“Nearly half of Americans, 48%, report drinking at least one glass of soda per day, while 52% say they normally drink no soda. Among those who drink any soda, the average daily amount is 2.6 glasses, with 28% drinking one glass a day, on average, and 20% drinking two or more glasses” (Saad, Lydia, Gallup). This is all despite the fact that soda is full to the brim with added sugars, which are attributed to high blood pressure and heart disease (Corliss, Julie, Harvard Health). Children and young adults are the ones who derive most of their sugar from soda, which is a major concern for the next generation’s health(Saad, Lydia, Gallup). The question is, are added sugars actually worse than naturally occurring sugars such as in fruit and honey? To test this, Iron Chef Lab Group #2 tested to see how yeast, a fungi organism, reacted to added sugars versus natural sugars. Yeast feeds on sugar, and according to prior research of how yeast reacts to sugars, they could test for growth by measuring the amount of carbon they respirate. The stronger the sugar, the more the yeast would grow except with some exceptions such as honey, since it is such a strong sugar (Hewitson, John, Hill, Charles, How does sugar affect yeast growth?). The hypothesis was that yeast requires sugar to survive, but if it is given added sugar, it will not live as well as if it were given natural sugars. Essentially, the added sugars of a soda will have less of an effect than the natural sugars found in fruit drinks or natural sources such as honey.
These are the materials we used in the process of this lab:
These are the materials we used in the process of this lab:
50 ml Coca-Cola
50 ml Green Goodness Bolthouse Farms Juice
50 ml Pure Cane Sugar
50 ml Honey
5 beakers with 2000 ml of 110॰ water
8 flasks in ml
4 balloons
5 packets (each being ¼ of an ounce/ 2 ¼ teaspoons) of yeast
pH strips
Measuring tape (in inches)
Labels
The steps we took to make the lab:
1.) Fill all 5 beakers with 200 ml of room temperature water and label each.
2.) Then add 50 ml of coca-cola to beaker #1, add 50 ml of Green Goodness Bolthouse Farms Juice to beaker #2, add 50 ml of Pure Cane Sugar to beaker #3, add 50 ml of Splenda to beaker #4, and 50 ml of Honey in beaker #5.
3.) Add one packet of yeast ( ¼ of an ounce/ 2 ¼ teaspoons) to each balloon. Attach a balloon to each beaker without letting the yeast drop into the liquid.
4.) Let the yeast drop into the liquid at the same time.
5.) Observe the beakers every 15 minutes until the results are quantifiable (about 1 to 2 hours).
6.) Record your results by tying the balloons and measuring the diameters of each with a measuring tape.
This link leads to a video of us pouring living yeast into the beakers, all at the same time.
Here is the First Trial Results. Below is a time lapse of the whole experiment:
The Second Trial:
Third Trial:
This is the data table of all the trials we did and what our results were. None of the results were entirely consistent except for the Coca-Cola.
Amount of CO2 Circumference of Balloon (inch)
|
Amount of CO2
Circumference of Balloon (inch)
|
Amount of CO2
Circumference of Balloon (inch)
| ||
Type of sugar:
|
PH Levels
|
Test 1:
|
Test 2:
|
Test 3:
|
Pure Cane Sugar (mL)
|
pH 6
|
12
|
14.5
|
17
|
Honey (mL)
|
pH 8
|
12
|
12
|
8.5
|
Coca-Cola
|
pH 1
|
11
|
11
|
11
|
Green Goodness Bolthouse Farms Juice (mL)
|
pH 5
|
12
|
12
|
10.5
|
- The independent variable, or the x variable, is the different sugars we gave to the yeast; the added sugars in Coca-Cola, the natural sugars in Green Goodness Juice, Pure Cane Sugar and Honey.
- The dependent variable, or Y variable, was determined by the amount of CO2 that was exhaled out by the yeast. To determine this, we measured the circumference of each balloon and the height of the foam in each flask.
To tie loose ends together, the yeast survived the best in pure cane sugar in the control sugars, and the yeast in the juice did better than the yeast in the Coca-Cola. In the control groups, sugar always did better than honey, but that’s because honey is largely concentrated with sugar and too much sugar is bad for the yeast. The Coca-Cola stayed at the same amount of carbon, at an 11 inch circumference. The Green Goodness Juice usually stayed above that range at a 12 inch circumference, other than the final trial. Overall, this means that the most effective was the cane sugar, probably because it fits the perfect conditions for yeast or any organism to easily digest it, but those results weren’t the most impressive. The results that stand out are the Coca-Cola and the Green Goodness Bolthouse Farms Juice. The juice almost always was more effective than the Coca-Cola, which shows that the natural sugars were more beneficial to the yeast than the soda, but it might also be due to the fact that the Coca-Cola had a ph acidity level of 1, an incredibly high acidity. Either way, the results concluded that the natural sugars of the juice were much more beneficial than the added sugars of the soda.
The hypothesis that Group #2 generated was that the juice would breathe out more carbon. While this isn’t true if you take in account the two controls, it is true when comparing it to the soda, which shows that added sugars are not as beneficial as regular sugars. Also, the are some tweaks that the group could have done to make the experiment better. They kept on running out of certain materials and the replacements weren’t of the same quality. This can be said about the honey, yeast and juice. Yeast also only intakes sugar, while humans find many other benefits to foods with natural sugars because they are found in foods with nutrients that are beneficial for the human body. If they were to do this experiment again, they would use Splenda instead of honey, since it is just too much sugar, and they would get enough materials to last all three trials. The results are somewhat conclusive because the group did three trials to be safe. The soda results were consistent at 11 inches and almost always were under all the other sugars. The honey was the least conclusive, since its sugar content is much higher than the others and they kept on running out of the same type of honey, yet they stayed consistent in two of the trials at 12 inches, the same as the other natural liquid, the juice. If someone were to replicate this experiment, they would get nearly the same results in the drink categories because they were the least likely to change results with each trial. The sugar was merely a control, and the results of that were the most spontaneous since the trials had a range of 12 to 17 inches. All in all, the results of this lab with yeast display that natural sugars, that were not added, are the most beneficial to life forms because of their nutritional content. The American People should note that their sweetness shouldn’t have to be added to their meals, but instead derive from the natural fruits and plants that are given to them from nature, and it will effectively be better for them, even going as far as keeping them from getting heart disease.
Works Cited:
Corliss, Julie. "Eating Too Much Added Sugar Increases the Risk of Dying with Heart Disease - Harvard Health Blog." Harvard Health Blog RSS. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Gallup, Inc. "Nearly Half of Americans Drink Soda Daily." Gallup.com. N.p., 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
"How Does Sugar Affect Yeast Growth?" How Does Sugar Affect Yeast Growth?N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment