Why is sugar different degrees sweet, and salt salty? and got the best answer
Reply from ° N.S. ° [guru]
Man distinguishes taste qualities- sweet and salty, which are quite well characterized by their typical substances: Quality Substance Perception threshold, mol/g Sweet SucroseGlucoseSaccharin 0.010.080.000023 Salty NaClCaCl2 0.010.01 The taste of sweet is associated mainly with natural carbohydrates such as sucrose and glucose, sodium chloride is salty, other salts are perceived as salty and bitter at the same time. Between chemical properties There is no clear correlation between a substance and its taste. For example, not only sugar, but also sweet lead salts, and the most sweet taste in artificial sugar substitutes such as saccharin. Moreover, the perceived quality of a substance depends on its concentration. Table salt tastes sweet in low concentrations and only becomes purely salty when the concentration is increased. The emotional components of taste sensations vary widely depending on the state of the body. For example, a person experiencing a salt deficiency considers the taste acceptable, even if its concentration in food is so high that a normal person would refuse the food. With age, the ability to distinguish taste decreases. This is also caused by the consumption of biologically active substances such as caffeine and heavy smoking. According to the extraction method, rock salt, self-planting salt, evaporated salt and sea salt are distinguished. According to the nature of processing, salt can be finely crystalline, crushed, coarse and ground (fine powder). Most often, ground salt ends up on the table. It is not recommended to use this salt for pickles and marinades. To prepare food for future use, it is better to use either crushed salt or coarse salt. The fact is that salt is a good absorbent, and during storage due to this phenomenon some contamination of the product occurs. The finest salt is more contaminated (absorption depends on the total surface area of the substance) than salt in large crystals. In addition, it often happens that finely ground salt is iodized. And although the amount of iodine added is very small, such salt is simply unsuitable for preparing food for future use. Iodine is chemically active and spoils the taste of food when long-term storage. To check the amount of impurities in the salt, it is advisable to crystallize the salt from a saturated solution. If the salt contains a large amount of impurities, you will not be able to obtain large and transparent crystals. If the salt is pure enough, then transparent crystals will grow at the bottom of the dish when the water evaporates at room temperature. This method is good, but requires a significant investment of time. Very often, housewives restore salt by calcining it in a clean, dry frying pan. Salt is suitable for canning if the ground crystals stick together when heated. After calcination, the salt should be coarser. Salt obtained in different ways and in different places, initially has its own characteristic set of impurities, which also affects the “salinity” of the salt. Thus, the salt from the Solikamsk deposit in solution seems less salty, since, despite purification, some amount of potassium chloride remains in it. The raw materials for sugar production are sugar beets and sugar cane. In Russia, the only raw material is sugar beets. At the same time, we process raw cane sugar. After multi-stage processing of sugar beets, the resulting granulated sugar is dissolved and sent for refining to remove impurities that give it a yellow color, specific taste and smell. Ready-made, dried refined sugar must contain at least 99.9% sucrose, be white in color and not have any foreign taste or odor.
Reply from Vladimir Andreev[guru]
This is determined by the structure of the sugar molecule. For example, simple sugars are glucose and fructose. The trivial formula for both is C6H12O6, since they are isomers of each other. However, fructose contains a keto group, and glucose contains an aldehyde group. With such differences, fructose is sweeter than glucose. Even diabetics with not very high blood sugar levels are recommended to drink tea with fructose, since less is required to obtain a sweet taste. The taste of different salts is determined by the combination of anions and cations. For example, NaCl (sodium chloride) is salty, and CaCl2 (calcium chloride) has a bitter taste.
Reply from Just Tatyana Sergeevna[guru]
Sugar is sweet. This is common knowledge. Why is he actually sweet? What is the reason for the sensation of sweetness that is caused by molecules of sugar and some other substances? Two thousand years ago, Lucretius Carus, trying to explain this phenomenon, wrote that honey has a pleasant taste because it consists of smooth and round bodies, while substances with an unpleasant taste contain hooked particles. How modern science explains the sweetness of sugar?
One of the most widely known sugars, glucose, is a molecule consisting of six carbon atoms, six atoms and twelve atoms.
The molecular structures of all sugars are very similar: they contain a chain of H-C-OH groups and a single oxygen atom, which can form a ring with carbon atoms. However, the taste of sugar can range from “tasteless” or “bitter” to “extremely sweet.” For example, glucose is twice as sweet as galactose.
Ethyl cannot be called sweet, while ethylene glycol tastes quite sweet. What does this depend on? Let's compare the molecular structures of these two substances. Apparently, part of the molecule gives sugars their sweet taste.
A characteristic feature of the OH group is the ability to form chemical, so-called hydrogen, bonds with similar groups. It is easy to guess that the "sweet" unit can cause a sensation of sweetness in the taste buds by forming hydrogen bonds with the corresponding groups on the surface of the receptor C-OH or - NH groups. However, there is a real possibility of forming a single or even double hydrogen bond within the “sweet” unit itself.
If our hypothesis is correct, the formation of such intramolecular bonds should reduce the “sweetness” of the molecule, especially if the intramolecular bond is a double bond. Hydrogen bonds can be detected by absorption of infrared rays. Indeed, when comparing the infrared spectra of glucose and galactose, it turned out that galactose, which is half as sweet as glucose, has twice as many hydrogen bonds.
A study of the spatial structures of both sugars shows that one of the OH groups of galactose is located in such a way that it can form a bond not only with the neighboring OH group, but also with an oxygen atom. And the double hydrogen bond that is formed reduces the molecule's ability to cause a sensation of sweetness. In a glucose molecule, the formation of a hydrogen bond with an oxygen atom is impossible.
One more piece of evidence can be given in favor of the hypothesis. Hydrogen bonds are not very strong and break down with increasing temperature. Therefore, you can expect that if glucose and galactose are heated, they will become equally sweet. Try this and you will see that your assumption is correct.
And finally, another confirmation of the proposed hypothesis. The close location of two OH groups in space should always lead to a decrease in sweetness.
Let's do an experiment with fructose. If you put crystals of this sugar on your tongue, they will seem unusually sweet: fructose is the sweetest known sugar, it is approximately 80% sweeter than regular table sugar - sucrose. However, if you dissolve fructose in water and leave the solution for a few minutes, its sweetness will be greatly reduced.
Crystalline fructose consists of six-membered cyclic molecules. In solution, about 30% of these molecules are converted into five-membered rings.
In a five-membered ring, two OH groups are very close to each other. Obviously, a double hydrogen bridge is formed between them, and as a result, the five-membered ring lacks an active “sweet” unit. Only 70% of the fructose molecules will create sweetness in the solution. That's why it "goes down" to the level of sucrose. All these facts suggest that OH groups are responsible for the feeling of sweetness.
P.S. What else are British scientists talking about: that, among other things, some of the molecules that make up sugar are also found in other interesting substances, for example, in liquids for refilling electronic cigarettes, such as on the website
What is the harm of sugar?Why brown sugar and not white?
We are often asked the question:
Why do we use brown sugar and not white sugar in video tutorials and seminars?
What can you use instead of sugar? Why is sugar harmful? What is the best brown sugar to use? etc.
Let's start with what white sugar is, refined sugar.
We see from the name that sugar is a refined product, i.e. the product is “dead”, artificial.
Refined foods are semi-synthetic food, or let’s say “dead” food. It was prepared by complex chemical, thermal and other transformations in factories, factories and plants.
This means that the products are deprived of many microelements, vitamins and enzymes. As a result, their shelf life increases, but not their nutritional value.
Food and bread with the addition of various raising agents, sweeteners, improvers, gluten and other things are just as dead.
As a result of consuming such products, improper metabolism occurs, which is the basis for various diseases.
White sugar is an unnatural substance obtained by chemical means. Sugar appeared on store shelves only in the 20th century.
Sugar is made from sugar cane and sugar beets.
Sugar beet is a biennial plant, the root is white. One third of the world's sugar is obtained from sugar beets. The production of sugar from sugar beets began not so long ago, because... New varieties of sugar beets with increased sugar content were developed. And recently it has become known that beets have also been genetically modified (!). The world's main sugar beet producers are Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the USA.
Let's consider the technology of sugar production (briefly) and then it will become clear to us why sugar is an artificial product.
I also remember that in the school chemistry textbook, the process of sugar production was described. It’s strange why this didn’t cause bewilderment among the children; even then it caused surprise.
From Lee Dubel’s book “Separate Nutrition” we learn that: “After extraction (separation) of juice from sugar cane (from sugar beets - the principle is almost the same - author’s note), lime is added to it and smoked with sulfur smoke. Then it is treated with tin salts, and the resulting mass is placed in a centrifuge. Next, using various phosphates (salts of phosphoric acid), the sugar cane juice is purified, then bleached, and then the liquid is evaporated from it. The solid residue is sugar, which should be granulated. The end result is almost 99% sugar, that is, an absolutely unbalanced product that lacks mineral salts, vitamins and other related nutrients contained in natural foods.
The use of this product leads to tooth decay, vitamin deficiency, obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypoglycemia, slagging of arteries..."
The production of refined sugar in Russia is briefly summarized as follows: raw sugar is first mixed with sugar syrup, dissolving the remaining molasses that envelops the crystals. The resulting mixture, the so-called refining massecuite, centrifuged. The crystals are washed with steam, obtaining almost white product. Refining technology requires the use of chlorine. It is dissolved into a thick syrup, to which lime and phosphoric acid are added so that the impurities float to the surface. Then it is filtered through bone char (it is made from the pelvic bones of cattle). For refining 45 kg. of dissolved raw sugar is consumed from 4.5 to 27 kg. bone charcoal At this stage, complete decolorization with sulfurous acid and deashing of the product are carried out. The resulting white mass is evaporated and, after crystallization, centrifuged, after which the refined sugar is dried, removing residual water from it. Crystals of finished sugar always contain formaldehyde in polymerized form...
Have you noticed that sugar is no longer sweet?
A couple of years ago we ran out of a bag of sugar, probably left over from the time of perestroika (we eat so little sugar). We only used sugar for jam and it ran out, and jam needs to be boiled... So we bought “modern” sugar. We sprinkle it and pour it into syrup for apple compote, but it is still unsweetened. We can’t understand anything, what happened to sugar... we asked people, it’s true... they don’t have sweets either
Why is sugar harmful?
The absorption of refined sugar requires a huge amount of calcium and B vitamins, the lack of which leads to nervous diseases and even mental illness.
It is one of the reasons for the development of pathogenic bacteria in the oral cavity, damaging tooth enamel and causing caries. Brushing your teeth after eating may not even help in this case.
There is a lack of basic mineral salts and an imbalance of amino acids in the diet. And this leads to an imbalance not only of calcium, but also of other microelements in the body, without which vitamins cannot be absorbed, which causes a general metabolic disorder. Hence - obesity, diabetes and many other equally serious diseases of the blood, skin, blood vessels, brain, and endocrine glands.
During the refining process, all mineral salts are removed from sugar, just as it happens when refining other products - flour, rice, cereals, butter.
Our body itself extracts the sugars it needs from natural foods. This function is performed by our pancreas, located behind duodenum. If a lot of refined and animal fats enter the body, the pancreas is forced to work especially hard. A person can get diabetes.
Here's what white sugar does:
— White sugar deprives the body of B vitamins
-White sugar affects the heart
- Sugar depletes energy reserves
— Sugar is a stimulant that increases arousal nervous system
— Sugar causes calcium to be washed out of the body, which leads to destruction bone tissue
— Excess sugar affects the pancreas and leads to the development of diabetes
— Sugar is one of the causes of tooth decay
— Sugar can lead to clogged arteries
— Sugar undergoes fermentation (fermentation). Fermentation of sugar is a process in which it is broken down into alcohol and carbon dioxide in the presence of yeast.
- Sugar increases blood acidity
- Sugar increases constipation
— Sugar interferes with the normal breakdown of starch
- Sugar increases uric acid levels
- And others...
About brown sugar...
How is brown cane sugar made?
Which brown sugar should you choose?
Brown sugar is produced in two ways:
- by crystallization of the syrup.
- by mixing molasses and pure white sugar crystals.
The first sugar is more natural, and the second is colored.
What does dyed cane brown sugar mean?
Cane sugar is also mostly refined.
Many sugars labeled “light brown” or “dark brown” on the packaging are made from white refined sugar... After purification, the sugar was colored again with molasses. This produces crystals of the same size. Therefore, when dissolved in water, the water becomes colored, and at the bottom of the glass we see white crystals. The difference between such sugar and refined sugar is insignificant.
The best sugars are those made using old technologies. Such as “Demerara”, “turbinado”, “muscovado” (Barbados sugar). Such sugars can be golden in color (light muscovado) or black in color (dark muscovado). They have a characteristic sweet fruity aroma, indistinguishable crystals, slightly sticky due to the high moisture content, and turn to stone when dry. However, you will have to look for such sugar in stores...
How to replace sugar?
Another myth is that fructose and other sugar substitutes and sweeteners are a healthy substitute for sugar!
They, these sweeteners, are not just not healthy, or useless, but harmful and even dangerous no less (and maybe even more) than sugar, because they are also synthetic.
Xylitol, sorbitol, saccharin (E-954), sodium cyclamate (E-952),
aspartame (E-951) and all other sweeteners that are recommended for diabetics are the same synthetic chemicals as sugar. In general, the same chemistry, which is also dangerous to life, is produced for the sake of the flourishing of the chemical pseudo-food industry.
Here's a table of the sweetness ratios of these substances. The latter is as much as 600 times sweeter than sucrose. Profitable and cheap right?:
Comparison table of caloric content and coefficient
Name Caloric content, kcal/g Sweetness coefficient
Sucrose 3.95 1
Fructose 3.76 From 1.2 to 1.8
Xylitol From 2.4 to 4 About 1
Sorbitol 2.4-4 0.3-0.5
Isomalt 2 0.45-0.60
Aspartame Very small About 200
Saccharin No About 300
Cyclamate No About 30
Acesulfame No About 200
Stevioside No About 200
Sucralose No About 600
How to give up white sugar?
Sugar is addictive. Once you get hooked on it, it will be difficult to refuse. To give up sugar as an artificial substance, there is this way: when we eat a fruit, or a carrot, a date, we hold the bitten piece in our mouth for a longer time, trying to feel all its taste and its sweetness, this is a completely different sweetness, very pleasant, natural. The more often we practice this, the faster we will develop aversion and aversion to artificial sugar.
And most importantly, dear friend, we want to make you happy!
When you start eating your Healthy Bread, you naturally won’t want to eat as much sweets as before.
For example, we refused to buy store-bought cakes, which we could hardly pass by before, and made sure to buy at least a piece, although we knew that this cake contained a lot of all sorts of harmful things.
Only after completely switching to my own bread did this “passion” for sweets go away! Why? Yes, because from our healthy bread we get useful substances and saturate our body. Plus, the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract is restored.
Have you noticed that sometimes sugar is much sweeter when visiting? If yes, then this does not mean at all that “at a party and vinegar is sweet,” it’s just that differences in sugar really exist, and sugar is different from sugar. The presenters of the popular program about health, about the most important thing, Olga Budina and Sergey Agapkin, also drew attention to this. They decided today to figure out why this happens, and how to find and choose in the store really sweet sugar. Sergei promised to reveal a terrible secret that both sellers and sugar producers are silent about.
1. Sugar is made according to two GOST standards:
a.) GOST 21-94 – granulated sugar. Allows the content of various additives or ballast substances in its composition, making sugar less sweet.
b.) GOST 22-94 – refined sugar. Chemically pure sucrose, a substance purified from foreign impurities. It turns out that refined sugar can be in cubes, compressed, as we are used to seeing it, but it can also be in crumbly form.
That is why sugar made according to GOST 22-94 is sweeter
2. It began to appear more and more often on the shelves of stores and supermarkets. cane sugar, darker color. Often it is even positioned as much more useful than usual sugar made from beets. But, according to Sergei, if the sugar is well refined, then there should be absolutely no difference between sucrose obtained from cane and beets. Therefore, you should not overpay for advertising gimmicks.
3. When buying sugar, pay attention to its moisture content. It is important to understand that sugar is a very hygroscopic substance that can absorb large amounts of water. Therefore, buying dry sugar will provide your tea with more sweetness in smaller portions. You can check the moisture content of sugar in a closed, packaged bag by turning the bag over and drawing the appropriate conclusion based on the grains of sugar remaining on the walls of the bag. Dry sugar will never stick to the wall.
4. The color of sugar also affects its taste. If you purchase refined sugar, its color should be as white as possible. If its color changes from milky to darker, even grayish shades, then this sugar is poorly refined. However, many people believe that slightly dark sugar is healthier because of its additives. However, in this case there can be no question of the presence of vitamins, since at high temperatures they disappear, and other useful microelements are contained in such minute quantities that they will not bring significant benefits to human health. Therefore, if the color of sugar is far from ideally white, then, according to Sergei Agapkin, it may contain substances that, on the contrary, are not safe for health.
Now you know what aspects you need to pay attention to when choosing this product, and you will be able to choose and bring the sweetest and safest sugar into your home.
Other posts on the topic
Most likely, this article will outrage our beloved sweet tooths just as much as the vile, cloying phrase “favorite sweet tooth” infuriates us. Stop eating sweets, you'll kill yourself! Who will read us then? The time has come to moderate your consumption of sweets, because it is not without reason called the “white death”. It's time to get out of his alluring, sugary embrace and stop lapping up the sweet poison dripping from his white fangs.
Intrusive and harmful as a cigarette
Almost three quarters of diseases in the world are associated with poor nutrition. But at the head of these horsemen of the digestive apocalypse sits sugar. This sweet bastard does not activate cancer cells. And the main problem is that quitting sugar is as difficult as quitting smoking. Moreover, giving up “sweets” is even more difficult. So when you drink coffee with sugar in the morning and eat this deliciousness with a cigarette, remember that in fact you are hanging a “Welcome, dear Cancer” sign on your body. Even if you start drinking coffee without sugar, it won't get better. Do you know why?
Trace in tobacco
Because even cigarettes contain sugar. It is everywhere, in any fruit, in any food, so you should not consume it in excess of the norm.
Sugar is like an influential gangster who controls the city. There is a smell of death in all the affairs with which he is connected. About 17 million people a year die from obesity, half a million from smoking. Cardiovascular disease kills more, and along with diabetes accounts for an additional 4 million deaths. A total of 40 million die every year due to poor diets, led by sugar.
Russians are sinning
Russians exceed the sugar norm 5 times. Instead of the prescribed 25 grams per day, they eat all 100-140 g of sugar. Only Americans consume more - 190 g. To make it easier, a man should consume no more than 9 spoons per day. It seems like a lot, but don’t forget that beer, bread, cola and apples are also full of sugar.
Interesting fact
In 1900, on average, 2 kg per decade. Nowadays, everything is much worse - by all 58 kg, if you count from 2007. And you say healthy lifestyle, diets... And why? Because we eat sugar with spoons.
Sugar is everywhere
Butter, yogurt, tomato sauce, muesli, dried fruits, pasta, frozen pizza - what do these products have in common? Sugar, as you might have guessed, you saw the topic of the article. Sugar is everywhere, but in some places there is more of it and in others there is less. He's like an enemy spy network - he's watching you even when you can't see him. It is everywhere, in every drop, in every crumb, and it is impossible to get rid of it. This will all end with a 500 calorie load in your belly.
Soft drinks are the main supplier of sugar to the body
Everyone has already talked about this, but we will not be too lazy to repeat: carbonated drinks are the seedlings of evil and sugar vice on Earth. Recent studies have blamed diet cola for the development of dementia and stroke. In general, all drinks high in fructose are extremely deadly.
One unfortunate can of cola a day increases your risk cardiovascular diseases by a third and the risk of developing diabetes by more than 25 percent.
Everything is bad
Among other things, " white death» Causes food allergies, hair loss, decreased hormone levels, weakens vision, increases cholesterol, causes cancer, leads to liver disease, disrupts insulin production, destroys teeth and promotes osteoporosis. Now slowly, slowly put down the candy and go eat normally.
Addiction with a sweet taste
Like alcohol or drugs, sugar can make you addicted. Poor mice experimented on at Princeton University suffered from withdrawal symptoms when they did not receive sugar at the appointed time. Over time, they increasingly turned to alcohol to raise their blood glucose levels.
This is because sugar can increase the production of dopamine or the so-called happiness hormone, which causes addiction and provokes the use of substances that cause even greater addiction. For example, someone who constantly drinks beer and other weak alcohol may well move on to more strong drinks. Of course, sugar addiction does not occur as brightly as drug addiction, but it does not go away without leaving a trace on the body.
Sugar gets stronger
Despite all these facts, sugar production is only increasing; the process itself has become much cheaper, which cannot but affect its quantity. Every year, sugar consumption increases by about 1 percent. Who is to blame for this? Shadow government? Masons? Doctors who talk about the dangers of sugar less than necessary? The damned Zionists who are tormenting unfortunate humanity? What difference does it make, do you know about the dangers of sweets? You know. So, show a civic position and reduce consumption. This is the only way you can defeat your “white death”.