It was this discovery that lead on to the production of sugar in more northern climes.

12.Saccharophobia is the fear of sugar and sugary foods.

13. Trick: Sugar may give you wrinkles via a process called glycation, in which excess blood sugar binds to collagen in the skin, making it less elastic.

14. More than half the 8.4 million metric tons of sugar produced annually in the United States comes from beets.

15 Glycolaldehyde, an eight-atom sugar, has even been found in an interstellar gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way.

16 Glycolaldehyde can react with a three-carbon sugar to form ribose, the basis for both RNA and DNA, so the glycol­aldehyde found in deep space may be a chemical precursor to life on Earth.

17 That cloud also contains ethylene glycol, a sweet relative of glycol­aldehyde and the main ingredient in antifreeze. Either complex sugars can be synthesized between the stars or there is a truck stop at the end of the universe.

18 Sugar can help get you there to find out. Burn sucrose with a dose of corn syrup and saltpeter and you get "sugar propellant," a popular amateur rocket fuel.

19 How do you spell relief? "Obecalp," a sugar pill manufactured to FDA standards, is marketed as a treatment for children's mild complaints. (Try reading the name backward.)

20 It's not all mind games. The sugar glucosamine works as an immunosuppressant in mice, and xylitol (a sugar alcohol) can prevent ear infections in kids. Sweet!