The Fruit Sugar Debate

McKayMachina

I wanted to post this to encourage some informed debate regarding "fruit sugar". Nearly as hot a topic around here as eating one's exercise calories, the fructose debate is, and will continue to be, ongoing. But I'm of a mind that fact is fact and if I can gain and, in this case, spread a little knowledge, that helps promote healthy, realistic weight loss, then it sounds like a good deal.

Some things to consider:

1. The sugar in fruit is called fructose. It helps keep you fat.

"A research team from the University of Washington (UW) recently published a study in Physiology & Behavior revealing that moderate consumption of fructose- and high fructose corn syrup-sweetened beverages leads to significant alterations of lipid metabolization in the liver. Conducted on rats, the study also noted marked increases in both cholesterol and triglyceride levels in rats that fed on fructose-sweetened beverages.

Fructose is a monosaccharide sugar that is found in various fruits. It is a simple sugar that is often promoted as being a healthy "fruit" sugar, however the reality is that fructose is just one component of the complex sugar composition that occurs naturally in fruit."

2. Stevia appears to be a safe, yummy alternative that won't negatively impact your body.

"Researchers also looked at natural stevia extract in their study and no demonstrable negative effects were observed. Stevia is a safe, natural extract that contains no sugar and is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar per volume. It has a glycemic index of zero and is safe for diabetics."

3. Obesity and sugar consumption are demonstrably linked.

"Evidence is mounting that sugar is THE MAJOR FACTOR causing obesity and chronic disease.

Is sugar a sweet old friend that is secretly plotting your demise?

There is a vast sea of research suggesting that it is. Science has now shown us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on your health.

The single largest source of calories for Americans comes from sugar—specifically high fructose corn syrup. Just take a look at the sugar consumption trends of the past 300 years:[1]

* In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.
* In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.
* In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year.
* In 2009, more than 50 percent of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar PER DAY—translating to a whopping 180 pounds of sugar per year!"

4. Different sugars and sweeteners affect your body in different ways.

"It is easy to become confused by the various sugars and sweeteners. So here is a basic overview:

* Dextrose, fructose and glucose are all monosaccharides, known as simple sugars. The primary difference between them is how your body metabolizes them. Glucose and dextrose are essentially the same sugar. However, food manufacturers usually use the term "dextrose" in their ingredient list.
* The simple sugars can combine to form more complex sugars, like the disaccharide sucrose (table sugar), which is half glucose and half fructose.
* High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose.
* Ethanol (drinking alcohol) is not a sugar, although beer and wine contain residual sugars and starches, in addition to alcohol.
* Sugar alcohols like xylitol, glycerol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, and erythritol are neither sugars nor alcohols but are becoming increasingly popular as sweeteners. They are incompletely absorbed from your small intestine, for the most part, so they provide fewer calories than sugar but often cause problems with bloating, diarrhea and flatulence.
* Sucralose (Splenda) is NOT a sugar, despite its sugar-like name and deceptive marketing slogan, "made from sugar." It's a chlorinated artificial sweetener in line with aspartame and saccharin, with detrimental health effects to match.
* Agave syrup, falsely advertised as "natural," is typically HIGHLY processed and is usually 80 percent fructose. The end product does not even remotely resemble the original agave plant.
* Honey is about 53 percent fructose[2], but is completely natural in its raw form and has many health benefits when used in moderation, including as many antioxidants as spinach.
* Stevia is a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, which is completely safe (in its natural form). Lo han (or luohanguo) is another natural sweetener, but derived from a fruit."

5. Too much fructose, regardless of its source (be it twinkies or fresh apples) IS a bad thing.

"It isn't that fructose itself is bad—it is the MASSIVE DOSES you're exposed to that make it dangerous.

There are two overall reasons fructose is so damaging:

1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound."

6. Eating fructose is far worse than eating fat. Humans have been eating fat for millennia. Obesity is brand new.

I'll direct you straight to two sources for this info so you can read up on your own:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx (Skip to "Eating Fructose is Far Worse than Eating Fat" section.)

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/McKayMachina/view/you-re-not-fat-because-of-fat-106837

Source for points 1 and 2: http://www.naturalnews.com/027722_metabolic_syndrome_fructose.html
Source for points 3, 4 and 5: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
Source for point 6: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
Secondary source for point 6: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/McKayMachina/view/you-re-not-fat-because-of-fat-106837

Additional Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/how-sugar-affects-the-body-in-motion/
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/



So there is a good selection of information to get you started.

Am I promoting a 100% fruit-free diet? No way! I just ate two medjool dates (OMG, they taste like candy!) and will probably have a banana later. Am I saying limit your fruit intake? Yup.

Discuss.

:drinker:

pkarim

Yepp, I like to think of fruit as natural candy/dessert and eat a few servings a day. Veggies are definitely the way to go for adding into every meal.

MB_Positif

love this. you rock for doing all of this research!!

msjaxn69

I limit my fruit intake to three servings per day. Mainly apples, oranges and pineapple.

amathwills

bump

soccerpeanut

So basically you're saying limit your sugar intake by limiting your fruit intake? Well, eating apples is definitely way better than eating candy. So shouldn't we just be limiting our overall sugar intake rather than focusing on the fruit? Fruit has a lot of good helpful vitamins in them so I think they help you more than they hurt you. Also, without sugar our bodies wouldn't be able to run, that's why we break the food down into sugar. In my opinion we should just watch the amount of sugar we put into our bodies and try to combine it with other helpful things.

lauristewart

You must remember that fruit gives you vitamins and fiber that you need. Yes, it is sugar, but so is bread, pasta, rice, etc, etc.......Fruit is not deadly, just limit to 2 to 3 svg a day, and limit the "bready" carbs to 3 to 4 svgs......Your brain works 100% on carbs and if you limit carbs, then you limit your ability to think!! I make sure I get 1 to 2 svg of yogurt, 2 to 3 svg of fruit and 3 to 4 svg of "bready, high fiber" startches.....the rest protein and veggies.....it works!!

fiberartist219

I try to stay away from added sugars, but I love eating fruit. I think that the fiber, vitamins, and minerals that come along with fresh fruit are well worth the sugar that comes with it.

I do avoid juices, or canned fruits that are swimming in syrup. With juice, the fiber is gone. With syrup, there is a lot of extra, unnecessary sugar added in.

I try to stay away from candy and desserts whenever possible. Sometimes, the urge to eat them overwhelms me, but I still cut myself off after a few bites.

melbaby925

I just watched the YouTube video on this today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=player_embedded

From this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=2

Years of alcohol and soda (the fully leaded kind...never diet for me!) and indulgence of my sweet tooth have apparently been the cause of my misery. I've cut an amazing amount of crap out of my eating plan and feel great! No joint aches, no more crazy cravings...feel SO much better! And I get all of my sugars naturally now - through fruit - and limit how much I get, and I've been soda free now for 15 weeks this Friday (but who's counting?).

Thanks for the post. I'm dumping the Agave and going straight honey, stevia and the occasional fruit only.

songbyrdsweet

I wanted to post this to encourage some informed debate regarding "fruit sugar". Nearly as hot a topic around here as eating one's exercise calories, the fructose debate is, and will continue to be, ongoing. But I'm of a mind that fact is fact and if I can gain and, in this case, spread a little knowledge, that helps promote healthy, realistic weight loss, then it sounds like a good deal.

Some things to consider:

1. The sugar in fruit is called fructose. It helps keep you fat.

"A research team from the University of Washington (UW) recently published a study in Physiology & Behavior revealing that moderate consumption of fructose- and high fructose corn syrup-sweetened beverages leads to significant alterations of lipid metabolization in the liver. Conducted on rats, the study also noted marked increases in both cholesterol and triglyceride levels in rats that fed on fructose-sweetened beverages.

Fructose is a monosaccharide sugar that is found in various fruits. It is a simple sugar that is often promoted as being a healthy "fruit" sugar, however the reality is that fructose is just one component of the complex sugar composition that occurs naturally in fruit."

2. Stevia appears to be a safe, yummy alternative that won't negatively impact your body.

"Researchers also looked at natural stevia extract in their study and no demonstrable negative effects were observed. Stevia is a safe, natural extract that contains no sugar and is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar per volume. It has a glycemic index of zero and is safe for diabetics."

3. Obesity and sugar consumption are demonstrably linked.

"Evidence is mounting that sugar is THE MAJOR FACTOR causing obesity and chronic disease.

Is sugar a sweet old friend that is secretly plotting your demise?

There is a vast sea of research suggesting that it is. Science has now shown us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on your health.

The single largest source of calories for Americans comes from sugar—specifically high fructose corn syrup. Just take a look at the sugar consumption trends of the past 300 years:[1]

* In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.
* In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.
* In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year.
* In 2009, more than 50 percent of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar PER DAY—translating to a whopping 180 pounds of sugar per year!"

4. Different sugars and sweeteners affect your body in different ways.

"It is easy to become confused by the various sugars and sweeteners. So here is a basic overview:

* Dextrose, fructose and glucose are all monosaccharides, known as simple sugars. The primary difference between them is how your body metabolizes them. Glucose and dextrose are essentially the same sugar. However, food manufacturers usually use the term "dextrose" in their ingredient list.
* The simple sugars can combine to form more complex sugars, like the disaccharide sucrose (table sugar), which is half glucose and half fructose.
* High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose.
* Ethanol (drinking alcohol) is not a sugar, although beer and wine contain residual sugars and starches, in addition to alcohol.
* Sugar alcohols like xylitol, glycerol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, and erythritol are neither sugars nor alcohols but are becoming increasingly popular as sweeteners. They are incompletely absorbed from your small intestine, for the most part, so they provide fewer calories than sugar but often cause problems with bloating, diarrhea and flatulence.
* Sucralose (Splenda) is NOT a sugar, despite its sugar-like name and deceptive marketing slogan, "made from sugar." It's a chlorinated artificial sweetener in line with aspartame and saccharin, with detrimental health effects to match.
* Agave syrup, falsely advertised as "natural," is typically HIGHLY processed and is usually 80 percent fructose. The end product does not even remotely resemble the original agave plant.
* Honey is about 53 percent fructose[2], but is completely natural in its raw form and has many health benefits when used in moderation, including as many antioxidants as spinach.
* Stevia is a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, which is completely safe (in its natural form). Lo han (or luohanguo) is another natural sweetener, but derived from a fruit."

5. Too much fructose, regardless of its source (be it twinkies or fresh apples) IS a bad thing.

"It isn't that fructose itself is bad—it is the MASSIVE DOSES you're exposed to that make it dangerous.

There are two overall reasons fructose is so damaging:

1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound."

6. Eating fructose is far worse than eating fat. Humans have been eating fat for millennia. Obesity is brand new.

I'll direct you straight to two sources for this info so you can read up on your own:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx (Skip to "Eating Fructose is Far Worse than Eating Fat" section.)

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/McKayMachina/view/you-re-not-fat-because-of-fat-106837

Source for points 1 and 2: http://www.naturalnews.com/027722_metabolic_syndrome_fructose.html
Source for points 3, 4 and 5: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
Source for point 6: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
Secondary source for point 6: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/McKayMachina/view/you-re-not-fat-because-of-fat-106837

Additional Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/how-sugar-affects-the-body-in-motion/
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/



So there is a good selection of information to get you started.

Am I promoting a 100% fruit-free diet? No way! I just ate two medjool dates (OMG, they taste like candy!) and will probably have a banana later. Am I saying limit your fruit intake? Yup.

Discuss.

:drinker:

Okay, I'm just gonna put this out there:

Do you KNOW how fructose and glucose are metabolized? Do you know the actual fructose content of every type of fruit? Do you understand what happens to oligofructosaccharides in the intestine?

If not, don't post random Wiki articles and garbage from Dr. Mercola.

LeelaLosing

I think it's a bit more of a complicated scientific topic than you are making it....adding more fruit to my diet helped me lose. And it's more than interesting to me that Weight Watchers made fruit a "0" zero point food and launched a whole program and campaign around it. If their extensive, expensive research found that people gained they would not have spent who knows how many million dollars on it. Do you know anyone who ended up fat by eating fruit... I sure didn't. I don't limit my fruit intake at all, it's a great source of fiber and antioxidants. And I find it helps me limit other sweet things that are refined and processed.

Rilke

I didn't read the entire post or even close to it. All I know is, I gained nearly seventy pounds eating very little fruit and lost nearly seventy pounds eating a ton of fruit. Including days like today, when I ate over a quart of cherries. Or a couple days last summer when I literally ate nothing but blueberries (I picked them myself) all day.

I'm not a scientist. I just know what makes my body feel its best.

lclarkjr

Meh, it's just blown out of proportion. Obviously eating/drinking too much of anything is bad for you. Moderation is key. I do find these "fruits are bad for you", "drinking water is bad for you", "meat is bad for you" posts slightly amusing. But I wonder if people actually read them and then all of a sudden go, "oh man, I better not eat fruit anymore, it must be the reason I'm ___ lbs overweight!"... Seriously, too much of anything (even healthy things) can be considered bad for you. I'll choose not to give up anything in its natural form because of some study, thank you very much.

4KidFather

Erm, I agree excess fructose is to be avoided.
But most people benefit more from it's fiber, phyto-nutrients and hormetic effects.
Far better to eradicate added sugar from slim-quick shakes and other non-foods from the diet.
I personally limit tropical fruits and modern culinary fruit creations (including most apple varieties), but you can't beat a trip to the orchard on a crisp morning either
So.... what about tomatoes??? and wheat??? HE HE HE

McKayMachina

Awesome. This is what I was hoping for. Good suggestions, all.

Is Dr. Mercola bad news? I wasn't aware. No need to get upset. I'm learning just like you. Plus, I also linked to a Princeton study review and The NY Times. Maybe those hold more credence?

I'm definitely not "basically saying cut fruit intake". I'm just saying fruit has fructose and fructose affects the body. From what I understand from these articles, eating an unlimited supply of it won't help you in your weight loss endeavors. It's just one of the many things to consider.

Do you understand what happens to oligofructosaccharides in the intestine?

No. Not at all. I don't know what oligofructosaccharides are. It'd be great if you'd use this opportunity to teach me/us.

???

candlegal

You must remember that fruit gives you vitamins and fiber that you need. Yes, it is sugar, but so is bread, pasta, rice, etc, etc.......Fruit is not deadly, just limit to 2 to 3 svg a day, and limit the "bready" carbs to 3 to 4 svgs......Your brain works 100% on carbs and if you limit carbs, then you limit your ability to think!! I make sure I get 1 to 2 svg of yogurt, 2 to 3 svg of fruit and 3 to 4 svg of "bready, high fiber" startches.....the rest protein and veggies.....it works!!

I totally agree with you on this!!:bigsmile:

Brandicaloriecountess

My thought is simple, eating a piece or two of fruit a day over the past six months has not hurt my weight loss. Also you find find online research to support almost any stance you want to take on a topic. I took an entire philosophy class designed to show how to prove or deny claims made in research articles so I don't always believe everything I read. Even scholarly articles.

Weight loss is different for everyone as everyone is different.

McKayMachina

Weight loss is different for everyone as everyone is different.

That is ABSOLUTELY right.

bprague

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=player_embedded

This explains the biochemistry of the sugar debate by a Doctor and Professor in great detail and I highly recommend it. Fructose is technically toxic, but when combined with it's original packaging (fruit with all it's fibery goodness) it's actually quite fine. I hesitate to suggest people use synthetic sweetners ( with questionable effect on the body) when really we should just be sweetening LESS.

xraychick77

corn isnt a fruit..its a grain.

and i can probably pull some studies off that show FRUIT sugar isnt bad for you.

but its like anything, anything in excess can be bad for you. and fruit is sooo much better for you and full of many more vitamins and nutrients than soda (high fructose corn sugar). and high fructose is a mixture and chemically created..fructose bonded with corn etc.

AlexandraR2011

bump! thanks for researching this!

cheeksv

With things like this I kinda meet it in the middle. I love fruit and will never not eat it, it is good for you and it is delicious. I do however limit my intake to one cup of fruit a day/ to every other day depending on what types of fruit I have in the house. Right now its green grapes frozen so every other day I measure out a cup and that's it. After fruit the only other sugars I have come from everyday foods like my milk and some veggies actually and that is all. I do not even like stivia type sweeteners ( although I did buy something with it in it today by mistake ugh) because of the taste. I feel if I am cutting out all sweeteners, candy, soda, ice cream etc then I can have my fruit and eat it too

McKayMachina

@bprague:

I totally agree with the synthetic sweeteners thing. Did someone suggest using synthetic sweeteners in this thread and I just missed it?

Watching the video now, btw.

EDITED TO ADD: AH! I've seen this whole thing before! Such a great video. I've been looking for the link. Thank you! :drinker:

McKayMachina

With things like this I kinda meet it in the middle. I love fruit and will never not eat it, it is good for you and it is delicious. I do however limit my intake to one cup of fruit a day/ to every other day depending on what types of fruit I have in the house.

I feel if I am cutting out all sweeteners, candy, soda, ice cream etc then I can have my fruit and eat it too

Ditto

elbandito

I removed pie and fizzy drink / soda from my diet, and added fruit.

One lesser evil for a greater evil, and my fruit can also come with weevils, which rhymes and makes me happy (the rhyme, not the weevil).

HollieDoodles

I removed pie and fizzy drink / soda from my diet, and added fruit.

One lesser evil for a greater evil, and my fruit can also come with weevils, which rhymes and makes me happy (the rhyme, not the weevil).

LOL!!! I love that : )

unsuspectingfish

I recently read an article comparing the hunter/gatherer diets of nomadic tribes (and I apologize for not having that source readily available). It basically said that tribes like the eskimos, who ate mostly fatty meats, lived to be, on average, about 50-60. While this was longer than the average life span at the time they were first observed, they also suffered from dementia, heart disease, and other health issues toward the ends of their lives. Meanwhile, African tribes who eat a diet consisting of about 80% raw fruit live to be about 70-80 and are active and alert right up to their last days. I realize this is anecdotal evidence, but it's something that really stuck with me after I read it. When I started out with clean eating, I was only getting a couple servings of fruit a day, and I would have frequent low blood sugar moments during the day. I've added a few more servings, and my blood sugar almost never crashes, plus I am less hungry between meals. I'll avoid foods with added sugar as much as I can, but I'm not going to avoid fruit.

McKayMachina

@robogreifer: That's pretty cool info! Glad you found something that works for you, too. Low blood sugar feels awful!

Cheers.

@shane: lol what did I just read? :laugh:

girlinahat

It's interesting that you should conclude from the articles that because fruit contains fruit sugars (fructose) which are said to be bad for you, that, ergo, fruit is bad for you.

I read from the articles that things that have added fructose are bad for you and should be avoided. Primarily sweetened drinks etc

AnathemaRose

Just felt like throwing my little bit of knowledge on this topic.

Sugar is needed for a body to run and there are MANY types of sugars but they are all the same carbon compound. It's all in HOW this compound is arranged that makes the difference on how hard your body has to work to burn it. That is to say: That's learned in basic organic chemisty. Basically: Don't knock all sugars off, especially the natural sugars of fruits which our body is built to digest.

((Sorry, I couldn't help myself as this is a topic I've been invovled in far longer than mfp. Perhaps it's because Hypoglycemia runs in the family and so does Diabetes. So I've had to learn about sugar plus I did take Organic Chemistry. I completely recommend taking a course in it as it explains a lot about the ever controversial sugar.))

McKayMachina

It's interesting that you should conclude from the articles that because fruit contains fruit sugars (fructose) which are said to be bad for you, that, ergo, fruit is bad for you.

I read from the articles that things that have added fructose are bad for you and should be avoided. Primarily sweetened drinks etc

When did I say fruit is bad for you?

This is the thing that baffles me when this comes up. Someone says, "It's smart to watch your sugar intake, including fruits." And people interpret that as "FRUIT IS EVIL!"

I even said that I like fruit and planned to eat more before the day was through. I recognize the benefits of fruit. I never said otherwise. Maybe you didn't get a chance to actually read what I'd written?

Either way, I'm not saying fruit is bad for you. I thought I made that clear. If there's a section where I stated the opposite, please point it out for me.

Anyway, I ate like 5 dates today so my sugar is blown completely out of the water for today. :laugh: Will I do that everyday? No way. I normally watch my sugar intake, including that from fruits. Have I made my position clearer?