My wife says she has a sweet tooth. But doesn’t everyone? It’s universal to the human condition (as well as the human palate) to like something sweet.
It may even be an evolutionary advantage to seek out an energy source in the form of carbohydrates. Sweet meant ripe, and ripe meant more energy and a better safety profile. In fact, sweet preference is associated with fruit consumption. So next time your kids ask you for sweets, just think how well adapted they are.
Of course, it’s nothing to do with your teeth. “Sweet tooth” is just an expression, used in the same way as “a head for heights”, “an ear for music”, “a nose for trouble” or “an eye for a bargain” to denote a particular talent, as well as a proclivity towards it. In more recent times, this latter meaning has dominated and the sweet tooth has largely become a depiction of gluttony. But is there also a skill to it?
Taste perception begins on the tongue and soft palate, where receptors on the cluster of cells that make up the taste bud interact with food or beverages and the saliva in which they’re dissolved. These can respond not only to simple sugars but also other chemicals. This is how sugar substitutes (like saccharin, acesulfame K and aspartame) are able to taste as sweet as table sugar. But much less is needed to elicit the same sweet taste, and this means fewer calories.
Sugars are compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Fats are compounds of carbon and hydrogen. The human body provides an oxidizing environment wherein fats can be metabolized to carbon dioxide and water. It does NOT go the other way. Sugars cannot have their oxygen removed inside the human body, which would be necessary to turn them into fats.
Only water-soluble nutrients are *directly* absorbed by the human body. These include sugars, alcohols, minerals, and several other small groups of compounds. All other nutrients (including fats, proteins, and fiber) must first be processed by the microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) that thrive in our bowels.
Sugars cannot make you fat, but the diverse population of commensals in your guts sure can, if you feed them right.
Um, pretty sure that’s not right…
Glucose is stored as glycogen, not fat.
“All other nutrients (including fats, proteins, and fiber) must first be processed by the microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) that thrive in our bowels.”
Nope.
You are confusing human digestion with bovine digestion.
Actually, it isn’t about digestion, but metabolism.
Here, I drew you a picture -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Citric_acid_cycle_with_aconitate_2.svg
Are you now claiming to be Daniel Ramsköld Harold?