Q.For the school athletic meet, Shriya was advised to consume either Glucon-D or fruit juice but no sugarcane juice. Why must it be so?

Step 1. Glucon-D supplies glucose, and most fruit juices are rich in fructose — both are monosaccharides, the simplest sugar units, which the small intestine can absorb directly into the blood without any further digestion.

Step 2. Sugarcane juice, by contrast, is rich in sucrose, a disaccharide. Before it can be absorbed, sucrose must first be broken down by the intestinal enzyme sucrase into glucose and fructose — an extra digestive step that takes time. …

Compare the sugars in each drink (monosaccharide vs disaccharide) and connect that to how quickly …

• Assuming all three drinks are 'equally sugary' and therefore equally fast-acting — the type of sugar (monosaccharide vs disaccharide), not just its presence, determines absorption speed. …