How are natural sugars perceived in regards to nutrition? Should intake of natural sugars such as in fresh or dried fruits be limited just as you should limit intake with refined sugars? I will use the AHA recommendation of sugar intake for a man for general purposes, which is 36 grams. Can you be lenient with that number if you were to consume 48 grams of sugar in raisins? Let me know what your thoughts are. Thank you redditors.
In terms of daily grams of intake, I think they should be treated the same. BUT fruits have a lower glycemic index than glucose:
This is an important difference because glucose spikes have a lot of downsides.
The 36 grams or 9 tsp daily guideline from AHA is referring to added sugars not all sugars even though the body treats all sugar the same. Fruits and vegetables have naturally occurring sugars in addition to many vitamins and minerals that support the body making them a healthful choice. I believe if you were diabetic you would need to monitor all foods containing sugar whether added or natural.
Sugar is aa carbohydrate. So when we talk about natural sugars for me it’s easier to lump them all together as carbohydrates. Almost every food we eat has caarbohydrates(sugar). A gram of carbohydrates is 4 calories if memory serves. Your body requires carbohydrates to function properly. Things like vegetables have carbohydraates but they’re in low quantities generally and very high in Fibre. You almost can’t over eat vegetables… fruits are higher in carbohydrates but they still have alot of Fibre in them. But there is a spectrum. For instance, a banana has more carbs per gram than a strawberry . You can eat handfuls of Strawberries and not exceed your carbohydrate needs. But you could easily exceed your daily limit eating too much banana. Especially if you were eating some bread along with it in meal. Grains like pasta and bread have tons of carbs, and not alot of Fibre. You can very easily eat too many carbs for you by eating a bunch of grains.
Did I answer the question? No. Because you can literally eat plain sugar and be perfectly healthy so long as you eat the correct amount… but if you focus on adding veggies and fruits to your diet you won’t have to worry too much about it. It’s generally best to follow some sort of macro nutrient plan so you can keep track of how many carbs, fats, and proteins you need to be eating.
Yes that is an absolute joke of a number. I can get more than 36 grams of sugar for breakfast with just an apple and a banana for example. Everyone’s different however. I eat around 100g of sugar everyday from Whole Foods and have absolutely no problems with my blood sugar and am probably less than 10% body fat. Fruit sugar doesn’t raise blood sugar like refined sugar and should not be avoided. I would not however recommend eating any dried fruit or fruit juice as you need the whole living food with the fiber. Now of course I wouldn’t go and eat high sugar fruit all day, but a few pieces of fruit a day is absolutely beneficial especially low sugar fruit like berries!
Also Fruit is the highest vibrational food on this planet and offers the most bio photons out of any food.
Why is most people in the comments so insistent on how bad sugar is, the reason conventional sugar is bad is because it had no nutrients except as a source of energy, and is highly palatable when paired with fats. There’s nothing inherently wrong with sugar it’s litrally just a source of energy. Ofc blood sugar also matters too but if your having balanced meals mostly you should be fine. E.g. a chocolate bar except from energy is giving you much not even making you feel full, but an apple gives micro nutrients fibre antioxidants water electrolytes and is quite filling
Yes. Sugar is sugar, your body doesn’t differentiate between the two.
As a rule of thumb, you want sugar to make up 10%, more or less, of your calorie intake.
It just tends to be easier to eat in moderation with fruit, because
it’s not hyper palatable like a lot of sources if refined sugar can be, and
fruits, vegetables have fiber, which satiates better, and also slows down the effect of the sugar. Without fiber, sugar basically just smacks your bloodstream, but fiber slows this down
Matter of fact, if you eat refined sugar, there’s no harm in pairing it with a protein/fiber. As long as you’re not overeating calorie wise