Is the Sugar In Fruit Bad For You? Sugar Content In Fruit

Fruits are called nature’s sweets for a reason: They’re our largest source of sugar in minimally processed whole foods. So when the low-carb diet gained popularity, the fruit came under scrutiny by scrupulous dieters looking for a nutritional advantage. We know The fruit is a good source of valuable vitamins and minerals.But many people wonder: Is the sugar in fruit bad for your health?

Continue reading to better understand sugar in fruit and whether it could be a problem for you.

Is fruit sugar bad for your health?

In short, no, you probably shouldn’t eliminate that daily banana. Experts want you to consume less sugarbut you must strive to reduce added sugar, not the natural sugars from fruits and dairy. This is because natural sugars also contain fiber, which slows down the body’s absorption of that sugar and therefore helps balance blood sugar levels.

Instead of eliminating fruit, try cutting back on sugary drinks like soda, lattes, energy drinks, and sports drinks, as well as refined carbohydrates like cookies, cakes, and candy. Compared to some of these sugar bombs, the sugar content of fruit doesn’t come close, and it is a real, nutritionally superior food.

However, moderation is key because the sugar in fruit is still sugar.

Can you eat too much sugar from fruits?

Sometimes. Natural fruit sugar is better than refined sugar, but it’s still possible to go overboard: “For people who have a strong addiction to sugar or who want to lose weight, they can overindulge in sugar consumption.” [fruit] “If you eat them all day,” he says. Keri GlassmanMS, RD, CDN.

Researchers like Dr. Robert Lustig associate fructose with “alcohol without the buzz.” The basic argument: glucose can be used by any tissue in the body, but only the liver is responsible for processing fructose, which, remember, is the main source of sugar in fruit.

When faced with fructose, the liver has two options: it can convert fructose to glucose to feed other tissues, or it can convert fructose to fat and store it. If you regularly consume more than enough calories, guess what choice your liver makes? That’s right: you will store excess fructose as fat.

This is not good because over time, this fat can build up in the liver and increase the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Is fruit sugar the same as regular sugar?

The sticky sweetness you enjoy from a crisp apple comes from fructose, the main (but not the only) sugar in fruits. Fruits contain a combination of sugars (for example, a apple contains 6 percent fructose and 3 percent sucrose by weight. Sucrose is what we commonly know as table sugar, and is made up of units (molecules) of fructose and glucose linked together.

Once ingested, you can digest both sucrose and fructose into glucose, which your brain and body use for fuel, and the glucose is what ends up in your bloodstream and raises your blood sugar. While sucrose can be quickly digested into glucose to raise blood sugar, fructose is trickier.

pure fructose It doesn’t raise blood sugar much, making it a popular sweetener for diabetics. Of course, that doesn’t give you free rein.

When should you avoid eating fruit?

The anti-fructose evidence collected by well-meaning researchers like Dr. Lustig is part of the reason you may encounter people with sugar phobias. But keep in mind that even Dr. Lustig, who declares sugar “toxic,” told the New York Times he I wouldn’t recommend cutting the fruit..

Basically, if you’re concerned about your sugar intake, you may want to consider avoiding fruit when it’s highly processed: apple juice is not the same as eating an apple and you may not get the same proportion of beneficial fiber. compared to apple.

Also, be careful with nuts. Nuts contain fiber, but in a much smaller volume, which makes overeating more likely.

How much sugar is in fruit?

Are you still interested in consuming low-sugar fruits? Here’s a table to help you understand how much sugar is in 20 popular fruits:

*Graph shown from the least amount of sugar to the most amount of sugar, by grams.