Fruit has sugar. Candy and soda have sugar. Why is eating a whole mango healthier than eating a candy bar?
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Fiber in fruit causes the sugar to be digested slower than in a candy bar. Why juice is also bad for you.
It’s different sugar. If I remember correctly, fruit has fructose, while artificial sweets have mostly glucose. Both of those are simple sugars (made out of uncomplicated molecules) but fruit also has complex sugars (large chains of molecules) which react differently with your body and are generally lacking in candy.
This is me recalling a high school biology class from years ago, so if we have an actual expert in this thread, please, feel free to correct me on anything 🙂
When you eat a mango, you get the fibre and all of the nutrients plus the sugar. But when you drink soda you only get the sugar.
I’ve looked through the answers and didn’t see the correct one.
Simply – the sugar in a mango is BOUND to the fiber in the mango and the sugar in the candy bar is NOT BOUND to fiber.
That changes HOW the sugar is absorbed by the body and makes it safer for the body to absorb that sugar.
That’s the end of the ELI5 answer. HOW the sugar is absorbed makes all the difference. Read on for more details.
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Your body is made up of different organs and bacteria which work in concert to digest foods. The bacteria is also called the “gut microbiome” because it isn’t just a simple mass of bacteria but a [vast community of microscopic organisms with their own nervous system, producing neurotransmitters and hormones](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22392290).
If the sugar is unbound from fiber like in a candy bar then it is rapidly broken down (how exactly depends on the type of sugar) and many sugars by the [liver in a method that’s similar to alcohol](https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/abundance-of-fructose-not-good-for-the-liver-heart). It’s why people who were into weightlifting and eating supplements with pure fructose got what was called [“fructose belly” just like a “beer belly”](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3649103/) and a “fatty liver” like those who consume too much alcohol.
However if the sugar is BOUND to the fiber like in the mango then [it’s sugars remain intact as the mango moves through the digestive tract, and they are released more slowly. The fructose in the mango will not be completely absorbed even after it has passed through the small intestine, so a certain amount will even reach the large intestine](https://www.baliza.de/en/blog/files/does-glucose-improve-absorption-fructose-intolerance.html).
If you want to hear a technical discussion about that fiber mesh that collects and impacts sugar absorption which stops it from getting through your intestinal lumen, listen [to this part of this talk at 1:23:06](https://youtu.be/-s5szfPYKY4?t=4948)
There’s a highly technical talk aimed at doctors by an endocrinologist that talks about this in more detail here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpNU72dny2s
Look up stuff by Dr. Robert H. Lustig who has been studying calories/sugars for decades for more details for good explanations on this at different levels of explanation.
Edit: Added part about soluble vs insoluble fiber.
Also, Fiber.
Say an orange has 9g of sugar, but you eat one and you feel sated.
Vs. a glass of orange juice with 45g of sugar….I don’t know your life but you probably wouldn’t normally sit down and eat 5 oranges in one sitting, but it’s easy to drink the juice of 5 oranges.
The fiber helps you feel full and slows down how long it takes for your body to digest, giving it more time to process the sugar.
Soda and candy’s sugar to fiber ratio is all fucked up, too much sugar to too little fiber overloading your ability to process the sugar.
Basically, it’s because fruit not only has less sugar per portion, it also has a lot more than just sugar
An apple is 86% water, 10% sugar, 2% fibre, and the rest is a few vitamins and minerals (things like potassium, and vitamin C). An orange is similar.
A mars bar is about 60% sugar, 8% saturated fat, and little to nothing in terms of vitamins and minerals.
(All of these percentages are by weight)
It’s not that the sugar isn’t bad, it’s that the goods outweigh the bad by a long shot.
Technically, anything cooked over an open flame is slightly carcinogenic (increases risk of cancer). But the benefits of cooking your food outweigh that minor downside by a lot
Fruit (even very sugary fruit like mangos and bananas) has fibre and water which fills you up. I can very easily eat packets and packets of chocolate, biscuits, gummy sweets etc. After maybe like 2 mangos I wouldn’t be able to eat any more. Plus those candy bars are a combination of sugar and fat which is more palatable and addictive than just sugar or just fat
The fiber in the fruit makes you feel full. Try eating 6 mangos in one sitting, can’t do it. But you can eat 6 Snickers bars in one sitting.
It’s just quantity. If you eat 10 mangos a day for the rest of your life, you will be diagnosed diabetic at some point.
Healthier is less bad
Heathy is not bad
You’re wrong about food, but you’re right about juice. This is why your doctor will tell you to stop letting your kids drink as much juice as they want for a parent they think is trying to make the right moves.
Your kid will eat an orange and be happy, but they’ll drink 20 oranges a day without a second thought. They’ll also eat 5 candy bars too.
That’s why fruit works. It is natures candy, but most people won’t overdo it because it takes time to eat an apple, peal an orange etc, and you get a lot more out of it than a concentrated version of that.
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