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All sugars are very soluble in water because of their many hydroxyl groups. Although not as concentrated a fuel as fats, sugars are the most important source of energy for many cells. Carbohydrates provide the bulk of the calories (4 kcal/gram) in most diets, and starches provide the bulk of that.
Herein, which type of carbohydrate is insoluble in water?
Polysaccharides consisting of one type of sugar unit uni- formly linked in linear chains are usually water insoluble even when the molecules have a low molecular weight with degrees of polymerization (DP) 20-30. Insolubility results from the fit of molecules and their preference for partial crystallization.
Regarding this, would you expect carbohydrates to be soluble in water?
Carbohydrates are readily soluble in water. Most of them will be soluble upto 10 g/L easily at 25 C and 1 atm. Lipids in general are less soluble in water. However, their solubility varies with the type of lipid.
Most polysaccharides (sugar polymers) are far less soluble in water than their monomers (simple sugars). This happens because the polymer linkage between sugars ties up two of the sugar's reactive groups, which prevents those two groups from interacting with water.