“…But Fruit has so much Sugar!!!!” I hear this ALL THE TIME
“…But Fruit has so much Sugar!!!!” I hear this ALL THE TIME. Yes, fruit has sugar but fruits have much less fructose than refined foods, or, even sugar. That’s important as to why a 95-calorie apple is much better for you than a 60-calorie cookie. Refined sugar releases a lot of insulin which causes inflammation in the body. This chronic inflammation causes hardening of the arteries, heart attacks, strokes, arthritis, and even cancer. Fructose from fruits is also better you’re your metabolism as well as your health.
Fruits have less fructose than white sugar.
Fructose is metabolized only by your liver, while glucose is metabolized by nearly all your organs. Okay, try to follow- Glucose does not mess with your Leptin – which signals our brain whether we are full or hungry. Fructose, however, does impair Leptin's signaling mechanism, which is why you’re hungry soon after woofing down a donut, 5 cookies or a pint of ice-cream! AND HERES THE THING!- because fruits are very low on fructose, you cannot overeat fructose by eating fruits. Thus, fruits are always safe.
Leptin: again, signals our brain whether we are hungry or satiated/full. It’s important for the body to produce and deliver leptin while you sleep, so get enough sleep. Often people who lack sleep, lack leptin, so they the think their hungry when really they are sleep deprived.
Glucose does NOT harm Leptin's signaling mechanism. (this is why you feel full with one apple, you don’t crave two)
Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fat like triglycerides and cholesterol), which is how too much of it can contribute to gaining fat-weight and liver damage. Again, you can’t over consume fructose by eating fruit. I dare you to eat two bananas, a bunch of grapes, four slices of pineapple and a few kiwis all in one sitting. You probably can’t because you’ll likely feel full eating just one banana and maybe a few grapes or one kiwi if you’re used to overeating and you're not eating anything else!
DON’T BE FOOLED BY “LOW SUGAR” or “NO SUGAR” on packaged foods. The sugar industry stamps “low sugar content” but doesn’t reveal other ingredients like maltodextrin, High Fructose Corn Syrup(HFCS), sorbitol on the same level, WHICH ARE ALL SUGAR! At least count it as sugar and don’t lie! Okay, I’m off my soapbox.
And don’t get me started on toxic Splenda or other sugar substitutes- that’s another topic for another day.
When blood sugar is measured following a meal that had refined sugar (breakfast cereal, bread, cakes, cookies, pop tarts etc.., your blood sugar level rises really fast and soars!. Refined sugar also spikes your insulin levels before they come quickly down. BUT the sugar in the fruit eaten with or in your meal is released a lot slower in the gut as it is bound to fiber. Sugar from fruit is slowly released as you digest and taken up in the blood.
Again, you want more glucose than fructose, and fruit is way lower in fructose than other carbs.
So, a banana a day…. (“but it has so much sugar!” -Yeah, the good stuff).
