To be fair, sugars come in so many varieties and are
known by so many names (sometimes the same sugar has more than one name) that
it’s hard to keep up with them all. So I’ve been doing a little research (mostly
online) so I can present a list of different kinds of sugars and a little
information on each, as well as some information on common sweeteners such as
honey and corn syrup.
First, there are the simple sugars. I’m not a
chemist and this isn’t meant to be a chemistry lesson, so I’m just going to say
that the simple sugars we’re interested in have six carbon atoms and some
hydrogen and oxygen atoms in various configurations, and other sugars are built
from them. The simple sugars we typically hear about or see listed are the
following:
Glucose:
Diabetics have to keep track of the levels of glucose in their blood. Glucose
that is added to foods sometimes goes by the name of “dextrose”. Glucose is
somewhat less sweet than sucrose, apparently.*
Dextrose:
See glucose.
Fructose: Known as fruit sugar, it is commonly
found in fruits, but is also used as a sweetener sometimes. Sweeter than
sucrose.
Galactose:
I’m listing this one mostly because it is a component of lactose. Less sweet
than sucrose.
Second, there are the disaccharides, which are
sugars made up of two simple sugar molecules bonded together. Here are some of
interest:
Sucrose
(white sugar, table sugar): Made of a glucose molecule bonded to a fructose
molecule.
Lactose
(milk sugar): One glucose molecule bonded to one galactose molecule. Some
people no longer have enough of the enzyme to break it down, in which case the
lactose gets used by bacteria much farther down the intestinal tract with
uncomfortable results. Lactose is apparently only mildly sweet, which maybe
explains why lactose-free milk (in which the lactose has been broken down into
glucose and galactose) tastes sweeter than regular milk.
Maltose:
one glucose bonded to one glucose. Maltose is apparently significantly less
sweet than sucrose, but sweeter than lactose. I should add that the properties
of substances made of two or more sugars depends a lot on how the sugar
molecules are bonded together—longer chains of glucose, depending on length and
kind of bond, can be starches or cellulose. More on those later.
Alpha-gal:
One galactose molecule bonded to another galactose molecule. Some people have a
tick-bite induced allergy to alpha-gal, and react to beef and other meat from
mammals. As far as I know, alpha-gal doesn’t get used as a sweetener and I have
no idea if it tastes sweet.
Finally, there are longer chains of sugar
molecules. In particular, there are starches and cellulose.
Starches
are long chains of glucose molecules. Our bodies can break these down into
glucose when we eat them.
Cellulose,
on the other hand, we cannot break down. Cellulose molecules are very VERY long
chains of glucose. They are found in plants and help give them structure. They
also provide us with “fiber” as they go right through our system. Cows,
rabbits, termites and other animals that have a diet heavy in grass (or wood) have systems that can break down cellulose. I
think most of these systems involve special bacteria.
So what sugars are actually in the various
alternative sweeteners out there? I had to look this up, as I have never really
been sure what is in honey or maple syrup, let alone agave syrup.
Honey:
Apparently it contains both glucose and fructose, but separate from each other,
not bonded together to form sucrose. At least, that was my understanding from
what I read.
Maple syrup:
Sucrose. Okay, that’s simple.
Corn syrup
(not high fructose corn syrup, but Karo corn syrup that you cook with):
Glucose. It sounds like this is roughly the same as the “glucose syrup” that
shows up in British recipes.
High-fructose
corn syrup: This is the one that gets added to a lot of processed foods. It
contains both glucose and fructose. Hmmm, does that make HFCS a lot like honey,
except for the flavor? Or does honey contain other interesting things that
change how it affects us? I do not know. They sound pretty similar, sugar-wise.
Another interesting thing: The HFCS industry is trying to persuade people that
since high-fructose corn syrup contains the same molecules as sucrose, they
should be no more concerned about it than they are about sucrose. But since how
molecules are bonded together sometimes makes a difference in how they affect
us, I’m suspicious of this reasoning.
Agave syrup:
Apparently this is very high in fructose.
Also, concentrated pear juice and concentrated grape juice are sometimes added to foods for the purpose of sweetening them. These may have high levels of fructose.
I didn’t list stevia because it is something else
entirely and not made of sugars.
To repeat, I’m not a chemist (I took organic
chemistry in college, but that was more years ago that I care to admit). So if
I have said something misleading by mistake, please comment with a correction.
Till next post.
*I wasn’t
able to find out if the comparisons of sweetness were weight-for-weight, or by
volume (unlikely) or for comparable concentrations of molecules. I don’t think
this information is very useful without knowing this. I’m guessing it was
weight-for-weight.
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