4 ms·

If you mean nut, walnut, or apricot as snack: it's good. But Snickers is definitely not.

edejong 9y ago
What makes the fructose in your (selected for top sweetness over hundreds of generations) apricot so different from the fructose in the sucrose of your Snickers bar?
- Noxchi 9y ago
  The difference has more to do with fiber, fats, and vitamin s
  - edejong 9y ago
    Vitamin S? You mean steroids? It's very difficult for a person eating normally to not get enough of their daily vitamin intake, so please specify the type.
    - brucephillips 9y ago
      Not really. Most Americans are Vitamin D deficient, and about half are Magnesium deficient.
- minwcnt5 9y ago
  The fiber and polyphenols in the whole fruit modulate the uptake of fructose in the gut.
  - edejong 9y ago
    Except that it has been selected over centuries for minimal fiber content. Quick Google search: apricots and Snickers both have 2% fiber content.
    - thrownblown 9y ago
      Try eating 2500 calories (1 pack) of Oreos vs 2500 calories of apricots (150 medium). I could easily mow down a whole pack of oreos and a quart of milk (500 more calories). I have done so many times. I might do it tonight. I dunno about 150-180 apricots. That is only 200% of daily recommended fiber intake tho.
    - brucephillips 9y ago
      That's by weight, and apricots are mostly water. By macronutrient content, apricots are about 15% fiber. What ultimately matters is the glycemic index. An apricot has a GI of 34, whereas a Snickers bar is ~70.
      - edejong 9y ago
        The point I was trying to make is that apricots and Snickers have both been engineered (both by humans and nature) to contain maximum sugar levels with minimum fiber content (plus to be grown as quickly as possible). There are other fruits which have a higher GI level (grapes). We need to step away from the food dogmas and understand that an apricot is heavy in fructose, low in glucose, doesn't have many good lipids and because of intense farming probably does not have much iron and magnesium. It is probably better than a Snickers bar, but that doesn't suddenly make it 'good', or 'clean', or whatever. (Just for the record, I never eat snacks like Snickers, haven't been to a McDonalds for over a decade, grow my own food, regularly eat nuts and work out thrice a week. I focus on balance in my food, with the right intake at the right moment. So, eating sugar isn't that bad, but your body needs to be able to use that energy directly.)
- partycoder 9y ago
  They have different glycemic indices. A bar of snickers or similar will likely have a higher glycemic index relative to that of a fruit, meaning that it has a higher impact on the blood glucose.
- lgas 9y ago
  In addition to what others have said, I suspect part of the difference is that "all things being equal" the snickers bar and apricot may not be so far apart, but in real life "all things are not equal" and the person that eats a snicker instead of an apricot statistically makes many more decisions in a similar vein.
  - edejong 9y ago
    Aha, that's an interesting position and one I completely agree with. It points to the core of the matter: It lifts the individual food-items towards a more socioeconomic, structuralistic philosophy of society. Eating the Snickers bar is communicating "I do not care about my food-choices". It is about carelessness and sloth, a stigmatic act. And even though there is a kernel of truth in your argument, it introduces more dogma into the whole food situation.
- azinman2 9y ago
  Snickers will contain high fructose corn syrup with different metabolism properties, and will likely contain more total sugar (plus other gunk) than the equivalent snack of (non-dried) apricots would.
  - 0xbear 9y ago
    Fun fact: HFCS that you'll find in drinks has nearly the same proportion of fructose and glucose as honey. Yet one is considered "good" by most people, and the other is universally considered bad. News flash: they're both bad unless consumed in very limited amounts.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > What makes the fructose in your (selected for top sweetness over hundreds of generations) apricot so different from the fructose in the sucrose of your Snickers bar? The quantity of it per unit volume or mass of the apricot, which affects satiety and the total quantity you are likely to eat of it, as well as other ingredients consumed alongside the sugars. For instance, a 44g snickers bar has 20g of sugars and 0.8g fiber; 165g of sliced apricot has only 15g of sugars and 3.3g of fiber; so less than a quarter of the sugar density by mass, with in the ballpark of the same fiber density, or about a four times higher fiber-to-sugar ratio for the apricot.
ChristianGeek 9y ago
Snickers never seem to satisfy me anyway.

What makes the fructose in your (selected for top sweetness over hundreds of generations) apricot so different from the fructose in the sucrose of your Snickers bar?

Noxchi 9y ago
The difference has more to do with fiber, fats, and vitamin s
- edejong 9y ago
  Vitamin S? You mean steroids? It's very difficult for a person eating normally to not get enough of their daily vitamin intake, so please specify the type.
  - brucephillips 9y ago
    Not really. Most Americans are Vitamin D deficient, and about half are Magnesium deficient.
minwcnt5 9y ago
The fiber and polyphenols in the whole fruit modulate the uptake of fructose in the gut.
- edejong 9y ago
  Except that it has been selected over centuries for minimal fiber content. Quick Google search: apricots and Snickers both have 2% fiber content.
  - thrownblown 9y ago
    Try eating 2500 calories (1 pack) of Oreos vs 2500 calories of apricots (150 medium). I could easily mow down a whole pack of oreos and a quart of milk (500 more calories). I have done so many times. I might do it tonight. I dunno about 150-180 apricots. That is only 200% of daily recommended fiber intake tho.
  - brucephillips 9y ago
    That's by weight, and apricots are mostly water. By macronutrient content, apricots are about 15% fiber. What ultimately matters is the glycemic index. An apricot has a GI of 34, whereas a Snickers bar is ~70.
    - edejong 9y ago
      The point I was trying to make is that apricots and Snickers have both been engineered (both by humans and nature) to contain maximum sugar levels with minimum fiber content (plus to be grown as quickly as possible). There are other fruits which have a higher GI level (grapes). We need to step away from the food dogmas and understand that an apricot is heavy in fructose, low in glucose, doesn't have many good lipids and because of intense farming probably does not have much iron and magnesium. It is probably better than a Snickers bar, but that doesn't suddenly make it 'good', or 'clean', or whatever. (Just for the record, I never eat snacks like Snickers, haven't been to a McDonalds for over a decade, grow my own food, regularly eat nuts and work out thrice a week. I focus on balance in my food, with the right intake at the right moment. So, eating sugar isn't that bad, but your body needs to be able to use that energy directly.)
partycoder 9y ago
They have different glycemic indices. A bar of snickers or similar will likely have a higher glycemic index relative to that of a fruit, meaning that it has a higher impact on the blood glucose.
lgas 9y ago
In addition to what others have said, I suspect part of the difference is that "all things being equal" the snickers bar and apricot may not be so far apart, but in real life "all things are not equal" and the person that eats a snicker instead of an apricot statistically makes many more decisions in a similar vein.
- edejong 9y ago
  Aha, that's an interesting position and one I completely agree with. It points to the core of the matter: It lifts the individual food-items towards a more socioeconomic, structuralistic philosophy of society. Eating the Snickers bar is communicating "I do not care about my food-choices". It is about carelessness and sloth, a stigmatic act. And even though there is a kernel of truth in your argument, it introduces more dogma into the whole food situation.
azinman2 9y ago
Snickers will contain high fructose corn syrup with different metabolism properties, and will likely contain more total sugar (plus other gunk) than the equivalent snack of (non-dried) apricots would.
- 0xbear 9y ago
  Fun fact: HFCS that you'll find in drinks has nearly the same proportion of fructose and glucose as honey. Yet one is considered "good" by most people, and the other is universally considered bad. News flash: they're both bad unless consumed in very limited amounts.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> What makes the fructose in your (selected for top sweetness over hundreds of generations) apricot so different from the fructose in the sucrose of your Snickers bar? The quantity of it per unit volume or mass of the apricot, which affects satiety and the total quantity you are likely to eat of it, as well as other ingredients consumed alongside the sugars. For instance, a 44g snickers bar has 20g of sugars and 0.8g fiber; 165g of sliced apricot has only 15g of sugars and 3.3g of fiber; so less than a quarter of the sugar density by mass, with in the ballpark of the same fiber density, or about a four times higher fiber-to-sugar ratio for the apricot.

ChristianGeek 9y ago

Snickers never seem to satisfy me anyway.