What's the Sweetest Sugar?

In our lab regarding the sweetness of different types of sugars, we set out on finding the type of carbohydrate (monosaccharide, disaccharide and polysaccharide) that is the sweetest. We found monosaccharides, the sugars glucose and fructose, are the sweetest. Fructose was the sweetest, then sucrose, and then glucose. Because fructose is so sweet, it's produced commerically and added into many foods. Glucose is a disaccharide, meaning it has two rings or two monosaccharides. It's made up of two monosaccarides, frutose and glucose, which both scored high on the sweetness scale. Monosaccharides have one ring, a hexagon or pentagon shape consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Polysaccharides have three or more rings.

monosaccaride

The amount of rings a carbohydrate may affect how organisms/ cells use them. Both are used as an energy source for humans. However, monosaccarides and dissacharides may be short-term, while polysaccharides are used long-term.

This lab is objective because different testers may get different results. Someone who still has food bits in their mouth or left over sugar from the previous test may find the sugar less/more sweet than someone who just drank water. If someone burnt their tongue (like me), they may find different sweetness levels. In addition, if a tester has more taste buds than another, they might get another conclusion.

Humans taste sweetness because the sweet substance triggers the receptor proteins on the ends of the taste cells in the taste buds. The sweet taste cells signals the brain. For the extra sweet compounds, fructose, glucose and sucrose, there are extra mechanisms (Robert Margolskee, molecular biologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center). When people have more taste buds or have any different characteristics in their taste buds, this can lead to them tasting sweetness differently.

To find out more of what Robert Margolskee said:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/11/134459338/Getting-a-Sense-of-How-We-Taste-Sweetness

Comments

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