Glucose, fructose and sucrose are three types of sugar. Sugar is an essential component of the American diet, with an estimated intake of 180 pounds per person per year. It makes food taste sweeter and last longer, and helps improve texture. Sugar is a broad term that encompasses many small groups of sweeteners.
Background
Sugar comes in many forms. Some sugars come from natural sources such as fruits, vegetables, sugar cane and sugar beets. Sugars can supply many of the calories you eat. A sugar is a carbohydrate and contains 4 calories per gram. Simple sugars, known as monosaccharides, are made of single molecules. Disaccharides are two monosaccharides bonded together. Many sugars we eat are made up of multiple types of basic sugar. For example, an apple contains both fructose and glucose.
Glucose
Glucose, also known as dextrose, is the most common sugar. This carbohydrate is a six-member ring consisting of five carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, says the Virtual ChemBook from Elmhurst College. Glucose is also the type of sugar our bodies use for fuel. It is the sugar measured in your blood during a fasting blood glucose test. This sugar is commonly found in fruits, vegetables and honey, and it is a component of corn syrup.
Fructose
Fructose is the sugar that sweetens fruits, and it is also naturally present in honey and some vegetables. It is most commonly known for its role in high-fructose corn syrup. This five-member ring is the sweetest of all granulated sugars. It is about 1.2 times as sweet as table sugar, reports the American Dietetic Association. The ADA also reports fructose is often used to improve texture, taste and stability in many food products.
Sucrose
Sucrose is the type of sugar you use in your kitchen and in cooking. It is derived from either sugar cane or sugar beets. There are many different types of sucrose. Raw, turbinado, white, powdered and fruit sugars are some of the varieties. Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose, says the Chemistry Encyclopedia.
Other Sugars
Lactose and maltose are similar to sucrose in that they are also disaccharides. Lactose is made up of one molecule of galactose and one molecule of glucose. Two glucose atoms make a maltose atom. Galactose, along with fructose and glucose, is a monosaccharide. There are also man-made sugars. These sugar alcohols and alternative sweeteners sweeten food products without adding the calories of natural sugars. The five alternative sweeteners used in the United States are saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, sucralose and neotame.
