Interesting facts about the Sahara desert. Interesting about the largest desert in the world - the Sahara. The most amazing facts about sugar

• According to available data, the average Russian consumes 91 g of sugar per day, a resident of Switzerland – 117 g, and an American – approximately 212 g;

• currently 59% of all sugar in the world is produced from cane, 41% from beets;
• The Czechs were the first to come up with the idea of ​​compacting sugar into cubes (the idea first appeared in 1843). On this occasion, a monument to refined sugar was erected in the Czech Republic on the site of a sugar factory;
• sugar is present in the fibers of all plants, because is a component of photosynthesis;
• Scientists have published statistics on sugar consumption per year in Europe per person. So, in the 1850s, a person ate about 1.8 - 2 kg of sugar per year, in the 1920s the amount of sugar consumed increased to an average of 17 kg, in the 2000s the figure rose to 37 kg;

• The largest sugar producer in the world in 2011 is Brazil. India is in second place, the third and fourth positions are occupied by the European Union and China, respectively;
• By conducting experiments on rats, scientists were able to establish that eating sugar leads to addiction, while the changes that occur in the brain are similar to those that occur when consuming nicotine, cocaine or morphine;
• Lugdunam can replace sugar - it is 300,000 times sweeter. 1 crystal of this substance is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of sugar;
• According to the UN Agriculture and Food Organization, sugar cane is the most productive plant. In 2011, 168 million tons of sugar were produced from it worldwide;
• Based on the research results, scientists concluded that daily norm sugar consumption for women is 4 teaspoons, men are allowed 6 teaspoons per day, and children only 1 teaspoon;
• Dates contain the largest amount of sugar among vegetables and fruits - 33.68 grams of white matter per 100 grams of product. Next with a significant difference comes the exotic jackfruit - 9.48 grams, in third place is the sultana grape with 7.2 grams of sugar;

• scientists have found that addiction and cravings for sweets can be hereditary;
• sugar is actively used in the production of plastics, leather tanning, pharmaceutical, tobacco and other non-food industries;
• the lethal dose of sugar for humans is 700 grams;
• industrially produced sugar and sucrose found naturally in products do not make any difference to the body;
• brown sugar is richer in minerals and vitamins than granulated sugar;
• It has been proven that if you completely give up sugar, the body will not suffer in any way. A person consumes a sufficient amount of glucose in the form of vegetables and fruits.

The endless Sahara Desert has become synonymous with a hot, barren place where there is no life. In fact, this is not so - the interesting local ecosystem has long been able to adapt to existence in such extreme conditions, although, of course, it is not easy for humans to survive here. However, people also live in the Sahara, but an unprepared person in these inhospitable regions will definitely not last long.

Facts about the Sahara Desert

• In terms of area, it is approximately equal to half the area of ​​Russia or the entire area of ​​Brazil.
• The Sahara Desert accounts for about 30% of the area of ​​all of Africa.
• Contrary to popular belief, the Sahara Desert is not the largest on Earth - the palm belongs to the Antarctic Desert. But among the usual deserts with sand, heat and dunes, the Sahara takes first place ().
• Every year the Sahara conquers more and more space for itself. It expands to the south, moving 5-10 km annually.
• People live around oases in the Sahara.
• There are as many rocky areas here as there are sandy areas.
• The name “Sahara” comes from a consonant Arabic word, which translated simply means “desert”.
• Rich deposits of gas and oil have been discovered on its territory.
• Among hot deserts, the Sahara is not the driest. There are rains here, albeit vanishingly rarely, but in the Chilean Atacama Desert there hasn’t been any for about 400 years ().
• The highest point in the Sahara is the Emi Koussi peak, rising 3.4 km above sea level.
• Partially on its territory there are 9 states plus one unrecognized one, called Western Sahara.
• The height of sand dunes in the Sahara Desert can reach 160-180 meters. This is higher than a building of 70 floors.
• It snowed in the Sahara in 1879 and 2012. True, he immediately melted.
• It is vanishingly rare here to experience heavy rains that last for several days.
• On the seemingly lifeless territory of the Sahara, about 500 various types plants.
• The only river that constantly flows across the borders of the Sahara is the mighty Nile ().
• In total, about 2 million people live in the Sahara, mainly Berbers and Tuaregs.

• Most of the oases here appear in places where water from underwater rivers makes its way to the surface.
• Scientists have established that these regions turned into a desert about 5 million years ago, but the Sahara finally took on its modern appearance about 10,000 years ago.
• About 6,000 years ago, rivers flowed through it, but now all of them, except the Nile, have dried up.
• Every year, powerful winds bring clouds full of sand from the Sahara onto the African island country of Cape Verde, creating a lot of inconvenience for local residents ().
• In the very center of the Sahara, archaeologists have discovered ancient cave paintings indicating that primitive people once lived in these parts.
• There are permanent lakes in the Sahara, such as Ounianga and Ubari.
• The highest air temperature ever recorded in the Sahara was +57.8 degrees. At the same time, the surface here sometimes heats up to +80 degrees.
• In total, about 4,000 species of living creatures live here.
• In the central part of the Sahara it rains once every few years.
• On average, about 75 mm of precipitation falls here per year.
• In the Sahara, under the influence of southern winds, monstrous sandstorms arise, which then fall on the surrounding countries and sometimes rage for several days ().
• Much of the Sahara experiences heavy dew in the mornings.
• In the local mountain ranges there are frosts at night, and the air temperature drops to -18 degrees.
• In some parts of the Sahara, the average daily temperature exceeds +40 degrees. However, it is usually quite cold here at night.
• On the northern plateaus of the Sahara, snow falls almost every year.
• In medieval times, trade caravans passed through it, the largest of which, according to Arab historians, consisted of almost 12,000 camels.

Scientists, nutritionists, and sweet lovers have long and seriously debated the benefits and harms of sugar. Everyone has a huge number of their own arguments, which most often cause an irresistible desire to stop consuming sugar.

Of course, like any product, sugar should be in the diet, because it is a source of energy for the human body, a necessary ingredient for the functioning of many organs. But for it to be beneficial, you need to know when to stop. About 50 grams of sugar per day will do the trick good service, and its excess will destroy health. And we are not talking about pure sugar, which we put in coffee, but about the entire amount that enters the body with food. Today it is added to almost all products, so before purchasing or consuming it is important to study their composition.

We have selected 10 interesting facts about sugar that will make you look at this sweet additive more objectively and seriously.

1. Sugar has bactericidal properties

2. Rafinade found a place in art

3. There are several types of sugar

4. Sugar gets rid of coffee and spice odors

5. Removes stains from things

6. Companion to medicines

7. Too much leads to problems.

8. A little about sugar substitutes

Every day, but not many people know about its properties, origin and its substitutes.

This article contains a selection of interesting facts and information about this incredibly popular sweet product among almost all peoples and strata of society.

1. So, let's start with the fact that sugar is a fairly universal product. After all, it is used as food by all peoples in all countries of the world, and it has long been known to the most developed cultures of mankind. And it is called universal due to the fact that sugar is not only put into tea or food, it is also used for various preparations, pickles and even first and second courses.

2. A terrible statement that sugar is nothing more than white death, many people heard in childhood. This is how parents often scare their children with a sweet tooth so that they don’t eat a lot of goodies. For those who doubt it, it should be noted that this is the honest truth: sugar can be removed from the human body nutrients, one of them is calcium, which is very important for the body. Due to this feature of white sweet crystals, bones can be destroyed and caries may appear. It causes arthritis and muscle atrophy, excess sugar often leads to blood diseases and hemophilia.

3. There are a great many types of sugar. In addition to the well-known granulated sugar and refined sugar, there is also sawn sugar, which is sawed off from a lump of sugar. Burnt sugar or candy sugar can even be prepared at home; it helps with colds.

4. One of the most exotic varieties of sugar can easily be considered malt sugar, which is made from rice or millet. This type has been used by the Japanese for many millennia. It's good to add to baby food and for baking. In China, candy is prepared; it comes in 3 types - yellow, white and dark. It is very difficult and time-consuming to produce: first, the syrup is boiled for 10 days, then washed in water with lime and dried. The result is granules that take a long time to dissolve in water. And the population of Southeast Asia uses golden toffee jageri to sweeten their food. This sugar is made from the sap of the sugar palm, has a pleasant taste and is usually packaged in bars.

5. The source of our usual sugar is usually sugar cane or beets. Even during the discovery of America by Columbus, there was a real sensation associated with the cultivation of sugar cane and the extraction of sugar itself. For a very long time, this sweet product was available only to the rich, as it was grown on plantations in America, and only then transported by ship to Europe. Beetroot made sugar cheaper, which served as a cheap analogue of cane, because it can be grown in a harsher climate.

— If you consume excessive amounts of sugar, this can lead to the appearance of wrinkles due to the fact that sugar is stored in reserve in the collagen of the skin, making it less elastic. The good news is that if you reduce your sugar intake, this process is reversed;

— In India, about 2000 years ago, crystalline sugar was made from cane. When Alexander the Great reached Indian territory, he was surprised by the process of producing honey without the use of bees (that is, artificial honey from sugar);

— In 1747, the German chemist Andreas Marggraf discovered that the sugar in sugar beets is identical to that in sugar cane. This discovery opened the way for sugar production in the northern regions - the first sugar factory producing sugar from beets began operating in 1802;

—Can you eat 16 sugar cubes in one sitting? Did you know that 500 ml of Coca-Cola contains the equivalent of 16 cubes of sugar, and when you drink it, all this sugar gets dissolved into your stomach;

- Drinks using synthetic sweeteners (not natural sugar) can lead to obesity, since the lack of sugar in them “tricks” our body into absorbing more drinks;

By the way, solve the problem excess weight possible in many ways in various ways: from ordinary physical exercise and eating only selected foods before using a wide variety of chemicals, about one of which, for example, the Herbalife website will tell you.

- Artificial sweeteners - aspartame (E951) and saccharin - were obtained by accident. The first was in the process of oxidizing 2-toluenesulfonamide, and the second was during experiments to obtain a medicine for ulcers. Scientist James Schlatter accidentally dipped his finger into the resulting substance and, after licking it, discovered that it was sweet;

— The most powerful sugar substitute is lugduname, it is almost 300,000 times sweeter than sugar. This means that in order to sweeten, for example, a cup of tea, instead of two teaspoons of regular sugar (about 10 g), one crystal of this wonderful substance (30 millionths of a gram) is enough. And a kilogram packet of lugdunam can “sweeten” an entire 10-lane Olympic swimming pool;

— One type of sugar, glycolaldehyde, was found even in accumulations of interstellar dust billions of kilometers from our planet. When it reacts with other types of sugar, ribose is formed - the basis of DNA and RNA, substances that are found in any living organism. Two assumptions can be made from this. First, life on Earth could have arisen precisely through the interaction of the components of such a dust cloud, and second, perhaps life exists not only on Earth;

— If you mix glucose, corn syrup and saltpeter, you get one of the types of rocket fuel that is used by model rocketry enthusiasts; — An interesting medicine in tablets called Obecalp is produced in the USA. Its main component is sugar, and such tablets are prescribed to children for minor health complaints. What is special about this medicine? Read the title backwards;

— Glycosamide (a type of sugar) works as an immunosuppressant in experiments on mice, and xylitol (sugar alcohol) can prevent infections in children.

— In the Czech Republic there is a monument to sugar, or more precisely, refined sugar; it was the Czechs who were the first to come up with the idea of ​​pressing sugar into cubes. The second famous monument to refined sugar was opened in 2010 in the city of Sumy in Ukraine on the 355th anniversary of the city.

— All confectionery products (sweets, cookies, pies, ice cream and much more), as well as drinks (Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and others) contain a huge amount of sugar, up to 90%.

— Sugar is produced from both cane and sugar beets. But the interesting thing is that cane sugar is yellowish in color, and it is slightly healthier than beet sugar, since the body absorbs it faster and easier.

— It is interesting that scientists are ambivalent about the benefits of sugar. Some insist that when a person consumes sugar, a hormone of happiness is produced, and such people in life are cheerful, smiling, and friendly. Another point of view is based on the fact that sugar in large quantities has a detrimental effect on the human pancreas and liver.

— It’s also useful to know that sugar is somewhat addictive. There is even an opinion that sugar is to a certain extent a “drug”, in the good sense of the word.

— They have learned to make fuel for cars from sugar, and what’s most interesting is that batteries in which sugar plays the role of an electrolyte are expected to be released soon.

— According to astronomers, particles similar in properties to sugar have been discovered in space.

— Sugar is included in many medicines.

— There is no fat in sugar, therefore, it does not affect a person’s fatness.

There are probably no people who don't like sugar. It is interesting to find out what sugar is, how it is useful, and maybe dangerous for our body. We have selected for you interesting facts that concern sugar.

In the Czech Republic there is a monument to sugar, or more precisely, refined sugar; it was the Czechs who were the first to come up with the idea of ​​pressing sugar into cubes.

The second famous monument to refined sugar was opened in 2010 in the city of Sumy in Ukraine on the 355th anniversary of the city.

• All confectionery products (sweets, cookies, pies, ice cream and much more), as well as drinks (Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and others) contain a huge amount of sugar, up to 90%.
• Sugar is produced from both cane and sugar beets. But the interesting thing is that cane sugar is yellowish in color, and it is a little healthier than beet sugar, since the body absorbs it faster and easier.
• It is interesting that scientists are ambivalent about the benefits of sugar. Some insist that when a person consumes sugar, a hormone of happiness is produced, and such people in life are cheerful, smiling, and friendly. Another point of view is based on the fact that sugar in large quantities has a detrimental effect on the human pancreas and liver.
• It is also useful to know that sugar is somewhat addictive. There is even an opinion that sugar is to a certain extent a “drug”, in the good sense of the word.
• They have learned to make fuel for cars from sugar, and what’s most interesting is that batteries in which sugar plays the role of an electrolyte are expected to be released soon.
• As you know, doctors recommend giving babies water in which sugar is slightly diluted; this is done so that sucrose gets into the baby’s brain, thereby stimulating the child’s mental development.
• According to astronomers, particles with properties similar to sugar have been discovered in space.
• Sugar is included in many medicines.
• There is no fat in sugar, therefore, it does not affect a person’s fatness.