Are Fruit Sugars Still Just Sugar?

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Josh Neufeld Red Deer Personal Trainer writes:

fruit questions 1 300x300 Are Fruit Sugars Still Just Sugar? Fruit sugars seem to be getting a pretty bad rap lately. It is often difficult to convey the honest truth about fruit (as sugar itself does work against most people’s fitness goals) but the truth is simple. Fruit is essential in our bodies drive toward physical well being by providing tons of nutrients as well as healthy calories for our bodies to work with. The difference between common table sugar, and the kind found in fruit is what separates a chocolate bar from an apple. We all know that fruit is healthy, so why aren’t we eating more?

The difference is found in the common misconception between a natural fructose (or fruit) sugar, and what’s considered a glucose (or rather, a simple) sugar. Fructose is a natural sweetener found in fruits and its effects on the body differ greatly from simple sugars. Fructose does not enter the blood stream the same way as glucose, and in turn will not work to spike blood-sugar levels, which helps for individuals trying to maintain a fat-burning zone and will decrease the likelihood of a mid-day crash. As well, most fruit is a great natural supplier of fiber for your diet which not only helps to maintain healthy bowel movements, but can great a feeling of satiety in our stomachs and gastrointestinal tracts, making us feel fuller for a longer time.

There are some fruits that are better than others. The difference is found in the “glycemic index” of fruits and other carbohydrate foods. A glycemic index scale is the measure of how abruptly a carbohydrate will affect the blood sugar of the individual eating that particular food. Items such as white bread, pasta, and processed breakfast cereals are considered high on a glycemic index scale, and it is for this reason that they are not considered ideal for individuals looking to lose weight. This is because food products that digest too quickly do not allow for our body to burn off the calories they contain, and in turn they are stored as energy (first as muscle/liver glucose, and then as adipose tissue. a.k.a. Fat).

Some fruits are quite high on a glycemic index scale and should be limited to post-workout meals to help replace some stored energy in our liver and muscles to aid in repair and keep our energy levels high. Here is a glycemic index list of fruits, keep in mind items below 50 should be used before workouts, or for snacks throughout the day, while items above 50 are more intended for after workouts:

  • Cherries – 22
  • Grapefruit – 25
  • Peaches – 30
  • Pears – 33
  • Plums – 40
  • Strawberries – 40
  • Grapes – 40
  • Oranges – 42
  • Kiwi – 47
  • Apple – 48
  • Mangoes – 51
  • Apricots – 57
  • Pineapple – 65
  • Watermelon – 72
  • Banana – 80

5 Reasons Why Sugar Is So Bad For You

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By Leon Cooper

sugar 5 Reasons Why Sugar Is So Bad For You

A famous athlete used to refer to sugar as 'White Death'

Ok so most people are in denial about how much sugar we actually eat, myself included. But have you ever tried to track and count the amount of sugar you’re actually putting into your body? It’s extremely difficult to do because most foods out there don’t tell you exactly how much sugar is in them. They hide behind words like glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, corn syrup and a few others. These words aren’t used in our regular vocabulary so we tend to ignore them. Plus that’s just our food, what about our drinks? I’ll give you an example. The number one killer for high sugar drinks out there is soda pop. Now I’ll admit that I enjoy a coke every now and then but if you break down the amount and content of a coke you’ll see it can add up quickly.

There’s 41g of sugar in a can of coke. So a regular sized bottle has about 751ml which is about double the size of a can. Now let’s say you drink 2 bottles of coke a day (it’s not uncommon). 82g sugar in 710ml X 2/day. That’s 164g of sugar, or approx 6 ounces. Now just to put this into perspective when you go out to a restaurant and order a small steak it usually comes as a 6 ounce steak. Picture that steak as a 6 ounce pile of sugar. Could you eat that in one sitting? Because most of us can easily drink that in one sitting if we had to. In fact we probably have, with every restaurant now giving free refills and the amount of times the waitress comes around with the jug we’ve probably drank over a liter of coke at a meal one time or another. Now remember, that’s just looking at our drinks, and that’s just one meal. Imagine calculating all the food we eat and trying to count the amount of sugar as well. So you can see how it will add up quickly without even knowing it. The numbers are shocking.

My point is that we really need to consciously make an effort to reduce our sugar intake through out the day, and not just because “it’s bad for you” that’s too general. Here is a list of 5 reasons why sugar is “bad for you”:

Weight Gain

This is as obvious one. From the amount of sugar that we as a society consume on a regular basis we would all have to be training like Olympian athletes to burn it off and maintain our current weight, but since we’re not Olympian athletes the pounds keep creeping up on us. This is because sugar is “empty calories”. And what that means is that your body doesn’t use sugar as an energy source. Now some may argue that sugar gives you a surge of instant energy when you ingest it and an example of that would be when a 10 year old try’s their first ever pixy stix and is bouncing off the walls for a good 10-15 min. However they’re probably only using 10% of the total pixy stix for energy and the other 90% go unused. Then what happens to them? They usually get easily agitated and fatigued can’t focus well and are ready for a nap. And as for that other 90% sugar, well that’s still in your body but can’t be used for energy therefore it gets stored as reserves or “FAT”. So by the term “empty calories” I mean when you ingest it most of it just turns into fat, it serves no benefit to your body what so ever.

Mineral Depletion

When you eat refined sugar, your body takes nutrients from other cells to metabolize it because the sugar lacks the ability to do so on it’s own. Minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium are taken from vital body parts to make use of the sugar you ingested. Over Time, the vital body processes requiring those minerals run down and become less efficient. So we’re actually stealing necessary nutrients from other parts of our body that need them the most just to deal with the excess amount of sugar in our body. This is why our cholesterol goes up, and why our immune system doesn’t work as well. We’re actually opening up the door and letting infection, inflammation and disease come into our bodies and make us sick again and again because we don’t have the proper nutrients to fend them off. The sugar is stealing them.

Bone Loss

As stated above calcium is one of the minerals that is depleted when sugar enters the body. Calcium serves a major roll in bone structure. Calcium is what makes bones strong and durable. When it gets depleted then your body becomes more susceptible to injury such as breaks, fractures, joint problems and osteoporosis. Studies are finding osteoporosis occurring in people much earlier in life than in previous generations. They link this to a lack of calcium in the average person’s diet. Calcium also plays a key roll in keeping your teeth healthy and strong. Without it you become a higher risk to tooth decay and without calcium and a higher intake of sugar your teeth will rot that much faster.

Diabetes

Diabetes is rapidly becoming one of the most common diseases in the North American culture. Sugar is mainly responsible for this. See when you take in too much sugar on a regular basis your body’s natural blood sugar rises causing your pancreas to secrete insulin. This insulin helps bring the body’s blood sugar levels back down to normal. If you keep ingesting large amounts of sugar on a regular daily basis then eventually your pancreas will stop working. Then you’ve got major problems. Without insulin being able to regulate your blood sugar you may go into diabetic shock which can kill you. So what will happen is that you will be required to take regular insulin shots daily and you will be at far greater risk of going into shock if you continue to take in sugar. Your pancreas can not repair itself so this is a life long process for diabetics.

Fatigue

The ever popular sugar high feels great for the brief moment that you have it but then after that you feel even worse. More tired, more fatigue, can barley keep your eyes open, more irritable, short tempered, and all your brain is telling you is to get more sugar. It’s like a sugar hang over. You get that surge of energy and everything in your body starts working harder and faster then that source runs out and your body just wants to shut down, and all that will take place with 30 min. Then the hangover starts. Now your body is trying to recover from that massive surge but remember only 10% of the sugar was used so your body still has a job to do by trying to regulate your blood sugar, and store those empty calories as fat as well as keeping every other organ in your body working at an optimal level. So while your body is working overtime to recover from your sugar rush all your brain wants to do is shut down, or take a nap. This is why after a big meal of refined sugars we want to go lie on the couch and crash for about an hour. Now most of us don’t have the capability to live like this, getting a sugar high then crashing. We have jobs to do, people to see, places to go, responsibilities. So for the rest of the day we’re trying to fight the fatigue that we have created for ourselves. We’re not thinking clear, we can’t focus, the day becomes stressful and it’s not as much fun anymore. And that’s the vicious cycle that we’ve been going through because this society has become addicted to sugar.