Various Types of Sugar

Also known as: Table sugar

Description: Sucrose is the most common sugar. It is a crystalline sweetener used in foods and beverages. Sucrose is a disaccharide, or double sugar, consisting of one molecule of glucose linked to one molecule of fructose.

Facts: Sucrose is commercially produced from sugarcane and sugar beets.

Its chemical formula is C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁.

Also known as: Glc, Dextrose

Description: Glucose is a simple sugar (monosaccharide). Biologically, it is used by cells as a source of energy for cellular respiration. It is one of the primary products of photosynthesis. It is also the major free sugar that circulates in the blood of higher animals.

Facts: The chemical formula for glucose is C₆H₁₂O₆.

Glucose is produced commercially by the enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. Starch acts as an energy reserve for plants; each molecule of starch consists of thousands of glucose units.

Glycogen, the reserve carbohydrate in most animal cells, is made up of glucose.

Also known as: Levulose

Description: Fructose is a naturally occurring simple sugar, or monosaccharide. It is commonly found in fruits and other sweet natural foods such as honey, beets, sweet potatoes, and onions. Usually it is found in nature in combination with sucrose and glucose.

Facts: Fructose is one of the three most important blood sugars (along with glucose and galactose).

Of all naturally occurring sugars, fructose is the sweetest. It is about twice as sweet as sucrose.

Description: Lactose is a disaccharide that contains one molecule of glucose and one molecule of galactose linked together. It is the only sugar commonly produced by animals.

Facts: Lactose makes up approximately 2-8% of the solids in milk.

Also known as: Malt sugar

Description: Maltose is a complex sugar (disaccharide) formed from two units of glucose.

Facts: The production of maltose is important to the process of brewing beer. The grain used to make the beer is malted, meaning that the concentration of maltose in the grain is maximized. Subsequently, metabolism of maltose by yeast during fermentation leads to the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide.

Also known as: Gal, Brain sugar

Description: Galactose is a simple sugar (monosaccharide). It is less sweet than glucose and not very water-soluble. It is usually found in nature combined with other sugars. For example, lactose molecules contain one molecule of galactose and one molecule of glucose.

Facts: Galactose is found in carbohydrate-containing lipids called glycolipids, which are found in the brain and other tissues of the nervous system in most animals.