Sweetness Lab Conclusion

Akshat Patwardhan

Period 6

9/11/15

Sweetness Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question, "How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste(sweetness)? This supports our hypothesis, if simple sugars(monosaccharides) taste sweet, then fructose will taste the sweetest. We found that fructose does in fact taste the sweetest with a rating of 130 out of 200. Our scale for the degree of sweetness was 0 - 200, as 0 being very bitter and 200 being very sweet. The other monosaccharides that we tasted were galactose and glucose. However, even though these were monosaccharides we thought that fructose was still the sweetest, as it is the sugar that is naturally found in fruits. Also the dissacharides were around the 80-100 mark and the polysaccharides were both given a rating of 20. This data supports our claim because we realized that the more rings that a carbohydrate has the less sweet it is. Therefore fructose, a monosaccharide, is going to be the sweetest. The structure of the different carbohydrates could have an affect on how they are used because the more rings that the carbohydrate has, the more energy is stored which could affect how much energy is released to the organism. Some reasons why the rating of the sample could be different for different tasters is the amount of sweet a person eats, which means that if a person eats a lot of sugar and sweets, then the sugar ratings could be lower than the average person. Also, another example could be if a person eats a lot of spicy food, and does not incorporate much sugar into their diet, their ratings of the monosaccharides could be much higher since the person's taste buds have a different scale of sweetness. Lastly, if a person at something bland at first and then eats something sweet, then the rating of the sweet would be different because the bland flavor would be a factor in the rating. Students could give different ratings based on how we taste things because of the place where the person puts the sweet on. For example, if you put the sweet on the tip of your tongue, you will get a different degree of sweetness than putting the sweet on the back or sides of your tongue. The tastebuds on your tongue, like the ones on the front, side etc, will give you different sweetness ratings.
 

Carbohydrate	Type of Carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness	Color	Texture	Other Observations/Connections to Food
Sucrose	Disaccharide	100	white	granular	tastes a little like the sweetness of a carrot
Glucose	monosaccharide	110	white	more grainy, didn’t dissolve as fast	Tastes less sweet than sucrose
Fructose	monosaccharide	130	clear	crystals, very sweet	tastes like regular sugar
Galactose	monosaccharide	80	white	smooth	milkish taste
Maltose	disaccharide	100	brownish, yellowish	as crunchy as sugar can get	toffee taste
Lactose	disaccharide	80	white	smooth, compact	tastes same as glucose
Starch	polysaccharide	20	white	powdery, smooth	tastes like flour
Cellulose	polysaccharide	20	white	powdery, smooth	also tastes like flour