Sugar Content In Fruit: How to Keep An Eye On The Fructose Content

Fruit is healthy, no question. But if you eat too much of it, you can fall into the sugar trap. Because sweet fruits sometimes have a considerable content of fructose – and therefore many calories.

Fruit & sugar content: low is better

Fructose, the fruit sugar in fruit, has been talked about. What sounds healthy is just as harmful in large quantities as table sugar – according to the latest findings, even more harmful. In contrast to glucose, fructose is more difficult for the body to use as an energy source and is more easily converted into fat, which then ends up on the hips. In addition, high sugar content in fruit inhibits the feeling of satiety. We eat more than we actually need. Many nutrition experts see the artificially added fructose, which is used by the food industry in many convenience foods, as a major problem. However, you should be aware of which types of fruit have the highest sugar content. Just as it is part of the kitchen basics to know which types of fruit belong in the fridge.

Overview: Low and high sugar fruits

Some types of fruit contain very little, others a lot of fructose. You can find out basic information about the types of fruit from the expert. The sugar content can be found in the following shortlists:

Examples of low sugar are:

• Berries (especially strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries)
• watermelon
• apricots
• peaches
• Lemons
• watermelon
• Grapefruit
• guava
• papaya

Examples of fruit with a high sugar content include:

• pineapple
• grapes
• tangerines
• lychees
• apples
• bananas
• figs
• mangoes
• dates

Fruit with little sugar is particularly important for overweight people, people with little exercise, and diabetics. Incidentally, you can also control this via the degree of ripeness: A fresh banana, for example, has significantly less sugar than an overripe one. The sweeter, the higher the alcohol content in the fruit, although this is negligible. Your best bet is to get a full table of the sugar content of each fruit and hang it in the kitchen. An app also provides you with quick and comprehensive information about low-sugar fruit.

Vegetables as an alternative

There is no such thing as fruit without sugar. If you want to pay particular attention to a low intake, you can alternatively use vegetables. Although cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, etc. are not completely free of the sweet substance, the content is significantly lower. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) estimates an average energy content of 20 kcal per 100 g for vegetables and 50 kcal per 100 g for fruit – so you can eat more than twice as many vegetables as fruit to get the same value. The “five a day” recommendation is therefore to eat three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit.