Thursday, September 17, 2015

Sweetness Lab Analysis

      In the Sweetness Lab, we tested the sweetness of different saccharides. My partner and I concluded that monosaccharides, saccharides with only one sugar ring, and disaccharides, saccharides with only two sugar rings, both taste sweet, whereas polysaccharides, which have three or more sugar rings, taste bland. We believe that the less sugar rings, the sweeter it tastes. The monosaccharides: glucose, fructose, and galactose, taste the sweetest, whereas the polysaccharides, cellulose and starch, taste bland. Our lab was supported by the fact that when we tastes the polysaccharides, their taste was bland, yet when we tasted the monosaccharides and disaccharides, they tastes sweet or very sweet. Fructose was the sweetest, in my opinion.
      Carbohydrates are sugars and have different uses, for example, starch is used for storage and cellulose is used as the building blocks for plants. The structure of carbohydrates determines how they store energy.
      Not all testers gave the same rating for the sweetness of the carbohydrates. This is because not everyone has the same taste buds. Some people may be more sensitive to sweetness and rate everything over 100 whereas others may not taste anything. It also depends on what foods you are used to eating, for example if you don't eat spicy food as mucb as others, you are more sensitive to spicyness.
      According to livescience.com, each taste bud contains up to 100 cells. which are connected to the brain by nerve fibers. When we eat something, the cells in our tongue send a signal to the brain, which determines whether it is sweet or sour. As humans, we may become adjusted to certain tastes, for example spicyness, but not everyone is the same. People's brains are different and they process things differently and this includes taste.

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