/oss/taxonomy/term/6707/all en /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/just-say-no <p>“A spoonful of sucrose helps the medicine go down,” as Mary Poppins told us. But she neglected to say that it also increases our risk of cardiovascular disease. Actually, Mary didn’t say sucrose, she said a “spoonful of sugar.” Sucrose is the chemical term for table sugar and is actually composed of two smaller molecules, glucose and fructose joined together. All three are referred to as “simple sugars,” in contrast to “complex sugars” such as the starch in food, or the glycogen stored in the liver, that are composed of long chains of glucose molecules. </p><p></p> Wed, 22 Feb 2023 17:34:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9410 at /oss