Question: The smoothies you buy at health food stores still contain plenty of grams of sugar. Is that actual sugar or natural sugar that is okay for you? Help!
Let’s assume you’re talking about Naked Juice’s smoothies just for kicks. These smoothies have an average of 20g of sugar (mainly in the form of FRUCTOSE) per serving at two servings per bottle for an average of 40g sugar per bottle.
Now about sugar. Sugar isn’t really “OK for you” in any form with one major exception which I’ll get to in a moment. Sugar is nearly always shuttled to storage (i.e. weight gain). This goes for HFCS (high-FRUCTOSE corn syrup), FRUCTOSE (fruit sugars), and SUCROSE (table sugar) all of which can be as abundant in fruits as they are in many processed foods. The catch with fruit and with smoothies like Naked Juice Smoothies is that there is some dietary fiber in them which slows consumption of the sugars but not by much and they’re still net negative to your health.
Over-consumption of these sugars can lead to weight gain, diabetes, and worse. Not trying to scare you of course – most people just suffer weight gain when it comes to sugar intake though the number of people (particularly Americans) suffering diabetes is climbing last I checked.
Now the exception I mentioned previously is Dextrose (i.e. D-glucose). After intense exercise or athletic performance, Dextrose is a MUST in order to replenish your muscle glycogen stores. Unlike the sugars above, Dextrose (in limited quantities) is actually a critical part of bodily functions including protein metabolism and vitamin production.
More general facts on sugar: http://caloriecount.about.com/sugar-facts-nf269
More on Glucose (i.e. Dextrose): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose
(Guest Writer: Life Coach and Blog Writer, Sean Masters)
