The Science of Sugar
If you ask a nutritionist about sugar, they will talk about calories and insulin. But if you ask a food scientist, they will talk about structure, color, and preservation. In the culinary world, sugar is widely misunderstood. We tend to think of it merely as a flavor additive — something to make things taste good. But sugar is actually one of the most hardworking functional ingredients in your pantry. It is a tenderizer, a preservative, a browning agent, and a texture modifier. If you have ever baked a cake that turned out like a brick, or a cookie that didn’t spread, the culprit wasn’t usually the flour — it was the sugar. Let’s decode the white stuff.
