Both fruits and sweets are… sweet. But what is the difference between fruit sugar and candy sugar?
and that from processed foods are not the same.
Fruits contain sugars such as . When these sugars are combined, sucrose (known as table sugar or white sugar) results. Sucrose occurs naturally in almost all plants, but is especially abundant in sugar cane, sugar beets, maple sap, dates, and honey.
Sucrose is produced commercially (mainly from sugar cane and sugar beet) for use as an industrial sweetener, added in . Processed sugar is concentrated and refined, exposed to various factors, including reagents and chemical reactions that remove colorants and facilitate crystallization.
What is the difference between fruit sugar and candy sugar?
Although sucrose is found in most plants, with a few exceptions, it does not occur in very high concentrations. Thus, the major sugars, i.e. fructose, glucose and sucrose, are not very dense in fresh fruit. For example, a medium-sized apple contains about 19 grams of sugar.
In contrast, carbonated drinks and sweets are very high in processed sugar. A bar of chocolate contains, on average, about 35 grams of sugar, and a soft drink can have up to 39 grams of sugar. In addition, fruits contain many other nutrients, such as vitamin C and fiber, while sweets lack these healthy compounds. The fruit’s relatively low sugar levels, combined with fiber and other nutrients, help prevent blood sugar spikes, which is important for people with diabetes.
Of course, excessive consumption of fruit is not necessarily healthy. You also need to be careful with dried fruit and fruit juices: sugar concentrations are higher in dried fruit than fresh, and also in fruit juices that have added sugar.
