Fructose and sucrose both fall under the designation of sugars. Biochemically, they're both carbohydrates -- fructose is a monosaccharide and sucrose is a disaccharide, meaning that fructose is made of a single sugar unit, while sucrose is made of two sugar units.
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The energy content of a food is a measure of how many calories the food contains. Your body needs a certain number of calories each day -- the required amount varies with your age, gender, weight status and activity level -- to maintain itself.
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Glutamic acid and glutamate are the chemical names for two very similar substances. You consume glutamate when you take in protein -- glutamate is a constituent of protein -- or when you eat food that contains monosodium glutamate. Because of the similarities between the chemicals, scientists often call glutamate "
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If you’re one of the many adults who can’t consume dairy products because you struggle with lactose intolerance, you can consume lactose-free milk and dairy without difficulty.
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The different components of milk can confuse some people trying to decide which of them cause dietary difficulties or allergies, and the kinds of milk most appropriate for sensitivities.
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In recent decades, the general public has become interested in health-related topics and methods for maintaining and improving health. In response to this, there is an increasingly wide variety of supplements available for purchase at health food and drug stores.
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Lactose and sucrose are both common kinds of sugar that feature prominently in the typical American diet. Though chemically similar in many regards, your body digests them differently, using different digestive enzymes. They also have different sources in food.
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Proponents claim that supplemental papaya enzymes offers several health benefits, from aiding in weight loss to reducing symptoms of digestive discomfort and acid reflux.
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Many women, once they find out they're pregnant, worry about the behaviors in which they engaged during early pregnancy. One of the most common concerns in mothers-to-be is that alcohol consumed before they found out they were pregnant will hurt the baby.
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Sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate have similar-sounding names and many chemical similarities, but they're used very differently. Sodium carbonate has household and industrial applications but is used very rarely in food and cooking.
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Many different calcium supplements are available over-the-counter at health food stores and drug stores. You can use these to ensure that you're getting plenty of calcium, which is an important component of the skeletal system.
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Digestion is simultaneously a complicated process and a relatively simple one. Chemically, it's quite simple -- it involves breaking the large nutrient compounds in your food down into small nutrient compounds that you can absorb. Logistically, however, this is quite complex.
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Lactose is milk sugar--it's much less sweet than table sugar, and occurs naturally in milk and other dairy products. While you can certainly burn the chemical components of lactose for energy, it doesn't serve unique cellular functions--you can burn other carbohydrates instead with no ill effect whatsoever.
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There are many common misconceptions regarding the enzymes in your food -- whether they're useful to you and what affects them. In very simple terms, freezing doesn't kill enzymes in food for two reasons. First, they're not alive, so they can't be killed. Second, freezing doesn't permanently affect enzyme structure.
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There's a common misconception that microwaved food is bad for you, either because microwaving destroys nutrients or because the microwaves themselves somehow render the food unhealthy.
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There are a number of myths and misconceptions regarding prenatal vitamins and their effects on women who aren't pregnant. For instance, there's no truth to the claim that prenatal vitamins can help regulate your period. Your period depends on hormones released by various body organs, not on vitamins you take.
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There are a number of foods and beverages you may be used to drinking that aren't a good idea during pregnancy, because they contain chemicals that can harm your developing fetus. While regular black tea is best avoided, you can safely drink decaffeinated black tea during your pregnancy.
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Lactose is milk sugar; you consume it any time you drink milk or eat dairy products. To absorb its components and use them for energy, you digest it with lactase, an enzyme produced by your digestive tract. Lactase reacts with lactose, splitting it into two smaller sugar molecules that you can absorb.
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Poly-Vi-Sol is a vitamin and mineral supplement in drop form made by Enfamil, a company that also makes formula for infants.
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Sodium bicarbonate is the chemical name for baking soda, a common household salt that is also an important part of your blood chemistry, because it occurs naturally in the blood. In general, sodium bicarbonate has the effect of acting as a buffer, meaning it helps to stabilize the blood pH.
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