• 1What are Carbohydrates? (VIDEO)
  • 2Carbohydrates: Fuel for You
  • 3Cell Food
  • 4Fiber
  • 5Slow & Steady Wins the Race
  • 6Simple Carbohydrates
  • 7All Carbs are Sugars
  • 8How Many Sugars?
  • 9Pick a Carb, Any Carb
  • 10Insulin Is the Key
  • 11Blood Sugar Gone Awry
  • 12Glycemic Index
  • 13Waistline Enemy #1?
  • 14Prebiotics & Probiotics
CHAPTER 7

All Carbs are Sugars

PART 1

Carbs are Sugars

It Adds Up
Geek Alert: Chem Lesson
Most people make an immediate association between sugar and sweetness, and with good reason. Sucrose, the table sugar you put in a cup of tea, has a flavor that appeals from the very first taste. It’s no mistake, after all, that evolution included sugar in mother’s milk, increasing a newborn’s draw to the mother’s nourishing breast. READ MORE

In scientific terms, sugars are not identified by flavor but by their chemical makeup. All sugars are based on a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen molecules (C, H, and O). The sweetness of sugars will vary depending on how many molecules each of C, H, and O are in the sugar’s chemical formula.

The Carb Connection

Once you take sweetness out of the equation, it becomes a little clearer how all types of sugars can be carbohydrates. Carbs and sugars are synonymous, chemically speaking, built on the same carbon-hydrogen-oxygen formula. LESS
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PART 2

A Range of Sweetness

Just the Facts
Mimicking Sugars
Sucrose is the benchmark for sweetness. If sucrose represents 100% sweetness, glucose comes close at 73%. Lactose, a sugar found in milk, is only 16% as sweet — so you can see why children eventually want to toss milk overboard for sucrose-laden sodas and punches. READ MORE

At the far end of the sweetness scale are complex carbs such as potatoes or peas. Though they’re still based on that carbon-hydrogen-oxygen formula, and still sugars, you’d have a hard time convincing a kid that they’re sweet. LESS
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