Fruit is important in your diet. But unfortunately it sometimes gets a bad name for its sugar content. There are two types of sugar in fruit, natural sugar and added sugar.

NATURAL SUGAR

Fruit contains some sugar that occurs naturally. This sugar is called fructose. Fructose, like any sugar has no nutritional value, all is does is generate energy. However, fructose foods are still naturally nutritionally rich overall. Therefore fruit is healthy. They are a very beneficial source of sugar rather than foods with sugar artificially added to them ( Candy bars etc).

ADDED SUGAR

Juice concentrate that does not have ‘100 % natural’, ‘No sugar added’ etc, usually contains more added sugar than others. Sucrose is the main sugar added here. However, many companies instead add additional fructose. But this fructose is from a chemically-formulated & very intense sweetener. Fructose is used more than sucrose because it is relatively low cost. It is also the sweetest of all naturally occurring carbohydrates and is regarded as being 1.7 times as sweet as sucrose.

How to determine if a food product has added sugar:

Check ingredients list for the following: Note: The largest ingredient will be named first on the list.

• Brown Sugar
• Dextrose
• Fructose
• Glucose
• Corn-Syrup
• Lactose
• Invert Sugar
• Raw Sugar
• Sucrose
• Molasses
• Maltose

There are, unfortunately a few others too. You can eat fruit! You can eat plenty of fruit if you are eating it with plenty of vegetables, lean protein, complex carbohydrates etc. Like everything else, it just has to be eaten in moderation in a healthy-balanced diet full of variety. Fruit is a fantastic natural energy generator and is often eaten before a workout.

Eating fruit would only be bad if you where eating large amounts of it. You would have too much sugar in your diet and you would also be lacking in nutrients that you need from other foods. And your carbohydrates level may also be very high.

CLASSIFICATIONS: 

Very High in sugar, but remember it is NATURAL SUGAR: Cherries, Mangos, Figs, Grapes, Banana’s, Dried fruits like raisins.

High in sugar: Plums, Kiwis, Pineapple, Oranges.

Low to Medium amount of sugar: Strawberries, Watermelon, Peaches, Blueberries.

Lowest in Sugar: Raspberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, Rhubarb.

Looking at the classifications list, I eat a lot of those fruits. Grapes and Banana’s are classified as very high in sugar. And oranges are high in sugar. I think everyone in the weight loss / fitblr community eats them at least once a week (Bananas, oranges I mean, not all types of fruit lol, we eat fruit all day ha) ! So what fruit should I eat? ANY OF IT. You want that orange? You want that banana? Oooh high in NATURAL SUGAR. Oh well then it is not a problem. It is natural. It is ok to eat in moderation. It is ok to have an orange, a banana and ten grapes. Just like it is ok to have a chocolate bar once a week, or twice a week. It will not make you gain 10000000000 + pounds. MODERATION IS KEY.

Now, please. No more freakin’fruitin’ questions about fruit! Unless it is about which fruit is my favourite. Which I shall answer as, Strawberries & Pineapple.

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(Source: keepcalmanddrinkwater)