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Science & Tech
Zoomed in photo of a pile of sugar cubes in a wooden stop on a wooden table.
© Cozine/stock.adobe.com

Sugar in fruit and sugar in processed foods are not the same. Fruits contain sugars known as fructose and glucose. When these sugars are combined, the result is sucrose (commonly called table sugar or white sugar). Sucrose occurs naturally in almost all plants but is especially abundant in sugarcane, sugar beets, sugar maple sap, dates, and honey. Sucrose is produced commercially (mostly from sugarcane and sugar beets) for use as an industrial sweetener that can be added to foods and beverages. Processed sugar is concentrated and refined and thus has been exposed to various factors, including reagents and chemical reactions that remove colorants and that facilitate crystallization.

Although sucrose is found in most plants, with few exceptions (e.g., sugarcane, sugar beets) it does not occur in very high concentrations. Thus, the major sugars—fructose, glucose, and sucrose—generally are not very dense in fresh fruits. A medium-sized apple, for example, contains about 19 grams of sugar.

By contrast, soft drinks and sweets are very dense in processed sugar. A chocolate candy bar contains, on average, about 35 grams of sugar, while one soft drink can have as many as 39 grams of sugar. In addition, whereas fruits contain many other nutrients, like vitamin C, and fiber, sweets lack these healthy components. The relatively low sugar levels, in combination with fiber and other nutrients, help guard against sudden increases in sugar in the blood, which is important for people with diabetes.

Of course, eating too much fruit is not necessarily healthy either. And watch out for dried fruits and fruit juice—sugar concentrations are higher in dried fruits compared to fresh fruits and also in fruit juices with added sugars.

Science & Tech
Camel at Khor Rori, Oman; mammal.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Camels have long been known for their ability to go weeks at a time without needing to drink water—an ability that makes them particularly useful pack animals for people traveling across arid environments and that earned them the nickname “ships of the desert.” Camels are also known for their prominent humps (either one or two humps, depending on the species), which leads many people to believe that these are used to store water for access at a later time. However, camels’ humps actually store fatty tissue, not water, which is used as a source of nourishment when food is scarce.

Demystified: Do camels store water in their humps? No. They store fat that camels can use for nourishment. By concentrating fatty tissue in humps on their backs, camels' bodies are less insulated, which helps regulate their body temperature.
What do camels store in their humps?Learn more about camels and their humps.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

So why do camels store fat in these humps instead of having it spread equally throughout their bodies, like other mammals? Camels typically live in the desert, where food sources can be hard to come by. When a camel is unable to access food for a long period of time, its body is able to metabolize the fat in the humps for nutrition. The humps can deflate and droop if the camel has gone a particularly long time without food, but they will sit upright again once the camel is able to refuel. The camel’s humps also help the animal regulate its body temperature, an important feature in the desert, where temperatures can be extremely high during the day and drop drastically at night. By concentrating fatty tissue in humps on their backs, camels are able to minimize heat insulation throughout the rest of their body during the day when the temperature is high, and their body temperature rises. Then, at night, the extra heat dissipates through the rest of the camel’s body so that their body temperature is not too low when the temperature is cooler.

Although the humps do not store water, camels are still incredibly efficient in the amount of water they use per day, which is why they are able to go nearly a week without drinking. This is partly due to the unique shape of their blood cells, which are oval. Oval-shaped blood cells allow camels to consume large amounts of water (up to 30 gallons in one sitting!) since the cells are more elastic and can change shape more easily. This shape also allows their blood to flow more easily when water is scarce, which is common in a desert.

A camel’s humps are incredibly important for the animal’s survival in a tough environment like a desert. Without its humps, a camel would be more likely to overheat and sweat—but it’s still the oval-shaped blood cells that help the camel retain so much water, not the humps.