Sweetness Lab Analysis

The question was asked as to how the structure of a carbohydrate affect its sweetness. After sampling the simplest form of different carbohydrates, our group found that the fewer the saccharides, the sweeter taste. This is because the sweetness is a side effect of of having a simple structure. Carbohydrates come in three forms: monosaccharide, disaccharide, and polysaccharide. The top three sweetest carbohydrates were fructose (monosaccharide), surcose (disaccharide), and glucose (monosaccharide). Starch and cellulose, the two polysaccharides that we tasted, were at the very bottom of the order of sweetness because both lacked equal amounts of flavor and were rated 0 out of 200 on the scale. Neither of the polysaccharides were the exact  oppisite of the sweetest monosaccharide, which rated a 200. This shows that a saccharide with one or two rings would be more likely to be sweet where as a polysaccharide would taste bitter.
      The structure could affect how it is used because the monosaccharides have only one ring so they are easy to break down or store as energy. Polysaccharides can have many rings so they are stonger and would be used as structures or walls in a cell. No, not all testers were given the same rating. One reason could be because each person has a different taste palette and are better at getting flavors. Another reason could be that a person has a different range of sweetness and has never had any sugar. This person would rate anything a tiny bit sweet very high and the same would be true for the opposite ranges. The last reason is that people have different tastes in foods and it is the same for sugar. The things that they like would be sweeter then the things they didn't like. Humans use taste buds on their tongue to detect flavor. Their sense of taste could be better or worse with different people. The brain interprets the sensation of the flavor on the tongue and then the brain decides what to distinguish the flavor as using past experiences. Everyone's brain works differently and are not the same.

Carbohydrate	Type of carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness (Scale of 0-200)	Color	Texture	Other Observations
Sucrose	disaccharide	100	white	granular	powdered sugar
Glucose	monosaccharide	60	clear	fine	hawaiian bread
Fructose	monosaccharide	200	white	fine	candy
Galactose	monosaccharide	20	brown	chunk	melts in mouth
Maltose	disaccharide	40	white	clumpy	honey bunches of oats
Lactose	disaccharide	30	white	fine	milk
Starch	polysaccharide	0	white	powder	potato
Cellulose	polysaccharide	0	white	powder	bland