Sugar has gotten a bad name, and deservedly so. Among the many little gifts that a sugar heavy diet bestows are obesity, Type-2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. As the following graphic shows, per capita sugar consumption in the USA rose by about 1,400% between 1822 and 2005.
For comparison, the next graphic overlays sugar consumption between 1960 and 2009 with rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The correlation is obvious.
It seems pretty clear that Americans eat way too much sugar. But like most things nutritional, it's not quite that simple.
Sugar production has a dark past as well. The development of sugar plantations in the Caribbean had far more to do with the institutionalization of slavery than did cotton.
The dietary guidelines published by the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services recommends that Americans limit added sugars to less than 10% of total calories per day (or 50 grams based on a 2000-calorie diet), with the average adult actually consuming about 126 grams.
On the basis of all this, many popular diets recommend limiting the amount of fruits consumed, or even eliminating them altogether. (Some even refer to fruit as "toxic".) Berries, melons, stone fruit (like peaches), apples, cherries, pineapples, bananas and oranges all contain sugar, from about 5 to about 30 grams per serving. Here is a list of the sugar content of many common fruits.
So is avoiding fruits a good way to reduce your sugar consumption? Not really.
Notice that the guidelines referenced above refer to grams of added sugar, not sugar naturally occurring in foods. Added sugars include any sugars or caloric sweeteners that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation (such as putting sugar in your coffee or adding sugar to your cereal). Added sugars can include natural sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar and honey, as well as other caloric sweeteners that are chemically manufactured (such as high fructose corn syrup).
Fruits and dairy contain fructose and lactose, natural sugars that are
digested slower than the sucrose of most added sugar. Sugars found naturally in food are more than enough to sustain
your body. Natural sugars are processed more slowly, meaning your blood
glucose level stays elevated for a longer period. (That is, rises and falls more slowly, avoiding the blood sugar "spikes" caused by added sugars.) In addition, the sugars in fruit are accompanied by fiber and other nutrients
Of course anything can be overdone. But adding the recommended 2 cups per day of (fresh, not processed or sweetened) fruit to you diet provides far more benefit that risk. Read more here.
