The English consumed
nearly as much as the Americans; the French and Germans about half as
much; the Balkan peoples less than ten pounds per annum; and the African
savages none.
[Illustration: How the sugar beet has gained enormously in sugar content
under chemical control]
Pure white sugar is the first and greatest contribution of chemistry to
the world's dietary. It is unique in being a single definite chemical
compound, sucrose, C_{12}H_{22}O_{11}. All natural nutriments are more
or less complex mixtures. Many of them, like wheat or milk or fruit,
contain in various proportions all of the three factors of foods, the
fats, the proteids and the carbohydrates, as well as water and the
minerals and other ingredients necessary to life. But sugar is a simple
substance, like water or salt, and like them is incapable of sustaining
life alone, although unlike them it is nutritious. In fact, except the
fats there is no more nutritious food than sugar, pound for pound, for
it contains no water and no waste.
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