JamesG said:JMW,
I like the taste of honey. Which fresh fruit is a question I would
have for him, it seems like he is just eating fruit cups and drinking
watered down juice all day. Sugar of any kind will be a source of
calories and since he is wanting to trim down should be limited to only
nutrient rich foods. If it is vitamin C he is looking for he would be
better off drinking pure water and taking a tablet than drinking
watered down fruit juice if he is wanting to trim down.
You seem like a decent and helpful guy, so I'll avoid being a [censored].
To a large extent, sugars are sugars. Good old table sugar, sucrose,
has been accused of many evils. Most of that is because some people
treat it as their main food group. As sugars go, even sugars
contained in wholesome, all-natural, organically-grown fruit, it ain't
bad. In fact, people with irritable bowel syndrome who have
difficulty absorbing fructose through the intestinal epithelium don't
seem to have as much of a problem with the 50% fructose fraction from
sucrose. Nobody is really sure why that is.
If you like honey for the taste, that's fine. I do, too. As a sugar
source, it's a little higher on the fructose fraction than the
glucose. Studies are showing that too much fructose (including fruits
with a high fructose fraction, like apples and pears) can be
problematic. However, people should not confuse that with "high
fructose corn syrup (HFCS)." Plain corn syrup is essentially pure
glucose. Adding fructose makes it "high fructose." Most HFCS in
consumer products is HFCS-42 (42% fructose) or HFCS-55 (55% fructose),
which gives it approximately the same fructose fraction as sucrose.
HFCS-90 (90% fructose) is generally limited to powdered drink mixes.
Simply put, HFCS-42 contains less of a fructose fraction than sucrose,
and HFCS-55 contains about the same fructose fraction as honey, which
has about 29 grams of glucose and 35 grams of fructose per 100 grams.
Sometimes an infusion of sugar is good, particularly in the time
surrounding training, and even more so when combined with amino acids
(i.e., proteins that are quickly broken down and absorbed). Highly
glycemic sugars are best for that, but plain old sucrose will work
just fine. That's what some of the top researchers use.
Sugar is also good for increasing leptin levels as adipose tissue
decreases because insulin-mediatated glucose uptake seems to improve
serum leptin levels. That's why occasional sugary refeeds are good
for those on hypocaloric diets.
Consuming sugar all the time, particularly with a lot of fat, is not
good. I don't need to tell you what happens when your diet consists
of cake, cookies, and chocolate.
BTW, you might also say that natural fruit has dietary fiber, and
that's true. However, it's not the only way to get dietary fiber, and
there are better sources.
I hope that was informative. It was about as non-confrontational as I
can be.
