When consumed in excessive amounts, fructose is bad for your health. But fruits are a special case.
- A French person consumes an average of 35 kilos of sugar per year.
- Fructose is found in fruits and honey.
- Santé Publique France recommends eating one or two pieces of fruit a day.
Sugar is naturally present in certain foods, but for several years it has been found in the composition of a vast number of products. It is a key ingredient in processed foods, but when consumed in excess, it is associated with various metabolic diseases such as diabetes or obesity. Often it is used in the form of white sugar, which is made up of glucose and fructose. The latter is present in the fruits. In an article published in Tea Conversationtwo researchers from the University of Barcelona, Juan Carlos Laguna Egea and Marta Alegret Jorda, explain why we can eat fruit without fear, even if it is rich in fructose.
Fructose, the most dangerous sugar?
According to’World Health Organization, you should not exceed 25 grams of sugar per day, the equivalent of 6 teaspoons. This limits the risk of dental problems and overweight or even obesity. “The increase in consumption of food products rich in sweeteners leads, in parallel, to an increase in the absorption of calories, recall Juan Carlos Laguna Egea and Marta Alegret Jorda, in The Conversation. Calories which, if not burned, accumulate in the form of fat in the body and will promote the development of metabolic diseases.
But they underline a paradox: fruits are rich in fructose, and yet they are part of the balanced diet recommended by health professionals. “Fructose converts very easily to fat in the liverthe authors point out. For the same amount of fructose and glucose, the former will produce more fat in the liver.” In short, an excess of fructose is more likely to have harmful effects on health, compared to other sugars. But eating a fruit or a prepared dish is not the same thing: when we eat a fruit, we also absorb fiber and all the other nutrients present. This composition of fruits makes fructose less harmful. “The fructose contained in the fruit is incorporated slowly and associated with many other elements in our body, continue the researchers. This allows our intestinal cells to absorb and consume the vast majority of the fructose that arrives. So that in the end, only a very small part of it reaches the liver via the blood to be transformed into fat..”
A matter of form
This transformation of sugar into fat depends largely on the form of the sugar: when it is liquid, and not accompanied by other nutrients, it is not absorbed by the intestinal cells and is transformed into fat in the liver. “Consuming fruit is obviously goodspecify Juan Carlos Laguna Egea and Marta Alegret Jorda. Because we crunch them, chew them, mix them with other foods to make them easier to digest.” On the other hand, they advise against fruit juices, in particular those without pulp, which will be absorbed too quickly.
