do you think sugar in fresh fruit is as bad as refined sugar

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zevonfangrrrl
zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
in Food and Nutrition
I don't think that it is...it's annoying to see my sugar go into the red because I've been eating grapes or watermelon...if I was eating refined sugar I'd be worried but as it's fresh fruit I don't tend to worry so much...thoughts?

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  • briehill
    briehill Posts: 31
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    http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/the-lowdown-on-sugar/index.html

    It's an interesting article that I happened to read the other day. The woman that writes it is a registered dietician. Hope it helps! Good Luck with the weight loss!
  • joehempel
    joehempel Posts: 1,761 Member
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    No, it's not.
  • Leanne1795
    Leanne1795 Posts: 186
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    What makes it any different?
    I am diabetic and if I eat fruit I have to inject loads of insulin.:grumble:
  • KavemanKarg
    KavemanKarg Posts: 266
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    It is sugar, it is fructose. Your body treats it that way.

    The difference is, unlike candy, apples come with fibre and a crap load of other nutrients. You get some mileage out of that sugar.

    I try to limit my fruits and eat raw vegetables, but I got no trouble at all biting down into an apple or orange or banana if the mood hits.
  • Aid_B
    Aid_B Posts: 427
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    I don't worry about the sugar in fruit, its not the same as sugar you would get from say Thai chilli dipping sauce or Chinese sweet n Sour.
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    Thanks for that! Makes me feel better about my fruit eating habits.
  • Crawflowr
    Crawflowr Posts: 106 Member
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    The way I look at it is sugar is sugar, however there is a difference between intrinsic sugar and extrinsic sugar (as defined by the WHO). Intrinsic sugar is that sugar which is bound up into the fibre of the fruit/vegetable and thus for your body to access the sugar it has to first digest it's way through the fibre which makes the sugar release slower into the system. Extrinsic sugar has been released from the fibre by refining or juicing processes and is thus immediately available for absorption.
  • noface
    noface Posts: 15
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    Ive been wondering the same thing !
    I have a small bowl of chopped fruit with yoghurt for breakfast sometimes and thats it ive gone over my sugar limit for the day lol what?!
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    I checked the GI rating of the fruit I've been eating...watermelon, grapes and bananas...and they're low GI apart from the watermelon but the site said that watermelon doesn't have a lot of carbs anyway so its high GI rating wasn't a problem.

    I was under the impression that your body processes sugar differently depending on what it's in...hence the GI value.
  • richardholt2011
    richardholt2011 Posts: 118 Member
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    If you are going to eat sugar, then eating it in fruit is a good way of doing it because the fruit is good for you in lots of other ways, which is not true of for example a bar of chocolate. But the sugar itself is not any better

    I also eat fruit and dont intend to stop doing so unless i have to (which I will if i fail in getting my diabetes under control).
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    The way I look at it is sugar is sugar, however there is a difference between intrinsic sugar and extrinsic sugar (as defined by the WHO). Intrinsic sugar is that sugar which is bound up into the fibre of the fruit/vegetable and thus for your body to access the sugar it has to first digest it's way through the fibre which makes the sugar release slower into the system. Extrinsic sugar has been released from the fibre by refining or juicing processes and is thus immediately available for absorption.

    Yeah, this was my understanding...it makes me wonder if MFP should change the sugar column somehow.
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    Ive been wondering the same thing !
    I have a small bowl of chopped fruit with yoghurt for breakfast sometimes and thats it ive gone over my sugar limit for the day lol what?!

    I know!! This is what is happening to me...
  • harmonysdream
    harmonysdream Posts: 92 Member
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    Being that I'm diabetic and I have to watch my sugar/carb intake carefully...sugar is sugar to me. However I have had to take classes for my diabetes and if I have the choice between an orange juice and an orange I should opt for the whole fruit because of the extra time it takes to digest and how slowly the sugar is released because of the fiber in the whole fruit.
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    I don't understand what the issue is, with sugar. If it's just blood sugar levels then if the fruit is low GI I don't get where the problem is...I feel stupid saying that but I really don't understand. :(
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    Being that I'm diabetic and I have to watch my sugar/carb intake carefully...sugar is sugar to me. However I have had to take classes for my diabetes and if I have the choice between an orange juice and an orange I should opt for the whole fruit because of the extra time it takes to digest and how slowly the sugar is released because of the fiber in the whole fruit.

    Yes, this was my understanding...that eating fruit including the fibre doesn't cause that much of a spike.
  • marywilsoncline
    marywilsoncline Posts: 301 Member
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    I literally live on fresh fruit since I have lost weight. My sugar never goes over on here. Really, it does'nt. I eat three basic meals a day, but keep fresh fruit to snack on in the house in between meals and I never have a problem w/ sugar. Even my husband says fresh fruit is loaded with sugar, but its natural sugars, not the kind with processed snacks. Fruit is natural, therefore good for you :)
  • cookc04
    cookc04 Posts: 71
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    Yep I agree with the Diabetics and MFP. Have studied and bit of Biochemistry also.
    Did you know that fructose is processed in a different way and bypasses the 'I feel full' mechanism of the body. So you really need to count your fruits.
    My dietician basically said... fruit juice and dried fruit are no longer an option and I can have 2 or 3 fruits a day.
    But fruit is better option than foods with added sugar.... as they have other nutrients.
    And
    think about why the sugar is added?
    Why do they add sugar to pop? - to hide the taste of the salt!
  • zevonfangrrrl
    zevonfangrrrl Posts: 29
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    I don't drink pop...I have a terrible sweet tooth though. I think if I was just eating fructose then I wouldn't have a problem with the sugar column...but if I'm eating a slice of watermelon that just has fructose in it...I mean yeah the fructose might bypass the "I feel full" mechanism, but the fibre and the water don't???

    Dried fruit again...some are high gi and some aren't...I generally don't touch dates and don't let my kids eat them, but dried apricots and dried figs are low GI...dried apricots have iron and figs have calcium...so as part of a balanced diet I reckon they're ok.

    I have an obsessive personality and the last time I lost weight (30kg all up) I became obsessed with nutrition and failed all my papers at uni while I tabled all my meals and snacks in a database, with all their macro and micro nutrients from nutritiondata.com....I just followed the advice there and kept my sugar low...only ate bananas on my breakfast. But you know dag nab it...I really don't want to give up fruit.
  • mrsredneckmorris
    mrsredneckmorris Posts: 119 Member
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    I beleive that sugar in fresh fruit is not as bad as refined sugar in several ways:

    Its natural - not processed
    You actually get fiber and other nutrients/vitamins from the fruit source that acts as antioxidents

    That being said, I do beleive that you still get insullin spikes from it, and it is best to eat the higher GI fruits earlier in the day rather than later as it gives your body a chance to burn it off.
  • jjs22
    jjs22 Posts: 156
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    Yes. The sugar in fresh fruit is as bad as refined sugar.

    The sugar in fresh fruit is fructose. Organic, schmorganic - it doesn't matter. Fructose is fructose. Its the exact same fructose molecule as in Coca Cola and Shoo Fly Pie, although they contain other sugars as well.

    But that's not to say that you shouldn't eat fruit. The (huge) advantages of fresh fruit are :

    1) The sugar in (whole, fresh) fruit is locked up inside structures that your body has to dissolve away first, so the sugar is released gradually over a long time interval.

    2) The sugar is in mixed with a large bulk of other stuff. It's much harder to eat 3 apples in a row than it is 3 cookies.

    As for the Glycemic Index (GI), there's a little bit of a cheat involved. The GI of fructose is actually fairly low. But that's only because the GI by definition only measures how quickly the GLUCOSE level in your blood goes up after eating a certain food. Fructose is a different molecule, so it doesn't register.

    But there's a problem. Fructose can't be used by your body cells as-is : it has to go to the liver first to be processed. And when your liver catches a whiff of fructose, it goes into fructose overdrive, and ignores its other duties. One side effect of this is that you don't get the same hunger-reducing hormonal signal that you would from consuming glucose.

    This isn't as big a problem with (whole, fresh) fruit, but for highly concentrated, easily absorbed fructose (i.e., the American Diet), its a double whammy : "Mmmm, this tastes really sweet ! Hey, I'm not at all full !"

    Anyway, from a practical perspective : Yes, eat fresh fruit in reasonable quantities. No, don't eat (any, or at least very much) concentrated sugars in any form. And this includes wholesome-sounding things like fruit juice and dried fruits.

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