Philosophical Vegan Forum

I saw there were juice boxes in the fridge for my little sister the other day, took one, and saw it had 28 grams of sugar in the box.
So I looked up online the capacity of sugar per day online, and... 25 grams for females? What?

So by this standard, I consume way too much sugar.
One apple has 19 grams of sugar. Jesus f*cking Christ.

I've actually already eaten too much sugar today. Let's see (I already factored in serving sizes):
Toast: 4 grams total
Soup: 4 grams sugar total
Apple: 19 grams sugar total
Glass of hemp milk: 9 grams of sugar total.

That's 36 grams of sugar. o_O

How do you guys keep your sugar intakes adequate? I need to change my ways before I get diabetes or some sh*t.

The standard I hold is 40g max, but I only count added sugars. As fruit/vegetable/legume sugar comes with a lot of fiber, it's not really that much of a problem. Fiber can be seen as the antidote to sugar; it neutralizes many of the negative effects. The problem comes in when you get a ton of sugar without fiber: cake, juice, etc. You really won't get diabetes from eating apples. Apples are relatively unhelpful in the vegan diet, so you could replace them with more nutrient-rich fruits like berries or lower sugar fruits like tomatoes.

miniboes wrote:The standard I hold is 40g max, but I only count added sugars. As fruit/vegetable/legume sugar comes with a lot of fiber, it's not really that much of a problem. Fiber can be seen as the antidote to sugar; it neutralizes many of the negative effects. The problem comes in when you get a ton of sugar without fiber: cake, juice, etc. You really won't get diabetes from eating apples. Apples are relatively unhelpful in the vegan diet, so you could replace them with more nutrient-rich fruits like berries or lower sugar fruits like tomatoes.

Oh, great!

That's too bad; I really like apples.

Alright, I like berries too. I'll replace apples with those.

EquALLity wrote:Oh, great!

That's too bad; I really like apples.

Alright, I like berries too. I'll replace apples with those.

Eat apples if you want. In a high-fiber diet they are relatively unhealthy, but it won't all of the sudden cause you to get scary diseases. The plant-based diets used in the studies that prove how healthy a vegan diet can be often includes high sugar fruits like apples.

Apples got a reputation for being healthy because, for most people eating a terrible diet, an apple is the healthiest thing they might eat all day.

It's all relative to what you would have eaten instead of the apple (opportunity cost).

If an apple is causing people to eat less bacon, then the apple is healthy.
If the apple is causing people to eat less broccoli, then the apple is unhealthy.

If you're eating a lot of veggies, an apple is displacing more healthy food and not providing anything you're missing out on.

Like miniboes said, berries are usually the way to go; much more rich in antioxidants, and comparably lower sugar. Much better treat.

Blackberries are amazing.

Look for the nutrition facts of a fruit. You can search on Google:

Apple nutrition
Or
Blackberry nutrition

And you'll get the nutrition facts on the right side.

Look at a couple things on those two:

Blackberries have more fiber than sugar. Slightly.
Apples have more than four times more sugar than fiber. Ouch!

Comparing these two numbers can tell you a lot.

If a fruit has more fiber than sugar, generally speaking, you can have at it and not worry about how much sugar you're eating.
If a fruit has more sugar than fiber, then beware, and limit consumption.

Blueberries are comparable to apples, but they have more antioxidants in them which make them a little better.
Strawberries have about three times as much sugar as fiber; not as bad as apples.
Raspberries and blackberries are comparable in terms of fiber; both have more fiber than sugar.

Cranberries aren't bad (roughly equal fiber and sugar), but they're low on protein.

With blackberries, if you ate 2,000 calories worth, you'd get enough protein for the day, which is pretty extraordinary for a moderately sweet fruit. Little to no risk of malnourishment there, even if you ate mostly blackberries. With apples, on the other hand, you can become protein deficient pretty easily by relying on them for calories (unless you eat something else that has very high protein, like tofu, and carefully balance your consumption).

I prefer to recommend foods that people don't have to eat in moderation, since most people don't like to track their diets or count calories.
With certain foods, all you need to say is eat these things in some variety, and they're pretty much foolproof -- those are the foods I consider best to recommend.

miniboes wrote: Eat apples if you want. In a high-fiber diet they are relatively unhealthy, but it won't all of the sudden cause you to get scary diseases. The plant-based diets used in the studies that prove how healthy a vegan diet can be often includes high sugar fruits like apples.

Oh, I see. I'll just have them not-to-often. I'm not an addict or anything.

brimstoneSalad-
Oh, I see. Thanks.

That tool is pretty useful, eh? I wonder how it is for pomegranates.
Oh, that's not too good on the sugar front.

That's a really good rule of thumb, Brimstone. Carrots and tomatoes interestingly both have twice as much sugar as fiber, that really won't restrain me from eating them though :p

miniboes wrote:That's a really good rule of thumb, Brimstone. Carrots and tomatoes interestingly both have twice as much sugar as fiber, that really won't restrain me from eating them though :p

That's a little surprising they have that little fiber. Tomatoes in particular are rather low in sugar overall, with more water and protein than other fruits, so it may be a more useful rule for sweet fruits that don't offer as much of other macronutrient content aside from sugar.

Tomatoes have half as much sugar per 100 grams as blackberries, for example. At that point of low sugar content, other things probably become more important.

The main thing I like to look at is, if I ate 2,000 calories of this food, would I get enough protein?
How about minerals? Calcium, iron, etc.?

Tomatoes, yes (very yes). Blackberries, yes.

With most sweeter fruits, that's rarely the case.

Carrots are a little shy, on most fronts. Only 44 grams of protein in 2,000 calories. That's worse than white rice. Although carrots are better in terms of vitamins and minerals, most of those empty calories come from their high sugar content.

I'd recommend potatoes over carrots. Particularly purple ones, since they fulfill much more nutritional need in 2k calories.

The sugar vs. fiber ratio just tells part of the story, but it may be a great quick rule for anything with more than, say, 3%-4% sugar.

You can actually enjoy every fruits but remember to take everything in balance to get rid of too much sugar. Take just half.