are monosaccharides complex carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates are polysaccharides. Polysaccharides, or complex carbohydrates, are several simple sugar molecules linked together. They can be as many as 10,000 simple sugar molecules linked together. Starch and fiber are complex carbohydrates because they are polysaccharides. Carbs with three to ten units of sugar are sometimes called oligosaccharides (oligo = few). Because complex carbohydrates are, well, complex, with anywhere from three to a zillion units of sugars, your body takes longer to digest them than it takes to digest simple carbohydrates. In monosaccharides, the number of carbons usually ranges from three to seven. If the sugar has an aldehyde group (the functional group with the structure R-CHO), it is known as an aldose, and if it has a ketone group (the functional group with the structure RC(=O)R'), it is known as a ketose. Polysaccharides, the “complex carbohydrates,” play vital energy storage and structural roles in living organisms, making carbohydrates the most abundant biomolecules on Earth. Polysaccharides are excellent energy storage molecules because they are easily built and broken down by enzymes. •Pectin forms a gel in water and has uses for setting jam and making various sweet foods. •Sometimes used as a vegan alternative to gelatin (also known as gelatine) in the preparation of set or glazed foods because the beef (cow) or pork (pig) origin of gelatin is not acceptable to some people. Therefore, the ratio of carbon to hydrogen to oxygen is 1:2:1 in carbohydrate molecules. The origin of the term carbohydrate is based on its components: carbon (carbo) and water (hydrate). Carbohydrates are classified into three subtypes: monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. Several hydroxyls and one carbonyl functional group modify these hydrocarbon chains to create a monosaccharide, the base unit of all carbohydrates. Monosaccharides consist of a carbon chain of three or more carbon atoms containing a hydroxyl group attached to every carbon except one. The lone carbon atom is double-bonded to an oxygen atom, and this carbonyl group may be in any position along the carbon chain. Carbohydrates can further be categorized as simple or complex. Simple carbohydrates are the monosaccharides, or single sugar molecules--glucose, fructose and galactose. Simple carbohydrates also include dissaccarides, which are made up of two sugar molecules. For example, table sugar is a dissacharide--it is glucose linked with fructose. Depending on the number of carbons in the sugar, they also may be known as trioses (three carbons), pentoses (five carbons), and or hexoses (six carbons). Monosaccharides can exist as a linear chain or as ring-shaped molecules; in aqueous solutions they are usually found in ring forms. A carbohydrate with one unit of sugar is called a simple sugar or a monosaccharide (mono = one; saccharide = sugar). Fructose (fruit sugar) is a monosaccharide, and so are glucose (blood sugar), the sugar produced when you digest carbohydrates, and galactose, the sugar derived from digesting lactose (milk sugar). A carbohydrate with two units of sugar is called a double sugar or a disaccharide (di = two).
No, monosaccharides are simple carbohydrates.