Dried cranberries

HvymetalMG

I had a salad with grilled chicken tonight. It also had dried cranberries. I logged it and was shocked to see how much sugar was in them. And this was only maybe 2-3 tablespoons worth.

I've eliminated processed sugar from my diet as much as possible and usually have under 30 total grams a day but this is going M to push me over I'm curious if these are natural
Occurring sugars like in fruit or just as bad as eating 4 Oreos. Because if I'm going to have to eat crap sugar I rather it be from a cookie cheat then from trying to eat a healthy salad.

Just curious. And a little frustrated. Thanks!

L1zardQueen

Because dried cranberries are crazy tart without sugar. I love dried cranberries especially in salad, they give the salad a little zing!

usmcmp

Sugar from fruit and sugar from cookies digests the same. The difference between the two is usually just fiber and other vitamins. Sometimes dried cranberries have added sugar, but berries in general have a lot of sugar (they are sweet after all).

Christine_72

Fruit has a fair amount of sugar, dried fruits usually have substantially more.

lynn_glenmont

If the package just says dried cranberries, it should be the naturally occurring sugar in the fruit. If it says sweetened dried cranberries, they've added sugar (for many people, unsweetened dried cranberries are too tart to be palatable as a snack, so many brands add sugar). You could also check the ingredient list.

Lillymoo01

usmcmp wrote: »

Sugar from fruit and sugar from cookies digests the same. The difference between the two is usually just fiber and other vitamins. Sometimes dried cranberries have added sugar, but berries in general have a lot of sugar (they are sweet after all).

Actually berries in general are amoungst the lowest GI fruits you can find. Their sugar content is pretty low. 100 grams of fresh cranberries has just 4 grams of sugar. All dried fruit will have a higher sugar content because when you remove the water from the fruit you are left with higher concentrations of everything else that is left behind. Dried cranberries can also have sugar added to reduce the tartness. It is best to stick to fresh whole fruit rather than juice and dried fruit for this reason.

lemurcat12

Almost all dried cranberries you buy from the store will have added sugar. Read the bag and that will tell you. The reason is, like tiny dancer says, they are extremely tart. I make a cranberry sauce with fresh or dried cranberries (from the farmer's market) for Thanksgiving (and sometimes at other times) and usually add a bit of sugar if I'm not adding enough other fruit (they go well with apples or oranges).

That said, the sugar in fruit and the sugar in a cookie aren't actually different. Table sugar is sucrose, which is a mix of fructose and glucose that your body breaks down. The sugar in fruit is mostly a mix of fructose, glucose, and sucrose (the amount of each depends on the fruit). So it's the same. The reason people inaccurately claim "fruit sugar" is different has nothing to do with the sugar itself, but because sugar in fruit inherently comes with micronutrients and fiber (which slows digestion), and that in cookies does not (and comes with a lot of extra calories from the fat as well as the sugar).

An illustration I like: a medium apple has about 80 calories, 16 g of sugar. A chocolate chip cookie from my recipe box has about 200 calories, 14 g of sugar. The cookie has less sugar and the sugar itself is the same, so is the cookie a better choice? Well, if I really want a cookie, sure. But the cookie has fewer micronutrients, less fiber, more calories, and I'm much more likely to want another one, so often not. Nothing whatsoever to do with the sugar, though, which is fine.

Because of all this, although I think it makes sense to pay attention to added sugar, because it often comes with lower nutrient foods that make sense to moderate, I don't believe in being so simplistic and would look at whether the sugar adds anything and if the food overall is nutrient dense. IMO, for example, adding a bit of sugar to oatmeal is not taking away from the nutrition of the food, but for some people (not me, in this case), making the oats tastier. Adding a bit of sugar to a rhubarb sauce makes it cook better and adds to the taste (I do this), same with the cranberry sauce I mentioned.

So a few dried cranberries with some sugar (if it is indeed added) in a salad? If it makes the salad taste better and doesn't add a lot of calories, why not? If you want to try dried cranberries without added sugar to see if they taste just as good to you, go for it. It's not "crap sugar," however -- it's basically like eating a higher sugar fruit like an apple or a banana vs. a low sugar fruit like cranberries.

earlnabby

HvymetalMG wrote: »

I had a salad with grilled chicken tonight. It also had dried cranberries. I logged it and was shocked to see how much sugar was in them. And this was only maybe 2-3 tablespoons worth.

I've eliminated processed sugar from my diet as much as possible and usually have under 30 total grams a day but this is going M to push me over I'm curious if these are natural
Occurring sugars like in fruit or just as bad as eating 4 Oreos. Because if I'm going to have to eat crap sugar I rather it be from a cookie cheat then from trying to eat a healthy salad.

Just curious. And a little frustrated. Thanks!

Where were your total carbs for the day? If you were at or under your target, all is good. Sugar grams are unimportant to the vast majority of people, including diabetics like myself. Carbs taken as a whole are.

Strawblackcat

I can practically guarantee that the cranberries has added sugar. If they hadn't had any, you probably would have spit then out. Cranberries on their own are wicked sour.

crystalewhite

This is why I get the reduced sugar Craisins, and I only use about a half of a serving. 1/4 cup is the standard serving size and I find that way too much for a salad. 2 TBS only adds 7g of sugar and 50 calories to my salad.