Is fruit sugar bad?

Fructose is the type of sugar found in fruit. It’s a naturally occurring single sugar (monosaccharide) found in fruits and vegetables. It is also found in added sugars like sucrose, crystalline fructose and corn syrup.

Is fruit sugar bad?

Fructose can be directly absorbed through your small intestine into your blood, but is a slower process due to the presence of fiber and phytonutrients. When you consume fruit, the fiber slows down the digestive time so it doesn’t spike your blood sugar. That’s why most foods have a low glycemic index (GI).

Fructose itself isn’t inherently bad. That’s only when it’s over-consumed or not consumed in the right food composition. Luckily it’s pretty hard to over-consume fruit, due to the fiber. Plus, fructose is up to twice as sweet as sucrose and is sweeter than high fructose corn syrup, meaning that less fructose is needed to achieve the same level of sweetness and thus the consumption of fewer calories.

The Bad Fructose

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a mixture of fructose (55%) and glucose (45%) made by an enzymatic process from glucose syrup and corn. It has been attributed to the global obesity crisis and is found in everything from cereal to salad dressing.

A study found that HFCS bypasses many of the body’s satiating signals like the hormones ghrelin and leptin that tell your brain when to start and stop eating. This promotes the overconsumption of energy, leading to weight gain and the development of insulin resistance and the resulting risk of type 2 diabetes.

Conclusion

Fruit is healthy, despite containing fructose. The nutritional composition of fruit alters the way the fructose is ingested, making it fine to eat. On the flip side, HFCS is bad for you and should be avoided at all costs.