The sugars that you eat can occur naturally or be added. Natural sugars are found naturally in the food — like fructose in fruit and lactose in milk.  Added sugars are the many kinds of sugar and syrup – including sweeteners like honey, agave, and maple syrup, for example — that are added into food at the table or during the food’s preparation or processing.

Common Sources Of Added Sugars

Some sources are obvious – others require a bit of checking of the ingredients label.  The same food item from different companies may have varying amounts of added sugar.  Here are some examples of foods that usually have added sugar:

•  Regular soft drinks
• Sugar; syrups (do you put maple syrup on your pancakes?); and candy
• Cakes; cookies; pies; donuts; pastries; breakfast and snack bars
• Fruit drinks like fruitades and fruit punch; sweetened teas, sports drinks, and flavored water
• Dairy desserts and milk products like ice cream; sweetened yogurt; pudding; and flavored milk
• Many cereals; toast with jelly/jam; and many breads — both home made “quick breads” and store-bought sliced breads
• Sweeteners added to coffee, tea, cereal; canned fruit

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Fructose:  A Simple Sugar

Fruit sugar, or fructose, is a simple sugar that your body metabolizes quickly and easily. Fructose, has few, if any, advantages over sucrose, the kind of sugar in candy.

Moderate fruit intake is recommended as part of a healthy diet. The simple sugars, like fructose, found in fruit are not a problem for active and healthy people. But, if you have diabetes or prediabetes, too much fruit could throw your blood sugar levels out of whack.

Fruit juice is often made from fruit concentrate with added refined sugar, so too much fruit juice can be a bad thing.  FYI:  there really isn’t a big nutritional difference if your jam is sweetened with “sugar” or “fruit juice sweetener.” They are both sugar.

A Good Idea

Having fruit in your diet is a good idea for a bunch of reasons. It tastes good and most of it has a substantial amount of fiber — which helps to reduce the risk of some diseases. Fruit is also a good source of vitamins and minerals.  A well rounded diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables, and some lean protein is a good bet.

It’s also pretty cool that a lot of fruit comes in it’s own wrapper and single serving package.  Think oranges, clementines, tangerines, apples, pears, and bananas to name a few.  They’re really grab and go.  And berries – so high in antioxidants.  Delicious, too.  Watermelon is 92% water by weight, filled with vitamin C, and a necessary part of so many barbecues and beach parties.

All sugar adds calories but there are certainly a lot of reasons to choose fruit and its sugar over the nutritionally empty sugared sweet stuff like candy and soda.

The fiber and water in fruit help you to feel full.  The fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals.  Because of its fiber, fruit takes longer to digest than processed sweets made with refined sugar.  And, it doesn’t create a spike in your blood sugar —  which is then followed by a steep drop that makes you hungry all over again.

Sugar And Calories In Popular Fruit

Some examples:

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