Sugar

[Oxo]

Indeed. And it gets worse, real lemon juice is added to washing up liquid, but not to lemon juice!

Why would you add lemon juice to err...lemon juice.

 

[Spinney]

So what happens when you chew fruit, is this not the same?

You (I/we) probably don't break the fibre down anything like as much as the machinery.

There is also this effect:

I was basically necking a banana, an apple, 3 or 4 strawberries, 6 or 7 grapes, 250 mL of natural yoghurt (and whatever else I felt like adding) every day. If I'd eaten the actual fruit I would probably just have made do with the apple.

You get more fruit sugars in the smoothie because it is so easy/quick to drink, it all gets into you faster (time taken to eat an apple v necking a bottle of smoothie), and the fibre in the smoothie doesn't do its job like the fibre in the chewed apple will.

 

[Oxo]

I was basically necking a banana, an apple, 3 or 4 strawberries, 6 or 7 grapes, 250 mL of natural yoghurt (and whatever else I felt like adding) every day. If I'd eaten the actual fruit I would probably just have made do with the apple.

I thought the idea was to have an healthy option and replace an unhealthy choice, not to have it as an added extra.

 

[Chromatic]

Why would you add lemon juice to err...lemon juice.

One of the great questions of our time, easily on a par with questions concerning the nature of the universe and other great scientific enquiries. We need to know these things.

 

[rich p]

Thank God there's no sugar in beer.

 

[Markymark]

Thank God there's no sugar in beer.

But there is in the lemonade you mix it with.

 

[Reynard]

This is just such a food item that is marketed to be "healthy" but does contain the slow killer that is sugar. And as you have outlined, there's much more of it around than people might think. I gave up sugar in Tea and Coffee about 2 months ago (thus eliminating around 6 x 2.5 = 15 teaspoons of sugar per day). Since then, anything like fruit juice or other processed food and drink tastes immensely sweet.

I did similar about a year or so back, although for me it was a teaspoon per mug. Now I also find a lot of ready made stuff far too sweet.

My motivation was that given the amount of tea I drink, it was around 100 calories a day that I didn't actually need, as 1 tsp sugar is around 15 calories...

 

[Reynard]

So what happens when you chew fruit, is this not the same?

And this: if you eat fruit as opposed to drinking fruit juice / smoothies, you simply won't eat as much, and voila, also less sugar in your system to begin with. One glass of orange juice is the equivalent of three or four oranges. Not sure anyone would sit down and eat that many oranges in a sitting...

Besides, the human digestive tract is designed to deal with chewed fibre, not fibre that has been pulverised in a blender

 

[ColinJ]

I thought the idea was to have an healthy option and replace an unhealthy choice, not to have it as an added extra.

A typical day: Porridge for breakfast; a baked potato, tin of tuna and a salad in the evening; the smoothie was in the afternoon and was intended to be a healthy option. It wasn't extra, given that most people eat at least 3 times a day. It was clearly too much though because I was steadily gaining weight.

It makes sense that the problem was due to how easy it was to take the extra calories in compared to chewing and digesting whole fruit.

 

[Oxo]

A typical day: Porridge for breakfast; a baked potato, tin of tuna and a salad in the evening; the smoothie was in the afternoon and was intended to be a healthy option. It wasn't extra, given that most people eat at least 3 times a day. It was clearly too much though because I was steadily gaining weight.

It makes sense that the problem was due to how easy it was to take the extra calories in compared to chewing and digesting whole fruit.

Sorry if I misunderstood your post, I thought that you were having the smoothie as an added extra.

 

[Sandra6]

If you're giving up sugar then you're advised to give up fruit too as the sugars are still bad for you in terms of making your body crave more sugar.
"healthy" packaged foods are more than likely not as healthy as you think. Real food doesn't come in a packet.

 

[Chromatic]

If you're giving up sugar then you're advised to give up fruit too as the sugars are still bad for you in terms of making your body crave more sugar.
"healthy" packaged foods are more than likely not as healthy as you think. Real food doesn't come in a packet.

 

[keithmac]

These are lovely,

 

[Spinney]

If you're giving up sugar then you're advised to give up fruit too as the sugars are still bad for you in terms of making your body crave more sugar.
"healthy" packaged foods are more than likely not as healthy as you think. Real food doesn't come in a packet.

Interesting - as the fruit also gives fibre and various minerals etc - possibly one of the last sources of sugar you should give up?

 

[sarahale]

I have a homemade smoothie every day when I get in from work/cycling. Consisting of 100ml orange juice, a small banana, a portion of blue berries and a few slices of peach.

I wonder if the benefits of the fibre/nutrients outweigh the negative effect on my health?