I understand that the OL suffix indicates that the substance is an alcohol but is the only time that the letters OL when they're together indicate that the substance is an alcohol? In other words, whole wheat bread,for instance,wouldn't be an alcohol because the letters ol aren't being used as a suffix,right?

Thank you for your time.

In general the chemical names of compounds classified as alcohols do indeed have "ol" as a suffix - examples include ethanol and methanol. But a term such as "whole wheat bread" is not a chemical name at all, so strictly speaking you really don't know what's in it unless you read the ingredients. Consider for example "rum cake" - clearly it has alcohol in it, as rum is a type of liquor, but it has no "ol" in its name. Of course that's a pretty obvious example - a more subtle one is Bearnaise sauce, which has red wine vinegar in it, and hence a trace of alcohol. So when dealing with foods you must understand the ingredients that go into it.

"I understand that the OL suffix indicates that the substance is an alcohol". Not every OL is an alcohol. Ethylene Glycol, Glycerol or Phenol for example.

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Originally Posted by ebaines

In general the chemical names of compounds classified as alcohols do indeed have "ol" as a suffix - examples include ethanol and methanol. But a term such as "whole wheat bread" is not a chemical name at all, so strictly speaking you really don't know what's in it unless you read the ingredients. Consider for example "rum cake" - clearly it has alcohol in it, as rum is a type of liquor, but it has no "ol" in its name. Of course that's a pretty obvious example - a more subtle one is Bearnaise sauce, which has red wine vinegar in it, and hence a trace of alcohol. So when dealing with foods you must understand the ingredients that go into it.

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Thank you.

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Originally Posted by ma0641

"I understand that the OL suffix indicates that the substance is an alcohol". Not every OL is an alcohol. Ethylene Glycol, Glycerol or Phenol for example.

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I didn't know that. Is cholesterol an alcohol?

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Originally Posted by ScottK2

I didn't know that. Is cholesterol an alcohol?

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By the direct definition of what an alcohol is, being an organic compound that contains a hydroxyl group (OH) bonded to a saturated carbon atom (no double/triple bonds) it isn't. The hydroxyl group is bonded to a benzene ring. The benzene ring has "floating" double bonds around it's ring so it isn't an alcohol.

A lot of confusion comes when you actually define the term alcohol. The common definition is ethanol. I go get some alcohol I am going to grab a brewski or scotch or ever clear. The chemical definition of it makes things dodgy. Methanol, propanol, decahol (With boughs of holly fa la la la la la et al.). A lot of companies will define ingredients using their common names rather then chemical names so that it seems less scary. For example, which is less threating on your can of soda pop?
1) (2R,3S,4R,5R)-2,3,4,5,6-Pentahydroxyhexanal
2). Glucose
3). Sugar
I Am sure you would say 3-2-1 in that order. They describe the same compound, white sugar.

So marry the common naming with chemical naming and trying to correlate that with consumption... leads to a headache.