For example, most fruits have around 10-20g of sugar per cup of fruit. How is this sugar any different than if I were to eat a granola bar with 10g of added sugar? Or have a drink with added sugar? The USDA says to limit added sugar consumption, but says nothing about limiting regular sugar consumption. Is added sugar chemically any different from sugar found in natural foods?
In: Chemistry
Even ignoring all the healthful components of fruit (fibre, vitamins, antioxidants), it is less bad as a source of sugar due to its natural portion control. Fresh fruit contains fibre and water which fill you up meaning it’s pretty much impossible to eat too many fruits.
Even if you take relatively sugary tropical fruits like bananas they have about 12g of sugar. To get 50g of sugar you’d have to eat 4-5 bananas which is pretty hard to do as you’ll get full after the first couple. For non tropical fruits it’s even harder.
Meanwhile if you take milk chocolate, that’s got about 50g of sugar per 100g bar, which I could easily eat in one go (and have done several times in the past lol)
Plus, studies have shown that giving people more fruit is associated with reduced diabetic markers and reduced obesity, even though it does contain sugar. Which could be for many reasons, maybe getting full up from fruit makes you less inclined to eat junk food/snacks. Or maybe the fact that the sugar in fruit is packaged with fibre and water means it doesn’t contribute to diabetes like white sugar does.
Latest Answers