Sug

Sug, short for sugar, is a common informal term for the class of sweet-tasting carbohydrates used as a food ingredient and flavoring. While "sug" appears in shorthand on recipes or social media, the formal term remains sugar. In nutrition, sugar most commonly refers to sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose, but other simple sugars—glucose, fructose, lactose, and galactose—are also encountered in foods.

Sugar is produced primarily from sugar cane or sugar beets. After harvesting, the juice is extracted, clarified, concentrated, and crystallized to yield granulated sugar, which can be refined to white sugar or processed into brown sugar, powdered sugar, and syrups.

In cooking, sugar provides sweetness, affects texture and browning, and acts as a fermentable sugar in baking. It is used in beverages, confections, and preservation, among many other applications.

Nutrition and health: One gram of sugar provides about 4 kilocalories. Added sugars contribute calories without micronutrients; excessive intake is linked to weight gain, dental caries, and metabolic risks. Many health guidelines recommend limiting added sugar intake; for example, the American Heart Association advises women to limit added sugar to no more than 25 grams (about 6 teaspoons) per day and men to no more than 38 grams (about 9 teaspoons) per day.

Some contexts use "sug" as an abbreviation in recipes or product labeling, though formal writing uses "sugar" or specific sugar types. The term may appear in slang or informal discussions.