I’ve heard a lot of times that certain fruits like bananas and mangoes have more sugar levels in them because they are sweet tasting. I saw a lot of people eat non ripe ones saying it’s fine though. What’s the difference?
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To understand the answer to this question you have to understand how polymers work. Polymers are a long repeating chain of the same molecule repeated over and over again. Plastics are the most familiar polymer to the general public, but many polymers exist in nature as well. Your DNA is another polymer, as it is comprised of the same units repeated over and over: T, A, C, and G. This units are called monomers, and when a bunch of monomers bond together they form a polymer.
Okay, so you asked about sugars and not plastics. Well, like I said many polymers exist in nature, many of which use glucose as their monomer! Starch and cellulose both use glucose as their monomer, and the only difference is in how those two sugar molecules are linked up (this bond is called a glycosidic bond, and well come back to it). Humans produce an enzyme that can break apart the bond between the starch molecules, which is why starchy foods tend to also taste sweet (bread, potatoes, etc). However, we don’t have an enzyme that can break apart the bonds in cellulose, yet other animals do.
So, the answer to your question is, as the fruit ripens, some of the glycosidic bonds break down, raising the available sugar content in the fruit and making it more sweet!
Edit: to clarify, it is the starch and the pectin that is most responsible for the increase in simple sugars via glycosidic breakdown, not cellulose. I only mentioned cellulose to illustrate how important the type of linkage between these identical monomers can play; I find is fascinating how often molecules that are otherwise identical can have vastly different roles in biologic systems.
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