The Sugar That Is Not Sweet at All 

Source of pictures:Pixabay.com

On Saturday morning, mom went to work overtime. Daniel got up and went into the kitchen. He found a glass of milk and some bread left by his mom. He took a few sips ofthemilk and felta strange taste. Did mom forget to add sugar?He opened the seasoning box and found thatthe sugar had run out. Then he opened the cupboard drawer to see if there was any sugar. He saw a bottle of white powders with the label "agarose" on it. It looked like white sugar but he couldn't sure whether it was.Anyway, he just wanted to sweeten the milk. He poured a small spoonful of this "sugar" into the milk and stirred it and took a sip. But he found the milk wasn't sweet as well. He added another spoon of "sugar" and covered the milk with a thick layer of fine white powder. He stirred again and found that the "sugar" was not soluble and the milk became a bit muddy. Hekeptstirringandtook a sip,tastinga strange tasteas if there were powders sticking on his tongue. Wondering if the "sugar" was expired, he dipped it in a spoon to taste and found it was not sweet at all. Daniel thought angrily: "It's not sweet at all.Why isn't it called agar only?"

It was almost noon when mom came back. Seeing that mom had brought a packed lunch, Daniel went to clear the table. Mom put the takeaway on the table and saw that the milk she had left for Daniel was still there. So she asked, "Did you eat breakfast this morning? I left a glass of milk for you. Why didn't you drink it?"

"The milk is not sweet at all. I don't want to drink it," Daniel said while unpacking the takeaway box.

This reminded mom that she had forgotten to buy sugar.

Daniel continued, "I added sugar in it but it's not sweet yet. Mom, did the sugar go bad?"

Daniel opened a box of cakes and took a fork from his mom. Mom felt a little funny and said, "Who told you sugar must be sweet? Fig newton is not made by Isaac Newton."

Daniel couldn't answerthis questionandrealizedthat the name did not speak for itself. But why put agarose in the kitchen since it's not sweet? So he asked, "Since agarose is not sweet, what do we do with it and why put it in the kitchen?"

Momreplied, "It's useful and don't look downonit. I can use it to make your favorite jelly and ice cream. Compared with other sugars, it can dissolve by heating and form a gel when it cools although it is not sweet. No other sugar can do that."

"Not all sugar is sweet andnot allsweet things aresugars. Saccharide is a substancecan be found widely in the cells of plants, human body, and bacteria, such as fructose and glucose in fruit, cellulose invegetables, lactose in milk, and starch in bread and steamed buns. Other sugars like white granulated sugar and brown sugar that we use most are extracted from raw materials such as sugarcanes or sugar beet.”

Daniel pointed at the jar of agarose with his fork and asked, "”is this made from agar?"

"You're right," Mom replied,"agarose is part of agar and agar is made from algae such as red algae."

Daniel asked on a whim, "Which is the sweetest sugar?"

"Different sugars have varying degrees of sweetness. We usually choose sucrose as the benchmark and compare it with other sugars. Fructose should be the sweetest in common sugars. There are now many synthetic sweeteners, such as sodium cyclamate and aspartame which you often see on food wrappers. These sweeteners are also found in many sugary drinks. But they aretoosweet and can result in tooth decay and obesity." With that, mom began to eat lunch quietly.

Author: Huang Jing