What's the difference between glucose and fructose?

Question

If someone were to say they perfer eating things that are sweetened with sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup, what is the difference? I thought table sugar was made from sucrose, which contains glucose and fructose, so aren't they basically the same thing? Thanks.

Answer 1

The major source of energy in your diet is from carbohydrates. At least one-third of the carbohydrates are from foods that contain sucrose, or table sugar. Sucrose is classified as a disaccharide sugar that consists of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule. Glucose and fructose are classified as monosaccharides and are the simplest forms of sugar along with galactose. Monosaccharides are not typically found in significant levels in the diet. They enter your body after digestion of disaccharides and polysaccharides. The digestion products enter your small intestine, which has walls made of mucosal cells the have hair-like projections called villi. The villi capture the digested byproducts and allow them access into the cell.



Glucose Absorption



In order for glucose to enter the mucosal cell, it needs to hook onto a transport system that will carry it into the cell. The carrier for glucose is called the sodium-glucose transporter 1. Once the small intestinal mucosal cells absorb the glucose, approximately 85 percent of it is released into blood circulation, according to Sareen Gropper et al., authors of "Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism." The remaining 15 percent of glucose absorbed leaks back into the small intestine.



Fructose Absorption



Fructose is also transported into the mucosal cells by a protein called GLUT5. Fructose absorption takes place more slowly than glucose. Gropper et al. state that approximately 60 percent of the adult population has limited capacity to absorb fructose, and fructose malabsorption is common. If you consume 50g of pure fructose, you will have difficulty efficiently absorbing it all for energy and excess will be stored as fat. Such levels seem high but are common in food sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, such as candy, packaged cookies and many other processed food.

Answer 2

There are many similarities between glucose and fructose. They are both simple sugars, and are monosaccharides. Simple sugars contain only one type of carbohydrate as opposed to two like the disaccharide sucrose. The chemical formula for glucose and fructose are also the same: C6(H2O)6. Once they have entered the body, both sugars eventually make their way to the liver to be metabolized. Most processed and natural foods out there contain a combination of fructose and glucose. Even foods that you would expect to be nearly all fructose, such as high fructose corn syrup, actually have a 55%-45% composition in favor of fructose.



There are a few key ways in which these two sugars differ though.



Molecular Composition

While their chemical formula is the same, the molecules of glucose and fructose are laid out in different formations. They both start out by making a hexagon with their six carbon atoms. Each carbon is bound to a water molecule.

Glucose ‘“ is an aldohexose. Its carbon is attached to a hydrogen atom by a single bond and an oxygen atom by a double bond.

Fructose ‘“ is a ketohexose. Its carbon is attached only to an oxygen atom by a single bond.



Metabolism

As aforementioned, both sugars end up in the liver. However,

Glucose ‘“ is eaten, absorbed into the blood stream, and makes it way to the liver where it is broken down to supply energy to the entire body. This breaking down process requires insulin.

Fructose ‘“ is eaten and absorbed but releases its energy slower than glucose. It does not need insulin to be metabolized and therefore is a marginally better choice for diabetics.



Taste

Fructose is many times sweeter than glucose. Many people feel that uncooked fructose can actually be overwhelming. This is especially true when the fruit that fructose is mostly found in becomes overripe. Once fructose has been cooked though, it loses much of its sweetness. That is why sucrose, or granulated sugar, is recommended for baking instead of crystallized fructose.





1.Fructose and glucose are both monosaccharides with the same chemical composition but a different molecular structure.

2.These two sugars are found in some combination in nearly all sweetened foods available.

3.Glucose needs insulin for proper metabolizing while fructose needs no insulin to be processed.

4.Raw fructose is many times sweeter than glucose.

Answer 3

Their chemical structure and food source is what makes it different. Table sugar is sucrose, it comes from sugar cane, beets, maple syrup, molasses - and it does contain some fructose and glucose. Fructose comes from fruits. Glucose forms starch, so you'd find it in grains, beans and leafy vegetables. They are different from each other but often one contains some of the other, it's simply the proportions. Kind of like how bread, bagels and muffins are the same in that they are a wheat product, just in different proportions of a recipe they come out in a different form. They aren't the same but they are related to each other. Or, like brothers and sisters, you have the same basic formula - the same parents, but you each would be a bit different from each other.

Answer 4

In less scientific terms, that conclusion means the research showed that those ingesting the fructose-sweetened drinks experienced metabolic differences not found in those people whose drinks contained only glucose. These differences were higher levels of DNL, or de novo lipogenesis, the fat that the body makes out of excess carbohydrates, and increased levels of overall cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol. In addition, fructose produced higher levels of insulin resistance and an increase in fat surrounding the organs of the abdomen (belly fat).

Answer 5

the spelling its all sugar