This week Reactions is taking a look at the science and chemistry of why things taste sweet.

Ever wonder why your favorite sweets taste, well, sweet? Whether they’re made with sugar or artificial sweeteners, it all comes down to chemistry. Let Darcy Gentleman, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry and snappy dressing take you through the science of sweetness.

Special thanks to Professor Matt Hartings of American University for his help with this episode.

The Candy Store and Sugar Sweet Sally provided by Jamendo.

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Clarification: The sweetness triangle is an oversimplified explanation of how sweet taste receptors work. Chemically diverse molecules (e.g., sugar, sweeteners) can both taste sweet because they bind different sites on the sweet taste receptor. Thanks to the University of Florida Center for Smell and Taste for their feedback. You can find more research articles on how you perceive sweet tastes below:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...
http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/cont...
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/b...