How many simple sugars are in glucose

They contain two sugar units bonded together. There are 3 disaccharides:. Maltose is made of two glucose molecules bonded together. It doesn't occur naturally in any appreciable amount in foods, with one exception: sprouted grains.

Grains contain a lot of starch, which is made of long chains of glucose more on this in a minute , and when the seed of a grain starts to sprout, it begins to break down that starch, creating maltose. If bread is made from those sprouted grains, that bread will have some maltose.

Sprouted grain bread is usually a little heavier and sweeter than bread made from regular flour. Maltose also plays a role in the production of beer and liquor, because this process involves the fermentation of grains or other carbohydrate sources.

Maltose is formed during the breakdown of those carbohydrates, but there is very little remaining once the fermentation process is complete. You can taste the sweetness of maltose if you hold a starchy food in your mouth for a minute or so. Try this with a simple food like a soda cracker. Starch is not sweet, but as the starch in the cracker begins to break down with the action of salivary amylase, maltose will form, and you'll taste the sweetness!

Sucrose is made of a glucose molecule bonded to a fructose molecule. It's made by plants for the same reason as fructose -- to attract animals to eat it and thereby spread the seeds. Sucrose is naturally-occurring in fruits and vegetables. Most fruits and vegetables contain a mixture of glucose, fructose, and sucrose. But humans have also figured out how to concentrate the sucrose in plants usually sugar cane or sugar beets to make refined table sugar.

We also find sucrose in maple syrup and honey. The sucrose found in sweet potato is chemically identical to the sucrose found in table sugar. Likewise, the fructose found in a fig is chemically identical to the fructose found in high fructose corn syrup. As we'll discuss more later, what's different is the package the sugars come in. When you eat a sweet potato or a fig, you also get lots of fiber, vitamins, and minerals in that package, whereas sugar and high fructose corn syrup only provide sugar, nothing else.

It's not a bad thing to eat sugar. After all, it's a vital fuel for our brain and nervous system. But paying attention to the package it comes in can help us make good overall choices for health.

Lactose is made of a glucose molecule bonded to a galactose molecule. It is sometimes called "milk sugar" as it is found in dairy products like milk, yogurt, and cheese.

These are the only animal foods that have significant amounts of carbohydrate. Most of our carbohydrates come from plant foods. Complex carbohydrates are also called polysaccharides, because they contain many sugars. The prefix "poly-" means "many.

All three of these polysaccharides are made up of many glucose molecules bonded together, but they differ in their structure and the type of bonds.

Starch is made up of long chains of glucose. If these chains are straight, they're called amylose; if they're branched, they're called amylopectin. Here is an amylose segment containing 3 glucose units. The next figure shows an amylopectin segment containing 4 glucose units.

The chemical structure is represented differently, but can you spot the place where it branches? Using our green hexagon to represent glucose, you can picture starch as something like this:. Humans have digestive enzymes to break down both types of starch, which we'll discuss on the next page. Starch is the storage form of carbohydrate in plants. Plants make starch in order to store glucose. For example, starch is in seeds to give the seedling energy to sprout, and we eat those seeds in the form of grains, legumes soybeans, lentils, pinto and kidney beans, for example , nuts, and seeds.

Starch is also stored in roots and tubers to provide stored energy for the plant to grow and reproduce, and we eat these in the form of potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, and turnips.

When we eat plant foods with starch, we can break it down into glucose to provide fuel for our body's cells. In addition, starch from whole plant foods comes packaged with other valuable nutrients. We also find refined starch - such as corn starch - as an ingredient in many processed foods, because it serves as a good thickener.

Glycogen is structurally similar to amylopectin, but it's the storage form of carbohydrate in animals , humans included. It's made up of highly branched chains of glucose, and it's stored in the liver and skeletal muscle. The branched structure of glycogen makes it easier to break down quickly to release glucose to serve as fuel when needed on short notice. Liver glycogen is broken down to glucose, which is released into the bloodstream and can be used by cells around the body.

Muscle glycogen provides energy only for muscle, to fuel activity. That can come in handy if you're being chased by a lion, or sprinting to make your bus! There are two major carbohydrate subgroups: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates contain the monosaccharide and disaccharide groups.

Monosaccharides are comprised of a single simple sugar unit, glucose, fructose, or galactose, and they cannot be broken down into simple sugar units. These three monosaccharides are combined in various ways to make more complex carbohydrates.

Disaccharides are comprised of two monosaccharides bonded together. The three naturally occurring disaccharides in human nutrition are sucrose glucose bonded to fructose , lactose glucose bonded to galactose , maltose glucose bonded to glucose. High fructose corn syrup is a manmade disaccharide created by the hydrolysis of corn, and it contains fructose bonded to fructose.

Complex carbohydrates, containing three or more monosaccharides bonded together, are divided into oligosaccharides, with three to ten monosaccharides, and polysaccharides, with greater than ten monosaccharides bonded together. The key is to make sure that the majority of these carbs come from good sources and that added sugar is limited. Carbohydrates have taken a lot of heat in recent years.

Medical experts think eating too many refined carbs — such as the refined sugars in candy and soda, and refined grains like the white rice and white flour used in many pastas and breads — have contributed to the rise of obesity in the United States.

How could one type of food cause such a big problem? The "bad" carbs sugar and refined foods are easy to get, come in large portions, taste good, and aren't too filling. So people tend to eat more of them than needed. And some are not needed at all — sodas and candy are "empty calories" that provide no nutrients. But this doesn't mean that all simple sugars are bad.

Simple carbs are also found in many nutritious foods — like fruits, vegetables, and dairy products, which provide a range of essential nutrients that support growth and overall health. Fresh fruits, for example, contain simple carbs but also have vitamins and fiber. The — Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating grains, at least half of which should be complex carbs. Whole grains , like brown rice, oatmeal, and whole-grain breads and cereals, are the way to go.

Diets rich in whole grains protect against diabetes and heart disease. And complex carbs:. Most school-age kids should eat four to six "ounce equivalents" from the grain group each day, at least half of which should come from whole grains. An "ounce equivalent" is like a serving — 1 slice of bread; 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal; or a half cup of cooked rice, cooked pasta, or hot cereal.

Foods that are high in added sugar soda, cookies, cake, candy, frozen desserts, and some fruit drinks also tend to be high in calories and low in nutrition. A high-sugar diet is often linked with obesity, and too many sugary foods can lead to tooth decay.

Instead of sugary options, offer healthier choices, such as fruit — a naturally sweet carbohydrate-containing snack that also provides fiber and vitamins that kids need. One way to cut down on added sugar is to ban soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages.