Fruit is healthy. It’s just fruit.
Comment on Anon indulges
theblips@lemm.ee 1 day agoHow were people brainwashed into thinking OJ was “healthy”? It’s the closest equivalent to natural candy I can think of. Tons of sugar offset by juicy acidity
bollybing@lemmynsfw.com 1 day ago
Liz@midwest.social 1 day ago
Whole fruit is healthy. The more processed you go, the less healthy it is. Interestingly, the more processed you go, the more calories you consume, too. You will eat more apple sauce than you will apples.
ratel@mander.xyz 23 hours ago
Exactly this.
Fructose adds to your intake of free (added) sugars. Whole fruit, on the other hand, does not.
Whole fruit contains fibre (roughage), vitamins and minerals, which are good for your overall health. The fibre helps to slow down the speed the fructose is absorbed into your blood stream and can help you feel fuller for longer. This is why it’s better to eat whole fruit, rather than fruit in the form of juice or a smoothie.
Fruit juice and smoothies, on the other hand, have most of the fibre (roughage) removed when they are made and it’s very easy to drink large quantities in a short space of time. This means you could be drinking a lot of extra calories, carbs and sugar.
Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 18 hours ago
Yeah, but despite being diabetic I can’t live without apple butter. To be fair that’s why I get the “no granulated sugar added” stuff from Amish country. Depending on the brand, no more than four ingredients (apples, apple cider, lemon juice, spices), though my preferred brand only has three (no lemon juice). Way better quality than most other kinds too - you get more of the tartness of the apples because the only sweetener is more apple and they use less of the apple cider to sweeten than they otherwise might because you can only take it so far before it messes with the texture or flavor too much (which isn’t as much a problem for most other sweeteners) and it costs more.
Amish Wedding, Jake & Amos and Yoder’s all have good ones. The jar I finished off with my breakfast this morning was 5g carb/tablespoon, which is pretty low for apple butter.
Same idea for jams and jellies - particularly fond of Mrs. Miller’s no granulated sugar added jams, which get sweetened with fruit juice (which in turn has price/flavor/texture limits on how much you can use and still have a good product). Whereas actual sugar free jams by the major brands tend to be godawful with entirely the wrong texture and flavor - Smucker’s sugar free jams are an insult to the fruit they were at some point walked past during their production.
Related is that things that use unusual or expensive sugar sources (think agave nectar or honey as the primary or only sweetener as opposed to cane sugar, HFCS or something like that) tend to use less for price reasons and so tend to be slightly less horrific on the added sugar front.
Liz@midwest.social 5 hours ago
Yeah, “home-processed” levels of processing ain’t so bad. It’s just interesting that the effects of food processing are measurable even between seemingly small changes. Pretty much, if you take any food and throw it in a blender, you’ll eat more of it.
tomenzgg@midwest.social 1 day ago
I mean, there are still obvious health benefits; you’re going to get vitamins from OJ a can of soda will never give you. But, yeah, there are definitely, additionally, health detriments, as well.