question: sugar (fructose) from fruit

salamander

I've been having trouble for the last year or so shedding the last bit of body fat that is covering my hard earned muscle... I eat healthy except for the occasional splurge on the weekend. I read an article today on fruit in Muscle Fitness Hers, and this is what it said:

http://www.muscleandfitnesshers.com/fruit_fat/nutrition/112
Does eating fruit make you fat?

Q: A woman at my gym who competes in local fitness shows told me that to lose weight I need to
cut out all fruit! I thought fruit was healthy. Is this good advice?

A: Well, the local fitness competitor is sort of right, but a little too overzealous with her advice. The
reason a lot of physique competitors avoid fruit is because fruit contains the sugar, fructose.
Fructose has a good side and a bad side for your physique. Fructose is a sugar that the body can
not use. Therefore, when you consume fructose it doesn't go immediately into your bloodstream
the way that glucose (or dextrose) does. It must first go to the liver where it is converted into glucose
and then eventually enters the bloodstream. This is good for your physique because it means that
fructose does not rapidly raise your blood glucose (blood sugar) levels and therefore does not
spike insulin levels. Remember that high insulin levels increase fat storage and decrease fat
burning. So keeping your insulin levels low can help you to keep fat burning on track and avoid
storing fat. This property of fructose also means that it will provide a long-lasting source of energy,
so you don't bonk out during workouts. This is why we recommend fruit as a good preworkout carb,
not to mention that it won't interfere with fat burning during the workout. However, the fact that
fructose must be converted to glucose in the liver is also the reason why fructose can be bad for
your physique. The liver will only convert fructose into glucose if the liver is not full of glycogen (the
storage form of glucose). If it is already full, the liver will convert the fructose into fat. That is why
many physique competitors avoid fruit altogether. We don't suggest you go to this extreme. After all,
fruit also provides critical antioxidants and other micronutrients and phytochemicals that your body
needs to stay healthy, lean, strong and muscular. Instead of avoiding fruit, we suggest you eat no
more than 2-3 servings of fruit per day. Good times for fruit are in the morning and before workouts.
This will allow you to get all the benefitis of fruit without getting any of the negative effects. Get the
majority of your antioxidants and phytochemicals from vegetables that are low in fructose. Following
this plan along with a good diet, such as the many you can find in hers will help you to lose body fat.

Based on this information, should I be cutting fruit from my diet and replacing it with something else for the calories? For example, today for fruit, my diet today includes 1/2 cup blueberries, one banana, a nectarine and a pear. My daily sugar goal is 24g and I'm at 114 g of sugar! It says the pear contains 20g of sugar!

If anyone has any advice or is knowledeable on this, please reply... I do eat a lot of vegetables as well, but hate to cut out my fruit. If it is hindering my loss of body fat though, please give me recommendations on replacements.

Thanks!

gemiwing

Here's a list of fruits and their amount of sugar-
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/whatfruit.htm

Maybe try it for a week or two and see if it makes a difference for you?

aegan217

My daily goal is 24 grams too! I don't that's realistic at all if you're trying to get 2-3 servings of fruit per day. I say just keep eating fruit but maybe cut out one piece a day. Let me know if you notice different results!

nguill6

I think that advice makes perfect sense, especially for someone like me who is high-risk for diabetes. Also most people think a serving a fruit is a whole piece, but I've been told a serving is half a cup. So depending on the size of your fruit one medium apple might be 2 servings. While fruit is better than a candy bar, it just isn't true that you should eat as much as you want.

salamander

thanks guys... I just check out the link outlining the low sugar fruit to high sugar fruit... of course all of the fruit I eat are the high sugar ones!

I think I'll try either replacing my fruit for lower sugar ones or cut a piece out as suggested.

Does anybody know a reasonable sugar daily sugar intake based on people who do vigorously exercise and eat 2-3 servings of fruit a day? 24g seems low for some reason... especially when you take into account that if you were eating 2-3 servings of fruit, plus some vegetables that are higher in sugar (carrots, corn, etc.), you would be way over the daily intake anyhow.

Would aiming for 50g of sugar a day (instead of the 100g or more that I seem to be eating)? I don't worry so much about going over in Fibre or Protein, those are the other two that I seem to go over on a regular basis.

margaretthedevil

You definitely don't need to worry about going over in fiber and protein. I think the recommendations are too low anyways. Go with what works for you. I go over constantly since I don't eat as much carbs as MFP recommends (i'm concerned about blood sugar). Yet I also don't eat much meat. For me it's all in the nuts and I drink soy milk daily. You can eat less fruit if you're worried about the sugar. My doctor told me that eating too much fruit can cause insulin resistance, especially with the fruit juices (!). It's really all about the blood sugar. If you're going over 100 grams daily I would be concerned. Look for fruits that don't have much of an effect on blood sugar. And if you're having a sugary day I would eat less fruit for that day. Banana, pear, and nectarine are all rather sugary, especially in one sitting. I do believe that 26 grams per day is rather low @_@, especially if I have to eat more calories than usual, but I'm going to ask my doctor about how much I should eat a day.

LeanLioness

People don't believe me when I have been saying that fructose (fruit sugar) is processed by the body no differently than sucrose or any other type of sugar......................

People jump down my throat and such..................

Hmmmm, maybe there is something to what I am saying.