Part 1/8:

The Sweet Journey of Sugar: From Cane to Candy

Sugar, often recognized as the sweetest food item on Earth, plays a significant role in our daily diets, especially in desserts. In fact, Americans consume approximately 17 teaspoons or 71 grams of sugar every day, which is three times the recommended amount. When considering that around half of the U.S. population consumes this much, it totals an astounding 11,786 metric tons of sugar daily! As of 2023, the world produced a remarkable 177 million metric tons of sugar, with Brazil being the largest producer, yielding 46.9 million metric tons of sugar cane annually, followed closely by India at 33.1 million metric tons. Together, these two countries account for 44% of the global sugar production, valued at approximately $78.1 billion.