Development of a food composition database of refined monosaccharides and disaccharides in snacks, desserts, and beverages

The excessive intake of monosaccharides and disaccharides increases the risks of obesity and dental caries. In addition, the simple-sugar (monosaccharides and disaccharides) content of therapeutic diets for diabetic patients needs be adequately controlled. However, no study has examined their intake due to the lack of a database in Taiwan. The objective of this study was to develop a database for monosaccharides and disaccharides in representative snacks, desserts, and beverages. All food items analyzed in this study are usually consumed between meals (as snacks). Two methods were used: 1) an enzymatic method to analyze 145 food items for refined monosaccharides and disaccharides; and 2) a recipe method, for which we selected 49 representative homemade snacks and calculated the average value of sucrose from 10 recipes for each snack found in books and on the internet. The results showed that beverages contained higher levels of glucose and fructose than snacks and desserts, possibly because the manufacturers used high-fructose corn syrup, also called isoglucose, as the sweetener.