Simple carbohydrates are naturally present as simple sugars in fruits, milk and other foods. Plant carbohydrates also can be refined to produce sugar products such as table sugar or corn syrup.
Two main types of sugars are monosaccharides and disaccharides.
Disaccharides are formed by the elimination of a water and it contain two monosaccharides joined together with a special linkage, called a glycosidic bond.
Several disaccharides are important in foods sucrose or table sugar is the most common and contains glucose and fructose.
Three disaccharides are important in nutrition: maltose, sucrose and lactose.
Sucrose is the most familiar of the three disaccharides and is what people mean when they speak of sugar. When the person eats a food containing sucrose, enzymes in the digestive tract splits the sucrose into its glucoses and fructose components. Because the body can convert fructose to glucose, one molecule of sucrose can ultimately yield two molecules of glucose.
Lactose also in known as milk sugar because it is a found in milk. Lactose is composed of one molecule glucose an one molecules of galactose.
It is the least sweet and least soluble of the sugars.
Disaccharides sugar
