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Quick remark: Sugar, as other carbohydrates, is cheap. It also tastes well, objectively (as much as taste can be objectively measured). So if you go for indust

Quick remark: Sugar, as other carbohydrates, is cheap. It also tastes well, objectively (as much as taste can be objectively measured). So if you go for industrial-level food production, you end up with a higher proportion of sugar than what would be considered healthy. Sugar per se ist not bad at all (try to have an apple without it ;)). But our economy demands cheap, somewhat tasty, calories. Hence we end up with a lot of sugar or carbohydrates in general. Any diet that rules out carbs works well because of that, not because of some intrinsic property of carbs. As a French person you would probably never consider giving up on a good croissant or baguette, but in France these things are expensive. I doubt anyone gives their kids fresh croissant before school every day.

abellerose 6y ago
I've never known that people add sugar to their apples. I have lived in US & Canada and I find that odd people need to add sugar to enjoy an apple. Croissants or baguettes are not a daily thing if my assumption is correct. My experience is buying them when walking home from work and if I'm in the mood because bread isn't generally healthy for people compared to something else that happens to be better. edit: okay, I now understand the comment is about apples having natural sugar.
- abnry 6y ago
  I think the OP meant natural sugar, not added! And sadly, many jams and pies have extra sugar added, I much prefer the no/low sugar versions.
  - karpathy 6y ago
    Yes natural sugar is just barely better than added sugar (due to the fiber it's typically mixed in with). The apples we eat today are candy bars, they just happen to grow on trees. Trees shaped extensively via artificial selection for thousands of years to pack in more glucose, trees that are nowhere near to what our ancestors have encountered for millions of years.
    - blacksmith_tb 6y ago
      A Snickers bar has 27g of sugar in it[1], almost 3 times the 10g in the 'average apple' (without the fiber or water to slow down metabolizing it). I haven't encountered anyone claiming that obesity and diabetes are rampant in the US due to over-consumption of fruit (though fruit juice is not doing us any favors). 1: https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/22930/snickers-regular-size-bar https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/22930/snickers-regular-siz...
    - labelbias 6y ago
      Fortunately, apples are not candy bar. The metabolic effects of eating 1kg of apples is completely different from eating glucose and fructose extracted from those 1kg of apples. Natural sugar is magnitudes times better than processed/added sugar. Fructose consumed through fruits has never had a similar metabolic effect as high-fructose corn syrup.
- citruspi 6y ago
  Yeah, I think you misread the original comment. The "average" apple contains nearly 10g of sugar[0]. [0]: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171688/nutrients https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171688/n...
- modoc 6y ago
  I think he means that apples have a lot of sugar in them, which is why they taste so good.
- abellerose 6y ago
  Somehow I've received multiple downvotes on the original comment. I can no longer edit the comment but I think it's funny that people expected me to know he didn't just mean the natural sugars in apples. I mean apples are healthy in general compared to what the original discussion was about.
pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Are croissant expensive, look to be about 50 euro-cents each in France (about the same as UK; hypermarché/supermarket)? That's cheap, right? Bake at home ones are half that. Cheapest "fresh" at Carrefour are 20 euro-cents. https://www.carrefour.fr/s?q=croissant https://www.carrefour.fr/s?q=croissant Are village bakeries still a thing in France?
- elcomet 6y ago
  > Are village bakeries still a thing in France? Very much so. You find bakeries in every village / town, usually less than 15 min walking in any city. I don't know many people in France who buy supermarket croissant (except when you buy very large quantities for groups for example). And it's very common for people to go to their local bakery (small, 2 or 3 employee) to buy bread every two days.
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    Merci, je n'y suis pas allé depuis une vingtaine d'années; J'adore un pain-au-choc chaud le matin.
gdebel 6y ago
Haha, you're right kids don't usually eat croissant before school. This is more a Sunday morning dish (when daddy had the courage to wake up earlier to buy them). Good bread is not expensive in France by the way ! (There would be another revolution if that was the case ;-)

abellerose 6y ago

I've never known that people add sugar to their apples. I have lived in US & Canada and I find that odd people need to add sugar to enjoy an apple. Croissants or baguettes are not a daily thing if my assumption is correct. My experience is buying them when walking home from work and if I'm in the mood because bread isn't generally healthy for people compared to something else that happens to be better. edit: okay, I now understand the comment is about apples having natural sugar.

abnry 6y ago
I think the OP meant natural sugar, not added! And sadly, many jams and pies have extra sugar added, I much prefer the no/low sugar versions.
- karpathy 6y ago
  Yes natural sugar is just barely better than added sugar (due to the fiber it's typically mixed in with). The apples we eat today are candy bars, they just happen to grow on trees. Trees shaped extensively via artificial selection for thousands of years to pack in more glucose, trees that are nowhere near to what our ancestors have encountered for millions of years.
  - blacksmith_tb 6y ago
    A Snickers bar has 27g of sugar in it[1], almost 3 times the 10g in the 'average apple' (without the fiber or water to slow down metabolizing it). I haven't encountered anyone claiming that obesity and diabetes are rampant in the US due to over-consumption of fruit (though fruit juice is not doing us any favors). 1: https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/22930/snickers-regular-size-bar https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/22930/snickers-regular-siz...
  - labelbias 6y ago
    Fortunately, apples are not candy bar. The metabolic effects of eating 1kg of apples is completely different from eating glucose and fructose extracted from those 1kg of apples. Natural sugar is magnitudes times better than processed/added sugar. Fructose consumed through fruits has never had a similar metabolic effect as high-fructose corn syrup.
citruspi 6y ago
Yeah, I think you misread the original comment. The "average" apple contains nearly 10g of sugar[0]. [0]: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171688/nutrients https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171688/n...
modoc 6y ago
I think he means that apples have a lot of sugar in them, which is why they taste so good.
abellerose 6y ago
Somehow I've received multiple downvotes on the original comment. I can no longer edit the comment but I think it's funny that people expected me to know he didn't just mean the natural sugars in apples. I mean apples are healthy in general compared to what the original discussion was about.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

Are croissant expensive, look to be about 50 euro-cents each in France (about the same as UK; hypermarché/supermarket)? That's cheap, right? Bake at home ones are half that. Cheapest "fresh" at Carrefour are 20 euro-cents. https://www.carrefour.fr/s?q=croissant https://www.carrefour.fr/s?q=croissant Are village bakeries still a thing in France?

elcomet 6y ago
> Are village bakeries still a thing in France? Very much so. You find bakeries in every village / town, usually less than 15 min walking in any city. I don't know many people in France who buy supermarket croissant (except when you buy very large quantities for groups for example). And it's very common for people to go to their local bakery (small, 2 or 3 employee) to buy bread every two days.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  Merci, je n'y suis pas allé depuis une vingtaine d'années; J'adore un pain-au-choc chaud le matin.

gdebel 6y ago

Haha, you're right kids don't usually eat croissant before school. This is more a Sunday morning dish (when daddy had the courage to wake up earlier to buy them). Good bread is not expensive in France by the way ! (There would be another revolution if that was the case ;-)