Is there a monosaccharide that humans cannot metabolize?

[bomba923]

A monosacharride that humans cannot metabolize?

 

[fargoth]

well, i think formaldehyde would be one... i don't think it's good to drink formalin

 

[bomba923]

(...Alright...to be more specific )

~Does there exist a six-carbon monosaccharide (a hexose) that humans cannot metabolize?

 

[fargoth]

i think that only Glucose, Fructose and Galactose can be metabolized out of the hexoses...

 

[bomba923]

i think that only Glucose, Fructose and Galactose can be metabolized out of the hexoses...

? Why so ?

 

[fargoth]

well, the short answer is that our cells know to convert Glucose to ATP (and some cells know to convert Glucose to Glycogen and back)

and our liver knows to convert only Fructose and Galactose to Glucose...

it all depends on what your enzyms can do...

 

[skywolf]

i once read something about the chirality (right left handedness of things)
i think it applies to sugars, that if they were the opposite direction we couldn't metabolize it

not sure, but it sounds familiar

 

[Ahmed Abdullah]

enzyms are protein and have definite structure,... and are specialized to deal with certain molecule ... having appropriate configuration.