Sweetness Lab Response

Cayla Zelanis
Mr. Orre
Anatomy and Physiology period 2
August 24, 2015

Sweetness Lab Response

            In this lab, we tasted different types of carbohydrates and ordered them by the amount of sweetness we tasted. Our goal was to find if the structure of the various carbohydrates changed their level of sweetness. In the end of the lab, we found that the monosaccharides and disaccharides were much sweeter than the polysaccharides that we tasted. We concluded that the reasoning behind the difference of sweetness was the length of the monomers. As the length of the monomers grew, the less sweet the carbohydrate became.
           
             Many of the sugars that were tasted we can relate to food that we eat on a regular basis. Many of the carbohydrates like lactose, which is found in milk; fructose, found in berries, honey, and high fructose corn syrup; and starches,like potatoes, rice, or bread. The carbohydrates that we found to be more "sweet" were the sucrose, glucose, and the fructose. But what made these sugars taste sweet? The sense of "taste" firsts begins when the food reaches with the small pores on our taste buds, known as taste pores, and parts of the food dissolve in the saliva and come into contact with taste receptors. The taste receptors then send a signal found by the taste pores to the gustatory cortex of the brain, which perceives the tastes of different foods detected by the taste pores. Sugar is not the only thing that can be perceived as "sweet", other substances can activate these "sensory cells" or tastes pores that contain nerves. People react differently to different foods based on the sensitivity of their sensory cells. The "basic tastes" that people have are: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory, but many people may react differently to the same foods based on the sensitivity. Every cell has a different spectrum to the sensitivity, meaning that one cell may be more sensitive to one "basic taste" over another and a different cell would have a different order of "basic tastes". The level of sweetness is determined by the nerve fibers and to send the information to the gustatory cortex.

                Taking into consideration that each individual cell has a different perception to a certain taste, every individual could rank the sweetness of the tested samples differently. Some individuals taste receptors may be more sensitive to sweet substances over sour substances or vice versa; no two individuals could have the identical perception of the same substances.

Source cited:
How Does Our Sense of Taste Work? U.S. National Library of Medicine, 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Aug. 2015. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072592/#i2261.sweetsoursaltybitter>.
Jennifer Poo (picture)