The body's utilization of sugar and other carbohydrates is a natural, well-regulated process. When you eat a sugar-containing food, your body cannot tell whether the sugar came from fruit or whether it was spooned from a bowl. Sugar, regardless of its source, is metabolized in the same way by the body. All carbohydrate foods become glucose, fuel for the body. All carbohydrates are made up of one or more molecules of simple sugars.
Disaccharides are two monosaccharides linked together.
Those common to food always contain at least one glucose molecule. Back to Index Energy From Carbohydrates To utilize carbohydrates for energy, your body converts them to glucose. Monosaccharides are absorbed and carried unchanged to the liver before distribution throughout the body. Disaccharides and the more complex starches are broken into their simple sugar constituent parts, then routed to the liver. Sucrose, for example is broken down in the intestine to its components, glucose and fructose.