Does sugar found in fruits such as strawberries differentiate from sugar found in soft drinks? Do they have the same effect on the body healthwise?

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Does sugar found in fruits such as strawberries differentiate from sugar found in soft drinks? Do they have the same effect on the body healthwise?

In: Biology

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The end product is the same, all the sugars get converted to glucose eventually. But getting sugar from whole foods like fruits and veggies (yes veggies have some sugar too) is better because all the extra fiber and nutrients will slow down the digestion. You’ll still get all the sugar out eventually, but it will take longer and your blood sugar wont spike up and down.

In contrast, if you drink soda, that’s basically sugar water. It gets digested in minutes and you body immediately needs to shoot up insulin levels to control it. On the other side, because it digests so quickly you will feel a “crash” afterwards and now your body needs to shoot up other hormones to balance it out.

Too much up and down isn’t good in the long term. So eat your fruits and veggies and get some fiber. It’ll keep you full while digestion takes its normal timecourse.

PS: whole fruits are better than fruit juice. There’s a reason why diabetic people DRINK orange juice when they have low blood sugar rather than eat a whole orange. The juice spikes up blood sugar fast enough so diabetic people don’t pass out.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The sugar from fruits is naturally occurring (fructose), while the sugar in soft drinks is manufactured refined sugar (sucrose) that is usually processed from sugarcane or corn syrup.

Once your body metabolizes it, there’s no real difference between them.

However they are very different in some important ways:

– refined sugar breaks down quicker, causing blood sugar levels to spike.

– fruits contain fiber and other nutrients that help your body with the sugar, breaking down fructose slower, and making you feel full so you don’t eat too much.

– soft drinks have far more sugar than fruits, typically around 40 grams per can. A strawberry has 0.6 grams. So you’d need to eat more than 50 strawberries to get the same amount of sugar in a single can of cola.

– the recommended maximum sugar intake per day is 25-35 grams, so a single can of soda is more sugar than you should eat in an entire day.

Anonymous 0 Comments

With very few exceptions, the sugar in fruits and other plant sources is sucrose, just like table salt. Lots of processed foods in the US use “high fructose corn syrup” which is basically the same thing but with each molecule broken into its two components (which is done by your body very soon after eating it anyway)

In terms of the way your body processes it, there’s essentially no difference.

The main reason eating *fruit* isn’t bad for you is that fruit contains enough fibre to slow the absorption to a rate where your liver can process it properly, whereas drink rarely have any fibre at all, so your liver is forced to process it by the quick but unhealthy metabolic pathways that lead to all sorts of Bad Things^TM.

Although the title is really click baity sounding, the video [Sugar, the Bitter Truth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM) is actually really informative and explains more than you want to know about exactly this question 😛

Anonymous 0 Comments

A big difference is not in the sugar it’s in everything else. For example, eating an apple you’re getting lots of fiber, water, and nutrients. This will keep you feeling full and will slow your absorption of sugar. In contrast, if you drink a can of coke you’re getting no fiber or nutrients and so you absorb the sugar very quickly and won’t feel full for long. This is the big difference between the two, it’s not the sugar it’s everything else.
I can only eat about 2 medium size apples at a time which is only about 180 calories and it keeps me full for at least 2 hours. In contrast I could drink lots of pop during the day without feeling full or satisfied at all. This is why drinking pop all day can easily lead to weight gain whereas it is very hard to overeat fruits since they have so much fiber. That being said the occasional soda or candy is fine, it’s all about balance.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The sugar found in fruits is called fructose, our household sugar is called disaccharose. The latter is a combination of fructose and glucose and gets seperated in our body. So yes, basically, at least healthwise its all the same.

This difference is due to the fiber you get from fruits, plus vitamins and stuff. Thats why a lot of strawberries is much healthier and more filling than the dame amount of pure sugar the strawberries contain.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes. Fruits contain Fructose where as sugars in soda contain Sucrose.

It essentially has the same short term and long term effects. Raises blood sugar. Can cause diabetes (type 2) through insulin resistance.

There is some evidence to show that it’s not as bad as Sucrose, but then there is other studies that show that it’s just as bad.