Why is "fruit sugar" better than refined sugar?

So I found this website and it is amazing! So many people always are wondering what a good daily meal plan is for being healthy and losing weight.. and this site has one! Here is the link that goes directly to the daily plan. The website even has a meal of the day, a healthy food of the day, I mean it's got everything.

Last entry I talked about sugars. Remember, stay around the 22 grams of sugar a day. Try that out for a week. If you think about it, you get 52-ish weeks in a year. Can't you devote at least one of those to trying something new that also benefits your body? Be proactive and get healthy, just starting with a one-week trial. I promise you, your body will love it.

Back to the sugar thing. Try one week really paying attention to sugar content in what you eat. ALWAYS look at the nutrition label on everything you buy. You will be surprised by the hidden evils in some common foods.

Let's talk about sugars in fruits vs. refined sugars. I was on the phone with my mother yesterday and she brought up a good question: If I eat fruit all day, how is that different sugar-wise than eating candy or cereal all day? The sugar in fruit is natural: it's called FRUCTOSE. Fructose is broken down by the body slowly (that is why it is best to eat fruits earlier in the day) and converted into SUCROSE and GLYCOGEN. Fructose, compared to cane sugar, has a very low Glycemic index (meaning a smaller rise in blood sugar and help in controlling diabetes). Got all that?

A huge difference between the two sugars is how quickly our bodies break them down. When we digest sucrose (remember, fructose comes from fruit, not sucrose), the body quickly breaks it down into semi-equal parts of fructose and glucose (the sugar our bodies use for energy: both physical and mental). When our bodies sense a sudden increase of glucose in our blood, the body quickly pushes the pancreas to get more insulin into the bloodstream; this will help burn that extra glucose as energy. Any glucose that isn't turned into energy turns into glycogen (our body's' short-term energy supply). If our glycogen level is already full, the extra glycogen gets turned into fat. Bummer. Fun fact: A typical adult will have about 3/4 lb. of glycogen stored in their body at any given time, mainly in muscles or liver.

That was a ton of information. Let's recap: Why is fruit sugar (fructose) better for you than table sugar (sucrose)? Sucrose messes up our sugar levels in our bodies as our bodies quickly process the sucrose, and eventually sends the pancreas into overload as it quickly acts to create insulin to send into the bloodstream. Fructose is broken down very slowly by the body, which allows much more time for our bodies to react to the fructose. It's good news for diabetics too!

In case you are ever wondering how much sugar/calories/anything are in your fruit (or veggie, or whatever), go here. It's a great site that will help inform you about how much of what you are putting into your body. Type your food into the box that says "Food Search".

Enjoy your fruit without guilt!