Final answer:
The claim that 1 gram of starch contains 5.65 calories is false; it contains only four calories. When starch is chewed, it can taste sweet as enzymes in saliva break it down into simpler sugars.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that there are 5.65 calories in 1 gram of starch is FALSE. In the context of food energy, one gram of carbohydrates, including starch, contains only four calories. The discrepancy in the original statement may arise from confusion between the term 'calories,' often used colloquially, and the scientific term 'Calories,' with the latter actually being kilocalories. In nutrition, 'Calories' (with a capital C) refer to the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius, while the former (with a lowercase c) is the energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
When you chew a starchy food, like a saltine cracker, enzymes in your saliva called amylases start to break down the long chains of starch into simpler sugars like maltose and eventually glucose, which tastes sweet. Glucose, however, is not primarily stored by lipids in the human body; instead, it can be stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Lastly, when ordering the carbohydrates by size, we find that fructose, being a monosaccharide, is the smallest, followed by sucrose, which is a disaccharide, and cellulose, which is a polysaccharide, is the largest.
The final answer expressed in a two-line explanation in 300 words is that the statement about calories in starch is false, as there are only four calories in 1 gram of starch. Additionally, when starchy foods are chewed, they may taste sweet due to the action of amylase converting starch into simpler sugars.