A woman ate a mouthful of sugar (glucose) but her sweet tooth registered zero. How did she do this?
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Answer: she ate a baked potato.
A decent-sized russet potato has roughly the same amount of sugar as a can of regular Coke — nearly fourty grams or 10 teaspoons. Source.
This bring us to the potato paradox: How can potatoes contain a lot of sugar, yet not taste sweet?
The answer lies in the way that the potato’s sugars are delivered, and the way we detect sweet tastes. Your taste buds are like little locks that require certain keys to unlock them, and the long chains of glucose in starchy vegetables and grains don’t fit the locks. Single units of glucose, fructose or pairs of the two (=sucrose) fit just right!
Learn more here.