Todd Jester, age 11, of Eugene, Ore., for his question:

DOES MOLASSES COME FROM A TREE?

    All of    our sugary treats    are donated by the plantworld. Chocolate and perhaps a few others come from trees. But most of them come    from humbler plants, such as members of the grass and beet families.    Molasses may be extracted from sugar beets, but most of our supplies come    from sugar cane, the tall, grassy plant that    supplies    ordinary sugar.

Not so long ago the price of sugar soared out of sight  which was gloomy news to all of us who enjoy sweet treats. However, it did give us a chance to learn some things about ordinary white sugar and what it does to us. True, it tastes delicious and is easy to digest. It is high in calories and may give us a quick supply of peppy energy.      However, it tends to appease a healthy appetite, and sugary snacks between meals cause us to forget to include more valuable foods in our diets. Sugar provides no protein builders, no vitamins or valuable minerals. What's more, those sneaky sugary snacks also contribute to dental decay.

There are many kinds of sugar, and the lovely white crystallized stuff is made almost entirely of a sugar called sucrose. Some have thought of switching to honey or corn syrup or molasses or some other kind of sweetener. This is a sound idea because these substances contain a variety of sugars, plus several other useful food elements.

Most of our molasses is extracted from sugar cane, which contains other useful substances besides a variety of sugars. Acres of sugar cane thrive in the mild, moist climates of Hawaii and California, Florida and Louisiana. Their thick, grassy stems grow from 7 to 15 feet tall and take from seven months to almost two years to mature.

Then their sweet juicy stems are cut and sent to be processed by a sugar mill. They are washed and shredded, crushed and boiled to extract the sweet syrupy juice. When this is whirled around, sugar crystals begin to form  and the remaining juice is molasses.

The newly formed crystals are raw brownish sugar, due for more processing to become pure white sugar.

The remaining juice is boiled and becomes thicker as some of its water content evaporates. After a few boilings it becomes blackstrap molasses, which contains several B vitamins. Extra boilings produce more refined grades of molasses  maybe not quite as sweet but somewhat more nutritious than ordinary refined white sugar.