What is a carbohydrate?
Carbohydrates are a compound composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are our prime source of energy so it should take up 40% of our diets. There are three main types of carbohydrates:
Monosaccharides: Simple Sugars - Glucose, Fructose, Galactose
Disaccharides: Two simple sugars that have bonded - Lactose, Fructose, Maltose
Polysaccharides: Starch
Monosaccharides: Simple Sugars - Glucose, Fructose, Galactose
Disaccharides: Two simple sugars that have bonded - Lactose, Fructose, Maltose
Polysaccharides: Starch
The Geometry of Carbohydrates Activity
In this activity, students were able to explore the chemistry of carbohydrates. They had an opportunity to reconstruct different types of carbohydrate's structural model and observe some comparisons between them and water. Interesting enough, glucose, galactose, fructose, and water all share the same hydrogen to oxygen ratio of 2:1.
Monosaccharides
The first step, was to create monosaccharide structual formulas. These included glucose, galactose, and fructose. The blue represents the oxygen molecules, the black carbon, the white hydrogen, and the white tubes are the electron bonds.
Disaccharides
Next step was joining the single sugars to create double sugars. This only worked by removing a hydrogen from one sugar and a hydrogen and oxygen molecule from the other. This is equivalent to removing a water compound.
Polysaccharides
Lastly, we combined four glucose molecules to represent the complex sugars that can be formed from many single sugars. This represents a starch molecule .
Lab
For the carbohydrates lab, we first started by identifying carbohydrates given to us. These included starch, glucose, fructose, lactose, and sucrose. Here are the orders of the tests conducted for each ingredient:
*Note: If the identifying of an ingredient is successful, you do no need to continue testing for the other ingredients
Knowing the results of each test, we conducted these on actual food to identify the ingredients in each food. The samples we used were honey, milk, chocolate, and bread crumbs. We followed the same procedure as above but instead of stopping once we got a successful test, we continued and tested each one because some ingredients have more than one type of carbohydrates. Overall the reactions of each food to the tests were quite fascinating. The immediate change in appearance was pretty cool.
*Note: If the identifying of an ingredient is successful, you do no need to continue testing for the other ingredients
- Iodine: Determine if ingredient is starch, if negative
- Benedict's Test: Determine if it was sucrose, if positive
- Barfoed's Test: Determine if it was lactose, if positive
- Seliwanoff Test: Determine whether ingredient is fructose (positive result) or glucose (negative).
Knowing the results of each test, we conducted these on actual food to identify the ingredients in each food. The samples we used were honey, milk, chocolate, and bread crumbs. We followed the same procedure as above but instead of stopping once we got a successful test, we continued and tested each one because some ingredients have more than one type of carbohydrates. Overall the reactions of each food to the tests were quite fascinating. The immediate change in appearance was pretty cool.
Reflection
I definitely have a new view on carbohydrates. And I now truly understand the idea of quality over quantity. Processed foods give you a load of carbohydrates but they are so simple that they give you no nutritional value. In contrast, grains, vegetables, breads, seeds, legumes, and beans all have complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates make your digestive system work to extract the calories and nutrients and steadily releases glucose (simplest form of sugar that the body breaks down to) into the bloodstream, unlike processed foods' sugars that just shoot directly into to your bloodstream causing a "sugar rush". So I understand now that all those processed foods are just shooting sugar into your bloodstream all in one go resulting to being overly hyper. To stay mellow and balanced, you got to eat the complex carbohydrates. I'll definitely try to eliminate the surplus of processed foods because I know that once that sugar level decreases, you feel tired, moody, and just gross. I want to maintain my energy.