Sugar, from the Greek word saccharis, is a term with a variety of meanings. To the biochemist, sugar is a broad term covering a large group of related organic compounds, all of which are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Green plants utilize their chlorophyll to transform solar energy (sunlight) into chemical energy by converting carbon dioxide and water into plant sugars through the process of photosynthesis. Generally, when people speak of sugar, they are referring to sucrose, which is a disaccharide or double sugar composed of equal parts of glucose and fructose. Glucose and fructose are monosaccarides or single sugars, found in fruits and in honey (together with sucrose). There are hundreds of different sugars and these are only a small section of the vast family of carbohydrates, which includes cellulose at one end of the scale and simple alcohols at the other. Starches, also made by...