Daniel Brown, age 11, of Kamas, Utah, for his question:

What food group is syrup in?

There are dozens of different kinds of syrup, all of them created by the plant world. Dieticians classify them as the most highly concentrated carbohydrate foods. Syrups are actually concentrated extracts from various fruit and plant sugars. Carbohydrates are chemical compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and these elements can be combined in various ways to create a large number of different sugars. All fruit, for example, contains at least three forms of sugar. Vegetables contain smaller amounts, though you may not taste it.

Sugary syrups can be extracted from corn, maple trees and dozens of other plants. They contain twice the amount of carbohydrate found in starchy foods, such as bread and almost 80 per cent more than starchy potatoes. The body uses both sugary and starchy carbohydrates as fuel to create energy. The carbohydrates that are not used right away are changed into fats and stored in the cells. Later they are converted back to sugary carbohydrates and used as needed.