Sweet life the healthy way
Processed added sugar vs fruit sugar directly from real fruit
The better food choice is natural organic fruit instead of processed sugar or added sugar for sweetener.
Eat more fruit.Add it to your food, as a sweetener to give your food a natural flavor and get healthier at the same time.
Real fruit sugar is processed differently than added sweeteners
The sugar in actual fruit is processed slower .
You do not get the glucose and insulin spike.
Real fruit : Has included fiber which helps in digestion and does not cause the spikes in glucose in the blood or inflammatory response from excessive insulin response. The fiber also helps a slower digestion of real fruit sugar. You are not hungry as soon and feel full longer. The fiber keeps you from gaining weight by helping slow the rate of carbohydrate absorption in the intestine.
In addition real fruit helps your intestinal system by preventing constipation and cancer.
Not to mention all the positive natural fruit benefits from the phytonutrients and antioxidants.
Water, vitamins, nutrients, anti inflammatory, and immune enhancing properties are all benefits of natural fruit
Label names for added sugar for which you should be on the lookout: Cane sugar. raw sugar,rice sugar, organic sugar, brown sugar, maltose, sucrose,high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup,anhydrous dextrose, dextrose,corn syrup solids,honey,invert sugar,lactose,malt syrup,maltose,maple syrup,molasses.
Refined or added sugar is broken down by the body rapidly and causes the insulin to rise in response to this rush of blood glucose, making this quite a different process than fruit sugar .This quick spike in sugar and subsequent rise in insulin has the opposite effect on the blood sugar levels causing it to drop precipitously. You become fatigued and hungry sooner. This exaggerated process takes place in the liver causing inflammation in your organs and blood vessels. Without the fiber from real fruits, added sugar calories turns into fat more readily and you gain weight faster.
Even fake artificial and natural artificial sweeteners of which stevia is the best one, trick your body into thinking it is real sugar and increase glycemic index response. You are hungrier like you ingested actual sugar even though you are trying to eat healthy. Artificial sweeteners make your system think you really had sugar. Artificial sweeteners end up having the same effect raising the insulin and same negative response to your blood.
List of natural sweeteners
Most fruits have a low glycemic index and an even lower glycemic load which is the amount per serving compared to other servings. This all means eating fruits and using them to add sweetness and taste to your food does not come with the sugar raising complications in the blood of adding processed sugars. A glycemic index under 55 is considered low and over 70 is considered high.The lower the index and load the less your blood sugar will be raised after eating a serving. The less your insulin will rise, and the less hungry you will be.
Table of fruits to use as sweeteners and honey. glycemic- index load
| Apple | 39 | 6 |
| Banana, ripe | 62 | 16 |
| Blueberries | 50 | 9 |
| Dates, dried | 42 | 18 |
| Grapes, | 59 | 11 |
| Figs | 61 | 4 |
| Orange | 40 | 4 |
| Peach | 42 | 5 |
| Pear | 38 | 4 |
| Prunes | 29 | 10 |
| Raisins | 64 | 28 |
| Watermelon | 72 | 4 |
| Honey | 55 | 3 |
HealthfulMD: My favorite sweet fruit are dates . Tastes like candy . Most of the natural organic baking and desserts use dates as their secret ingredient. In addition to the wonderful sweet taste, they are filled with fiber , vitamins, and potassium. Imagine you can enjoy a natural food and be healthier!
Eating fruits and using them to make your food sweet will make you healthful. Will cause less complications. Less obesity. Less processing in industrial plants which invariably have a larger environmental impact. Once again when you make a positive move to eat better foods you and the world are healthier.
Warren Krantz MD, FAAP
HealthfulMD.com