Sweetness Lab

In this lab we tried to find out which carbohydrates tasted sweet or not. We asked: "How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste (sweetness)?" We found out that monosaccharides and disaccharides were sweeter than polysaccharides. Sucrose (disaccharide), glucose (monosaccharide), fructose (monosaccharide), galactose (monosaccharide), maltose (disaccharide), and lactose (disaccharide) are all at least a little bit sweet. Meanwhile starch (polysaccharide) and cellulose (polysaccharide) do not taste sweet at all. This data answers the question perfectly. It turns out that the structure of the carbohydrate does affect the taste of it.

Our data contradicts our results because there were a few monosaccharides and disaccharides that close to being tasteless. I had not cleaned my mouth out before tasting each new carbohydrate. That might have also affected the results of this lab.There are many things that we could have done better in this lab. Also, we did not clean the spoon in between every time we added a new carbohydrate. We had made some mistakes here and there.

This lab was done to demonstrate that the structure of carbohydrates do affect the taste of the carbohydrate. From this lab I learned that the structure of the carbohydrates can and will affect its taste. I did not know that before I did the lab. Based on my experiences from this lab, I learned that we should be careful of what we eat. Some things may be really sweet or not sweet at all. It all depends on what carbohydrate is in it. This lab was a very fun and tasteful lab.

Lab Start: September 16, 2016

Lab End: September 19,2016