Fruit - The Sugar Problem

Dandman1990
Dandman1990 Posts: 196 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'll be the first to admit that I know next to nothing about proper nutrition. So I'm a little curious as to how bad it is to go over your sugar limit by eating fruit. I get the feeling that eating my daily allowance of sugar by having 3 nectarines is going to be a heck of a lot better than if I ate my daily allowance in Haribo or something similar.

This doesn't change the fact that I find the sugar to be really off putting. It makes the 5-a-day a bit demotivating to realise I've gone from about a 5-10/42 to around 60-70/42 if I eat 5 pieces of fruit. I know I can incorporate veg too but I don't really count veg I eat in meals and frankly I don't really want to walk around chewing on a carrot or lettuce leaf. :p

So does this mean there's such a thing as "good sugar" (aka natural sugars) and "bad sugar" as I see many places?

Thanks for the help! :D

Replies

  • Phaedra2014
    Phaedra2014 Posts: 1,254 Member
    Fruit is good for you when you incorporate it with other healthy foods. I wouldn't eat 5 bananas a day or five big servings of pineapple, but choose low glycemic fruits i.e. grapefruit, strawberries, blackberries (even frozen is fine), and you should be fine.

    Those who follow a very low carb diet probably don't eat much fruit but I can't eat that way. I stay low carb but eat two or three fruits a day. So far, I've lost 114 lbs so I'm doing something right :)

    I don't eat any processed sugar/foods or foods with added sugar so, really, for me, fruits are my main source of "sweet."
  • moment_to_arise
    moment_to_arise Posts: 207 Member
    yes you are right, going over your sugar with fruit is definitely not something to worry about. its "healthy" sugar versus processed sugar like in soda, candy, etc. just don't go OVERBOARD with it, as with ANYTHING. even the healthiest foods are unhealthy if you eat too much of it.
  • TheFangsKittie
    TheFangsKittie Posts: 117 Member
    I am pretty much always over my sugar because of fruit. I have lost 15lbs so far - so as far as I am concerned I see no problem, And I enjoy the health benefits from eating lots of fruit and veg :D so I won't be cutting down any time soon :D I guess as I get closer to goal I will have to pay more attention to macros but for now - nah. Enjoy your apple :flowerforyou:
  • beattie1
    beattie1 Posts: 1,012 Member
    You can change which nutrients you track. I didn't like being in the red every day from eating fruit, so I got rid of "sugar" and track fibre instead.
  • Dandman1990
    Dandman1990 Posts: 196 Member
    Somebody just sent me an awesome link that explains it well via inbox. Thanks for the replies! :D Everybody seems to be saying the same thing so that's great!

    Here's the link for anybody else that is as daft as me!

    http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-science-of-nutrition-is-a-carb-a-carb.html
  • pinktac0
    pinktac0 Posts: 43
    thank you so much for asking the exact question i should have asked weeks ago! im in the exact same space. I LOVE APPLES so i buy the tiniest ones now and chew each bite really thoroughly and i went from eating 2 or 3 to just one with all that extra chewing and not inhaling them :bigsmile:
  • Dandman1990
    Dandman1990 Posts: 196 Member
    Nice to know I'm not the only one I guess. :p
  • andrewjuu
    andrewjuu Posts: 76 Member
    Personally I don't even track sugar. I am not one to add sugar to anything I eat, including coffee, cereal, etc. & I don't eat a lot of processed foods so the naturally occurring sugar in fruit & veggies would be one of the last things I would worry about. All things in moderation IMO and a wise woman once told me, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" :)
  • Ejourneys
    Ejourneys Posts: 1,603 Member
    I go over on my sugar from fresh fruit, but that hasn't been a problem.

    Diabetes runs in my family, so I get tested every year. My fasting glucose has always been within normal range, but weight loss has made a huge difference. Regardless of how much sugar I've consumed or where it comes from, losing weight has dropped my fasting glucose reading by 20 points, from the 90s to the 70s.

    That said, I did not measure my sugar intake before I got onto MFP, but I know a lot of it came from ice cream and candy. A quick check of the nutrition facts for Ben & Jerry's shows that on average I consumed more sugar from ice cream alone back then, than I consume eating fruit now.
  • Diamond05
    Diamond05 Posts: 475 Member
    Your body doesn't make the difference between sugar from a fruit or from a chocolate bar so basically there is not good or bad sugar. The difference in eating a fruit or a chocolate will be the nutrition your body gets from it. The fruit will bring you vitamins and fiber versus the chocolate who will bring you probably fats and nothing very interesting nutrition wise. It is up to you what you prefer putting in your body and eating :smile:
  • teamAmelia
    teamAmelia Posts: 1,247 Member
    I'll be the first to admit that I know next to nothing about proper nutrition. So I'm a little curious as to how bad it is to go over your sugar limit by eating fruit. I get the feeling that eating my daily allowance of sugar by having 3 nectarines is going to be a heck of a lot better than if I ate my daily allowance in Haribo or something similar.

    This doesn't change the fact that I find the sugar to be really off putting. It makes the 5-a-day a bit demotivating to realise I've gone from about a 5-10/42 to around 60-70/42 if I eat 5 pieces of fruit. I know I can incorporate veg too but I don't really count veg I eat in meals and frankly I don't really want to walk around chewing on a carrot or lettuce leaf. :p

    So does this mean there's such a thing as "good sugar" (aka natural sugars) and "bad sugar" as I see many places?

    Thanks for the help! :D
    If I eat just one serving of fruit, I'll go over the sugar allotment that MFP gives me. I stopped looking at my sugar intake.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
    I ignore sugar. It doesn't matter if you're hitting your macro and calorie goals, so it's not worth tracking it
  • fivethreeone
    fivethreeone Posts: 8,196 Member
    I ignore sugar. It doesn't matter if you're hitting your macro and calorie goals, so it's not worth tracking it

    Exactly this for me, too
  • uconnwinsnc
    uconnwinsnc Posts: 1,054 Member
    Fruit has fiber in it. Fiber slows down the absorption of sugar, which doesn't allow your insulin levels to spike. Soda and juices have no fiber so the sugar hits your body all at once which causes the insulin spike. Anything in moderation is fine. Fruits are the last of your worries when it comes to trying to be healthy.

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