Final answer:
Monosaccharides and disaccharides vary in sweetness, with fructose being extremely sweet and lactose less so, while artificial sweeteners may taste even sweeter than natural sugars due to their different binding to taste receptors.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sweetness levels of various carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners are measured relative to sucrose, commonly known as table sugar.
Monosaccharides and disaccharides contribute to sweetness, with fructose being the sweetest of the monosaccharides, and lactose being the least sweet. Honey, a mix of fructose and glucose, generally has a sweetness comparable to sucrose.
Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose can taste significantly sweeter than sucrose because they bind differently to the G protein-coupled receptors in our taste buds, responsible for sweetness perception. Sweeteners are ranked by their relative sweetness to sucrose, with sucrose itself rated as 1 for reference.