Nature’s preferred sweetener, sugar, is abundant in Michigan! Michigan sugar is a “real sweet” deal for our state’s economy, and it’s available to Michiganders and neighboring states all year long.
Click the button to download our fact sheet and find out when you can find the freshest locally grown products!
Michigan Sugar Facts
- More than one 1.3 billion pounds of sugar is produced in Michigan each year
- Michigan 900 sugarbeet growers harvest their crop on approximately 160,000 acres of land each year
- Michigan is one of only 11 states where sugarbeets are grown
- The Michigan Sugar Company is the only sugar processor in the state, and the third largest in the country
- Pioneer® Sugar and Big Chief® Sugar are Michigan Sugar Company’s traditional brands found in many Michigan, Ohio and Indiana grocery stores
- Processing sugarbeets also results in beet pulp and molasses (the solids left after sugar and molasses are extracted) which are both used in livestock feeds and fermentation industries
Nutrition
- Sugar has 4 calories per gram, 15 calories per teaspoon.
- Sugar is pure sucrose and contains no preservatives or additives of any kind.
- To consumers, “sugar” means table sugar or sucrose, obtained from sugarbeets or sugarcane. In a food’s ingredient statement, “sugar” always means sucrose.
- During digestion, sugars such as sucrose (table sugar) and other carbohydrates such as starches break down into simple sugars.
- These then travel through the blood stream to body cells where they provide energy and are stored for future use.
- Researchers do not know why diabetes occurs, but they know sugar intake does not cause it. Diabetes is a disorder in the way the body handles sugars.
- Extra calories may come from any energy-containing nutrient (proteins, fats, carbohydrates and alcohol). As carbohydrates, sugars actually contain fewer calories than fats and alcohol.
To learn more visit Michigan Sugar Company and
for recipes and fun facts visit Pioneer Sugar.