"Our white, refined sugar..."

Our white, refined sugar containing sucrose is made mostly from beets and cane. Both plants needs different climate zone, soils and level of precipitation, temperature and moisture as well, so it isn't strange that they're cultivated in different parts of Earth. Together they give 3/4 of world's sugar production and now we'll take a closer look to them.

As you can see on map, world's potentates in production of sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) are countries from Asia (India and China) and from South America (Brasil and Angertina). Big plantations of sugarcane are also in Australia, because sugarcane needs a lot of sun, heat and moisture, semipermeable, poor in organic compounds soils, like oxisols, so tropical and subtropical climates are best for its cultivation.

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) cultivation is different. World's potentates of it's production are some countries from Central Europe, Russia and eastern part of USA and China. Sugar beet grows in heavy soils, mostly alfisols and ultisols and needs lower temprature, and less amount of precipitation during growing season than sugar cane, so it's cultivated in tempered zone with shorter vegetation period.

So what is the way from sugar beet and sugar cane to rafined sugar ? ... 

It'll be easier for me to describe it by sugar beet, cause I live in Poland :).
First of all we need some sugar beets. We wash them and cut into strips. Then we pour them into sugar extractors with hot water, starting process of leaching sugar. Waste formed during this process is used as feed for farm animals and sugar solution is further purified by addition of lime milk (here we wash out all minerals like calcium carbonate, potassium and phosphorus salts and nitrogen compounds! ) and saturates solution with carbon dioxide (carbonation). Then we filter it in several stages and after it to have our beauty, white crystals we have to evaporate water from the solution in evaporation machines and split brown molasses from it in centrifuges and we have our final product.

Pretty cool, isn't it ? Yes - I can almost feel the taste of sugar beet in it after this process ;) ... All was going well until I we came up with the industry and started to treat food like deposits of rocks, wood or sth like that. And we can subject it in many processes to have completely different products after. And that is quite scary, cause no other animals use it, and so we can easily answer to question - why do we have so many diseases having such an advanced level of medicine at the same time ? ...

We eat too many refined products, full of carbohydrates and sugar (look into McD-d's menu) and poor in minerals, vitamins and other usefull stuff. And that's why I'm writting this blog. We'll be always a consumers but we can be conscious too ...

Wiliam Dufty in his book "Sugar Blues" wrote:

" (...) Heroin is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the poppy and they refine it in to opium and then they refine it to morphine and finally to heroin. Sugar is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the cane or the beet and they refine it in to molassdes and then they refine it to brown sugar and finally to strange white crystals (...)".

Now go to your kitchen, open the fridge, browse in your cupboards and check how much product contains no sugar ...

Good luck :)