There is so much confusion around fruit and sugar that I decided to unpick some of the misinformation.
What is sugar?
Sucrose (table sugar) is made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. All sugars are made up of different combinations of glucose or glucose plus fructose. Glucose is a very important sugar for us humans and is contained within most foods, and if not included as for example in meat proteins, it is still eventually broken down in our bodies to provide glucose for us to use as energy.
Fructose is sweeter than glucose which is a manufacturers dream in the sweet stakes. Drinks are marketed to us daily, using the useful fact that fructose is from fruit! Checking the facts we know that fruit juice e.g. apple or orange from concentrate, has been stripped of the beneficial fibre and nutrients leaving pure sugar (fructose), primed to rot our teeth, and cause a huge insulin spike. Research shows that the consumption of sugary soft drinks has risen in parallel with obesity statistics. I often wonder how quickly obesity rates would fall if everyone drank water instead of sugary soft drinks.
Fruit contains fructose, but also contains fibre and a host of beneficial nutrients. However to stay under the recommended 10 teaspoons of sugar a day (World Health Organisation WHO), it is better to keep your fruit to two pieces a day plus a minimum of 3 portions of vegetables.
There is much hype around sugar and there is no doubt about the evils of the sweet stuff. Consuming sugar causes tooth cavities, and it is an excess of sugar which is the problem. There is not as yet definitive evidence that sugar causes cancer, however some nutrition experts believe strongly that this is so. It is however clear that eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain and obesity which is strongly suggested to increase the risk of cancer.
As we have discussed in previous posts and community emails Alison and I have both found cutting out sugar for 30 days, helped us not only reduce sugar cravings (in a major way) but also increase our energy levels. Some studies have looked into how sugar (particularly when combined with fat) light up our brains reward system, which makes complete sense when we reflect on Palaeolithic man, sweet foods were rare and synonymous with high energy thus we could gorge on these foods without getting full too quickly (then we wonder why it is so easy to eat the whole packet of biscuits - we are not weak, we are made to do so).
However it is dangerous to demonise an ingredient as happened to fat. We the consumers demanded low fat foods, as emerging studies including the famous Ancel Keys study 1958 found some evidence to show that eating fat makes us fat, (questionable as some have strongly suggested research cherry picking!) in response to this the food industry reduced the fat and increased the sugar, pulling the wool over our eyes completely. The truth is, it is the combination of sugar, fat and salt which are used in the food industry to entice us into overeating leading to weight gain, lethargy and obesity. Hence eating naturally and steering away from processed foods will make all the difference to your health and waist line.
Each of us reacts to different foods in various ways. It is part of our journey to find out the best way of eating to suit ourselves ensuring that we consume the nutrients we need to have a healthy long life free from illness and disease.
To lower your sugar intake reduce the usual sugary drinks and snacks. However there may be a few items that contain hidden sugars you were unaware of for example a nutrigrain bar is marketed as a healthy product, however it contains approximately 4tsp of sugar per bar! This is only just less than an average chocolate bar of the same size. As a general rule recommendations are that a food is healthy in terms of sugar levels when they contain 5g per 100g. Check the list I have included to help you lower your sugar levels.
- Low fructose fruits include avocados, lemons. Limes, melons, figs, grapefruit and blueberries.
- Fruits highest in fructose include apples, pears, mangos.
- Low fat or fat free yoghurts can contain 5 teaspoons of sugar per 150g serving. Check the labels and opt for yoghurts with less than 5g of sugar per 100g of product.
- Jars of pasta sauce can contain upwards of 3tsp (13g) of sugar per 100g. Check shop bought sauces they often contain high levels of sugar, e.g. cranberry, salsa, mint sauce.
- Cereals are shockingly high in sugar, frosties and coco pops being two of the highest, however you may be surprised to find the following so called healthy cereals contain high levels of sugar:
* Branflakes 4-5 tsp/20g per 100g
* Special K 3- 4 tsp/17g per 100g
Check your cereals nutritional information - carbohydrates of which sugars, is the sugar content.
I hope you have found some of this information useful. Sugar is such a minefield and manufacturers have kept a theme of adding sugar and fat whilst trying to hide them in various forms to keep us buying products. Please leave a comment if you have a question or if you have found the information of use.
Have a wonderful Christmas enjoying time with your loved ones.
Lots of love and hugs,
Kelly x
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