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My SO is basically like "fruits _are_ filled with sugar" and they're not wrong. It feels pretty hard to make strong qualitative judgements on this stuff. Feels

by rtpg 2y ago

My SO is basically like "fruits _are_ filled with sugar" and they're not wrong. It feels pretty hard to make strong qualitative judgements on this stuff. Feels better than a snickers bar, surely? The only real thing that feels kind of easy to say is that any sweet drink is probably worse for you than just drinking water. Easiest diet in the world is to just never buy soft drinks, and the extra trick is to also not replace it with orange or apple juice.

jwagenet 2y ago
It seems like fruit are preferable due to fiber, sugar content equal.
aio2 2y ago
While fruits are packed with sugar, eating fruit also comes with fiber. This extra digestion slows the intake of sugar into the bloodstream, and getting fat/unhealthy from sugar comes from to much of it going through the liver. Because you may have too much sugar at a time, the liver needs help from the pancreas, which secretes insulin to store the sugar, which makes you fat.
- rtpg 2y ago
  Do you know if there's a good rule of thumb for how different that ratio might be? I do like having some quantitative ballpark to go along with the qualitative texture
  - shorts_theory 2y ago
    You may be interested in the glycemic index [1] which represents how much a particular food causes your blood sugar to spike compared to pure sugar. Based on a cursory search, the GI for an apple is somewhere in the 30s which is way less than a candy bar which can be 70+. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
- rubzah 2y ago
  Most fruits are also somewhat acidic, which helps digestion and insulin sensitivity.
- devilbunny 2y ago
  This is biologically confused. Fructose is processed by the liver. Glucose stimulates insulin release from the pancreas. Sucrose is one glucose and one fructose, but as you might guess from the name, fruits often contain free fructose. Fiber doesn’t slow sugar absorption by very much. It is better than, say, HFCS, but mostly because you can’t ever eat as many calories as you can drink.
MrMember 2y ago
Fruits have sugar but unless you're on a diet that heavily restricts sugar intake it's not an alarming amount. A normal sized apple for example is larger by volume than a Snickers bar but has 1/4 the calories and half the sugar.
adrian_b 2y ago
Eating too many fruits can provide too much sugar, but fresh fruits have low sugar content in comparison with any artificial sweet food. Only dried fruits, like raisins, dried figs, dried dates, dried prunes and so on, have high sugar content, well over 50%, so they are comparable with chocolate or candy bars. Most fresh fruits contain only around 10% sugar, with a only a few, like grapes or fresh figs exceeding 15% of sugar (but less than 20%). This means that for most fresh fruits you can eat a half kilogram (or a pound) per day, while still avoiding an excessive sugar intake.

by rtpg 2y ago

jwagenet 2y ago

It seems like fruit are preferable due to fiber, sugar content equal.

aio2 2y ago

While fruits are packed with sugar, eating fruit also comes with fiber. This extra digestion slows the intake of sugar into the bloodstream, and getting fat/unhealthy from sugar comes from to much of it going through the liver. Because you may have too much sugar at a time, the liver needs help from the pancreas, which secretes insulin to store the sugar, which makes you fat.

rtpg 2y ago
Do you know if there's a good rule of thumb for how different that ratio might be? I do like having some quantitative ballpark to go along with the qualitative texture
- shorts_theory 2y ago
  You may be interested in the glycemic index [1] which represents how much a particular food causes your blood sugar to spike compared to pure sugar. Based on a cursory search, the GI for an apple is somewhere in the 30s which is way less than a candy bar which can be 70+. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
rubzah 2y ago
Most fruits are also somewhat acidic, which helps digestion and insulin sensitivity.
devilbunny 2y ago
This is biologically confused. Fructose is processed by the liver. Glucose stimulates insulin release from the pancreas. Sucrose is one glucose and one fructose, but as you might guess from the name, fruits often contain free fructose. Fiber doesn’t slow sugar absorption by very much. It is better than, say, HFCS, but mostly because you can’t ever eat as many calories as you can drink.

MrMember 2y ago

Fruits have sugar but unless you're on a diet that heavily restricts sugar intake it's not an alarming amount. A normal sized apple for example is larger by volume than a Snickers bar but has 1/4 the calories and half the sugar.

adrian_b 2y ago

Eating too many fruits can provide too much sugar, but fresh fruits have low sugar content in comparison with any artificial sweet food. Only dried fruits, like raisins, dried figs, dried dates, dried prunes and so on, have high sugar content, well over 50%, so they are comparable with chocolate or candy bars. Most fresh fruits contain only around 10% sugar, with a only a few, like grapes or fresh figs exceeding 15% of sugar (but less than 20%). This means that for most fresh fruits you can eat a half kilogram (or a pound) per day, while still avoiding an excessive sugar intake.