Hi all! This is my first post here. I had a couple of questions I couldn't find answers to on google so I found this site. It looks like it might be a good resource for newbie questions so I signed up. OK, here goes:
I've been trying to understand refined sugar and why it is bad for you. I have a background in chemical engineering but not in biochemistry or nutrition and I wanted to get a little deeper understanding. I've learned online that refined sugars are all bad for you, no matter whether it is sucrose, fructose, corn syrup or whatever. This is because the sugar is stripped of any fiber, which would otherwise slow down the body's use of that sugar. Without the fiber the sugar rushes into our system spiking and crashing blood sugar levels and doing a myriad of other bad things to your body. I read that while fructose in a grapefruit is good for you it is also bad for you if that fructose is refined and then added back into grapefruit juice, rather than being consumed as the original fruit.
That leads me to my first question. I purchased a cold pressed, non pasteurized grapefruit juice from whole foods the other day. There was nothing but pure juice with the pulp. The label said it had x grams of sugar but also 0 g of fiber. I had read online that the fiber in fruit physically binds up the fructose so that it is more slowly available to your body. If that is the case, I don't understand how simply squeezing the fruit juice would separate the fiber from the sugar. I ask because I like to drink lots of fluids but I want to be sure that if I drink juice that the sugar is bound up. I was drinking nearly a half gallon of black currant juice from whole foods every day because the label originally said "no added sugar." It no longer says that and it appears there is now processed sugar added. So is this any different from me drinking "natural" grapefruit juice if the fiber is gone? One website simply advised not to drink any juice. I was hoping that at least fresh squeezed juices would be more like eating the whole fruit.
Second question. Are drinks like Gatorade bad to drink when you are exercising, playing tennis in heat, etc? Their pitch is that it replaces minerals/electrolytes and sugars/carbs that you are losing during the activity. I know some tennis players will eat a banana before a match, but what about the idea that you need more energy while doing the workout and that you will "burn it off" right away? Does that make it "OK" to consume the sugars if they really are going to be used for more energy?
Hope that makes sense and wasn't too wordy!
I've been trying to understand refined sugar and why it is bad for you. I have a background in chemical engineering but not in biochemistry or nutrition and I wanted to get a little deeper understanding. I've learned online that refined sugars are all bad for you, no matter whether it is sucrose, fructose, corn syrup or whatever. This is because the sugar is stripped of any fiber, which would otherwise slow down the body's use of that sugar. Without the fiber the sugar rushes into our system spiking and crashing blood sugar levels and doing a myriad of other bad things to your body. I read that while fructose in a grapefruit is good for you it is also bad for you if that fructose is refined and then added back into grapefruit juice, rather than being consumed as the original fruit.
That leads me to my first question. I purchased a cold pressed, non pasteurized grapefruit juice from whole foods the other day. There was nothing but pure juice with the pulp. The label said it had x grams of sugar but also 0 g of fiber. I had read online that the fiber in fruit physically binds up the fructose so that it is more slowly available to your body. If that is the case, I don't understand how simply squeezing the fruit juice would separate the fiber from the sugar. I ask because I like to drink lots of fluids but I want to be sure that if I drink juice that the sugar is bound up. I was drinking nearly a half gallon of black currant juice from whole foods every day because the label originally said "no added sugar." It no longer says that and it appears there is now processed sugar added. So is this any different from me drinking "natural" grapefruit juice if the fiber is gone? One website simply advised not to drink any juice. I was hoping that at least fresh squeezed juices would be more like eating the whole fruit.
Second question. Are drinks like Gatorade bad to drink when you are exercising, playing tennis in heat, etc? Their pitch is that it replaces minerals/electrolytes and sugars/carbs that you are losing during the activity. I know some tennis players will eat a banana before a match, but what about the idea that you need more energy while doing the workout and that you will "burn it off" right away? Does that make it "OK" to consume the sugars if they really are going to be used for more energy?
Hope that makes sense and wasn't too wordy!
