Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am testing the glucose levels of foods. the first food I checked was pancake syrop. I did a 1/10 sample and the glucose was at 2% so the glucose level was 20 %. Is this right? 2 is the highest level on my strips. I want to add invertase to test the amount of sucrose changed to glucose, but if I'm already at 2%, the highest level on my strip, how will I determine the new higher amount of glucose?
Thank you,

Hello Powfam06,

If your only problem is that the test strips are limited in the concentration of glucose, try diluting the syrup more. You can check whether more dilution works by making several dilutions, say 1:10, 1:20, 1:50. Measure all three; correct for the dilutions; and see if you get the same result from all of them. If this works, then you can just work with one greater dilution.

Good luck, WW

thank you. Can please tell me if this is correct? If I find that a food sample has 2% glucose in it, then 1 serving of that food should also have 2% glucosse? Can I take the amount of sugar listed in the nutrition facts, and take 2% of that to find the amount of glucose in 1 serving?
Thank you.

Powfam06,

Yes, if any small sample has XXX% of glucose, then that is representative of the whole batch or one serving. Assuming that the material was well mixed, any part has the same percentage of glucose.

The "nutrition facts" usually lists how much of each substance is in "one serving." If the container lists 100 g as a serving, and it says that one serving has 15 g of substance YYY, then 15% of the serving is YYY. You don't take 15% of 15 g to get the amount of YYY.

WW

People with diabetes might occasionally experience low blood sugar. When this occurs, they need to eat or drink something with glucose in it right away. How much of the different food samples you tested would need to be consumed to provide 4 g of glucose quickly? How much longer would it take for a food with relatively more sucrose to be converted into 4 g of glucose? Tip: You can find out more about blood sugar levels after eating a meal by watching this video: Khan Academy. (n.d.). Blood sugar levels. Retrieved March 16, 2012, from http://www.khanacademy.org/science/heal ... gar-levels


If I have a food that has a 2% glucose concentration and the serving size is 100 grams and each serving size contains 15 grams of sugar - how would I calculate how much of that food would be needed to give 4 grams of sugar to a hypoglycemic patient?