cant even eat fruit?

Of course you can eat fruit. It's natural and good for you. Some fruits are better than others of course....

Thank you so very much for this picture. I can't stop laughing. I boss just asked "Are you okay back there?"

Unless you have an underlying medical condition, if it fits your nutrition goals for a day, go for it.

I worry the most about added sugars, like white sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

curious how the body distinguishes between fruit from sugar and white sugar?

That's the thing, the body cannot distinguish between the two. Sugars occur naturally--they're made by plants through the process of photosynthesis--but they can also be made "artificially" by chemically modifying starches. Regardless of whether a sugar comes from nature or from the lab, your body processes it absolutely identically.

The last quote is spot on, your liver can't tell the difference and your liver can only hold so many sugar grams before the rest will get stored as fat.

Just because fruit is healthy doesn't mean it's a free food. And those smoothies aren't really that healthy for you because you are absorbing all the sugar since the fiber has been removed.

I get hammered every single time I recommend watching sugar levels, both natural and added but tracking sugar is important and trying to stay as close to MFP goals as possibles.

The biggest reason I say track and watch is because most of us got overweight from choosing sweets or savoury foods. I know it's the calorie count that matters most but if sugar was your downfall then tracking sugar is more important to you. Tracking is a learning tool. I do agree that MFP sugar levels are low but I believe that 50 grams a day is the recommended amount each day for all types of sugar.

Ultimately, each person should do their own research and not rely soley on a forum. Your decision should be based on scientific fact and not someone like me or someone saying don't track.

Can someone clarify on the smoothies-I thought if you put fresh fruit/veggies in a blender and made a smoothie the fiber is still there? Isn't juicing the process where the fiber is removed? Those are two totally different machines/drinks.

So many opinions with little to no results to back.

The issue is really confusing for those of us who are non-scientists yet are trying to keep up with the latest findings. The cutting edge scientists are divided on whether to role of fructose in the obesity epidemic is different from other carbohydrate consumption.

There is no downside to limiting your fructose consumption. There may be downsides to excess fructose consumption. The corn industry (aka the high fructose corn syrup industry) is heavily invested in promoting the safety of fructose and has influence on some scientists and supports a good deal of research. They, of course, are only interested in publicizing research that supports the safety of fructose.

Many times science finds new information that changes what we in the public "know as true." We should think of these complex things not as being true or false but rather as being known or unknown, certain or uncertain to various degrees.

I am an educated non-scientist who has decided, through reading some of the recent research, to err on the side of caution and keep my fructose consumption to a minimum. But there are leading endocrinologists on both sides of this issue just as physicists do not all agree on string theory and chemists and physicists differ on their approaches to cold fusion.

Of course you can eat fruit. It's natural and good for you. Some fruits are better than others of course....




...but overall they are very healthy and good for you. I eat 4-5 servings a day and have lost quite a bit of weight.

As for the question about how the body can tell the difference between fruit sugar and processed stuff:

HAHAHAHAH @ the banana!

Unless you have an underlying medical condition, if it fits your nutrition goals for a day, go for it.

I worry the most about added sugars, like white sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

curious how the body distinguishes between fruit from sugar and white sugar?

That's the thing, the body cannot distinguish between the two. Sugars occur naturally--they're made by plants through the process of photosynthesis--but they can also be made "artificially" by chemically modifying starches. Regardless of whether a sugar comes from nature or from the lab, your body processes it absolutely identically.

The last quote is spot on, your liver can't tell the difference and your liver can only hold so many sugar grams before the rest will get stored as fat.

Just because fruit is healthy doesn't mean it's a free food. And those smoothies aren't really that healthy for you because you are absorbing all the sugar since the fiber has been removed.

I get hammered every single time I recommend watching sugar levels, both natural and added but tracking sugar is important and trying to stay as close to MFP goals as possibles.

The biggest reason I say track and watch is because most of us got overweight from choosing sweets or savoury foods. I know it's the calorie count that matters most but if sugar was your downfall then tracking sugar is more important to you. Tracking is a learning tool. I do agree that MFP sugar levels are low but I believe that 50 grams a day is the recommended amount each day for all types of sugar.

Ultimately, each person should do their own research and not rely soley on a forum. Your decision should be based on scientific fact and not someone like me or someone saying don't track.

Can someone clarify on the smoothies-I thought if you put fresh fruit/veggies in a blender and made a smoothie the fiber is still there? Isn't juicing the process where the fiber is removed? Those are two totally different machines/drinks.

Sorry, meant juicing but a smoothie would still be high in sugar due to all the fruit in it.

thanks for clarifying-I was very confused there for a minute :laugh: The only sugar I consume now is mostly from fruit/trace amounts in veggies etc. so I'm not worried about the fruit sugars in my daily green smoothies, since I'm within my calorie allotments

I'm no scientist and I won't Google up some research papers to back what I say.

I did, however, go into liver failure about nine months ago. Today I should be on the transplant list but I'm not. Given the option of taking pills, I opted to make food my medicine. For about six months I ate vegetables, fruit, small amounts of starches (potatoes or rice) and lean chicken/fish and nothing else. Almost no added salt, no red meat, no table sugar.

Just as fruit is often considered "just sugar" imagine someone in here posting they are on a low protein diet? Boggles the mind but there ya go. Too much protein and my liver doesn't work right which puts toxins in my blood stream. But fruit? I can eat all I want and usually aim for about 4 servings a day.