what is fructose and galactose both used for?

Question

fructose and galactose are monomers of sugar

Answer 1

Well, as sugar, they're used for much the same thing that most sugars are.

Fructose is sweeter than sucrose and is digested slowly so it's thought to be better for diabetics than regular sucrose. High fructose corn syrup is used in many foods rather than sugar for these reasons - it's produced by treating regular corn syrup with an enzyme that converts the sucrose into fructose.

In the body, fructose has to be converted by the liver to be used as energy. It also does other things such as binding to minerals (which is great if you have too many, but bad if you have too few!).

Galactose is naturally found in some foods (like milk and beets) and is produced naturally by the body. It is still important as a nutritive supplement, but to my knowledge not important enough that anyone goes to any great lengths to actually supplement their foods with it. It has little commercial advantage, therefore.

In the body, galactose has to be turned into glucose to be usable for energy, but it also serves as a building block for a variety of lipids and proteins.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Fructose (or levulose) is a simple sugar (monosaccharide) found in many foods and one of the three most important blood sugars along with glucose and galactose. Honey; tree fruits; berries; melons; and some root vegetables, such as beets, sweet potatoes, parsnips and onions, contain fructose, usually in combination with sucrose and glucose. Fructose is also derived from the digestion of sucrose, a disaccharide consisting of glucose and fructose that is broken down by enzymes during digestion. Fructose is the sweetest naturally occurring sugar, estimated to be twice as sweet as sucrose.

Fructose is often recommended for, and consumed by, people with diabetes mellitus or hypoglycemia, because it has a very low Glycemic Index (GI 23) relative to cane sugar (sucrose). However, this benefit is tempered by concern that fructose may have an adverse effect on plasma lipid and uric acid levels, and the resulting higher blood levels of fructose can be damaging to proteins. The low GI is due to the unique and lengthy metabolic pathway of fructose, which involves phosphorylation and a multi-step enzymatic process in the liver. Galactose (also called brain sugar) is a type of sugar found in dairy products, in sugar beets and other gums and mucilages. It is also synthesized by the body, where it forms part of glycolipids and glycoproteins in several tissues. It is considered a nutritive sweetener because it has food energy. Galactose is less sweet than glucose and not very water-soluble.

Galactan is a polymer of the sugar galactose. It is found in hemicellulose and can be converted to galactose by hydrolysis.

Galactose is a monosaccharide constituent, together with glucose, of the disaccharide lactose. The hydrolysis of lactose to glucose and galactose is catalyzed by the enzyme beta-galactosidase, a lactase. In the human body, glucose is changed into galactose in order to enable the mammary glands to secrete lactose. Hope this helps you out hun........Flo

Answer 3

Fructose is sugar from fruits, Galactose is the sugar of the Galaxies. MMM. Stardust.

Answer 4

your body breaks them down into carbohydrates....gructose found in fruit and galactose is found in milk..i think..

Answer 5

first steps in making a cake

Answer 6

They are both sugars.