Why are fruits picked during the day sweeter? Replace sweets with fruits for weight loss - how to do it? What are unsweetened fruits? G. Shelton's list

"Eat more fruits and vegetables." I'm sure you've heard this advice many times. And this is not surprising, because fruits have been consumed by people for thousands of years and have always been considered healthy food. Nature gave them to us, they are natural, there is no need to cook them, they contain a huge amount of vitamins, fiber and other substances useful to humans... At first glance, they seem to be ideal food. Is it really? Let's figure it out.

In recent years, many people have begun to question the health benefits of fruits. The main reason for these claims is that fruits, compared to other whole foods, contain high amounts of fructose.

Fructose: some important points

Sugar (sucrose) and concentrated corn syrup are the main sources of calories in the standard Western European diet. They are both made up of two simple sugars – glucose and fructose.

Our body and every living cell on Earth contains and produces glucose. Glucose is a substance absolutely essential for life. In other words, glucose is the most important source of fast energy for the body.

However, things are different with fructose. The human body does not contain fructose in its chemical composition and does not produce it. Fructose enters our body only from the outside.

Glucose and fructose are metabolized differently in the body. While any cell in our body can use glucose as a source of quick energy, fructose is absorbed only by liver cells.

According to American scientists, a high-calorie diet high in fructose can lead to obesity, the development of type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, fatty liver disease and even cancer. This is explained by the fact that the liver, overloaded with calories and fructose, manages to process only a small amount of fructose into glucose, while the remaining fructose turns into fats. Researchers have proven that excessive consumption of fructose leads to insulin resistance, which ultimately leads to obesity and type II diabetes.

Fructose does not affect satiety in the same way as glucose. We don't feel full and eat more.

So we found out that excessive Eating fructose can lead to obesity and many other serious diseases. Now let's figure out what's going on with fruits.

It is important to understand that...

All of the above does not apply to fruits!

Fruits are not only a product stuffed with fructose. Fruits contain a huge amount of vitamins, fiber, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients (plant compounds that have beneficial effects on our body). Where else can you get a set like this for a paltry 75 calories per serving?

Soluble fiber, found in large quantities in fruits, reduces cholesterol levels, slows down the absorption of carbohydrates, and promotes rapid satiety. Many studies have shown that soluble fiber also helps in weight loss.

What about fructose? We have already found out that consuming fructose in large quantities is harmful to our body. However, it is simply impossible to exceed the permissible amount of fructose by eating fruits.

Before you write off foods that are supposedly full of sugar or too rich in carbohydrates, you should pay attention not only to the amount of sugar contained in the food, but also to the very form of carbohydrates consumed. There is a big difference between the nutritional value of natural carbohydrates - sugar, starch and dietary fiber found in fruits and other plant foods - and the nutritional value of artificially introduced sugars, which are loaded with absolutely everything from cookies to ketchup today.

And then, how much sugar are we talking about when we talk about a serving of fruit? A medium orange contains only 12 grams of natural sugar (about 3 teaspoons), and a cup of strawberries contains only 7 grams (that's less than 2 teaspoons). However, in both cases, you also get 3 grams of fiber, almost a daily dose of vitamin C, healthy antioxidants, and some folic acid and potassium to boot, for only a mere 50 or 60 calories. It’s hard to call it “all sugar.”

By comparison, a can of cola contains about 225 calories and, needless to say, contains no antioxidants, vitamins, minerals or fiber. You'll just be gulping down sparkling water with some coloring and artificial flavors and about 60 grams of added sugar (30 of which is fructose), which is almost 1/3 of a cup to be exact.

The human body is well adapted to absorb small doses of fructose found in nature. While large amounts of sugar (sucrose) are harmful to most people, the same is in no way true of fruits. But all good things should be in moderation!

Modern research proves that fruits have a positive effect on health and should definitely be included in our menu. Make sure you always have fruits and vegetables at home and replenish them on time.

Still, how much fruit can you eat daily?

Healthy men who are not obese can safely eat 3-4 fruits a day, women – 2-3. Anyone who exercises intensively can add 1-2 more fruits to this amount. Nevertheless, the fruit is different from the fruit. In this case, you need to be guided not by calories, but by the glycemic index. The higher this index, the higher the blood sugar level rises, which means the higher the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

Each fruit raises your sugar levels differently. The index is relatively low for apples (54), oranges (63), grapes (66), higher for apricots (82), bananas (94). The highest index is for watermelon (103) and dates (141).

Size also matters. A medium-sized apple has 59 calories, and a large one has 100. Nutritionists advise eating no more than one serving of fruit at a time. One serving is considered to be a fruit containing 60 calories. This could be a medium-sized apple, a slice of watermelon or melon, 10-12 grapes, 1 nectarine, 2 peaches, half a banana, half a grapefruit, 1 tangerine.

• Eat only ripe fruits. Unripe fruits may contain toxic substances.
• Eat fruit only on an empty stomach, always before meals, and never immediately after.
• It is advisable to eat only one fruit at a time. Do not eat sweet and sour fruits together, this will cause severe gas.
• It is best to eat fruits raw. When boiling and baking, many beneficial substances are destroyed. There is not much benefit from canned fruit either.
• After eating the fruit, rinse your mouth with water to preserve the health of your teeth (there is no need to brush with toothpaste).
• Nutritionists recommend eating whole fruits rather than cutting them into pieces, this way more vitamin C is retained.
• The peel should not be peeled; it contains the bulk of dietary fiber, which normalizes blood sugar levels and removes excess cholesterol from the body.
• It is best to store fruit in the refrigerator to prevent vitamin C decomposition.

When should you avoid fruit?

Despite the fact that for most of us fruits are a useful and healthy product, there are several contraindications for which it is worth limiting their consumption.

One of these reasons is fructose intolerance. This type of intolerance often goes hand in hand with lactose intolerance. In people with fructose intolerance, fructose-containing foods are poorly or not absorbed in the intestines, which leads to quite serious health problems. In this case, it is better to avoid eating fruits.

Another reason is following a strict low-carb diet. The main characteristic of such diets is to limit the amount of carbohydrate consumed to the minimum level necessary to maintain brain function. With this diet, carbohydrate intake is limited to 50 g per day, and sometimes even up to 20 - 30 g. Considering that even one fruit can contain more than 20 g of carbohydrates, it becomes obvious that eating fruit easily disrupts the effectiveness of such a diet.

If you do not suffer from fructose intolerance and are not on a low-carb diet, fruit should definitely be included in your diet. But remember, everything good is good in moderation!

To find out whether you can replace sweets with fruits in your diet, you need to understand what both of these options offer that are healthy and harmful. Let's find out how to properly eat fruits instead of sweets so that it gives a positive result in losing weight.

It's no secret that all the salt lies in the amount of food consumed. And the stereotypical opinion “fruits are good, sugar is bad” does not always lead to the right conclusions. So, for example, baked goods and sweets can serve as a quick source of energy in the form of valuable carbohydrates, while fruits will cause weakness, bloating or discomfort if consumed in excess. So don't rush to look for the answer to the question "". First, let's study our question in more detail.

White and fruit sugar - is there a difference?

In the tissues of animals and plants, carbohydrates perform:

Construction and energy functions;

Support immune processes;

Serve as mechanical support inside and outside the cell;

Participate in the synthesis of complex compounds and renewal of structures;

Regulate osmotic pressure, incl. blood plasma;

They are part of receptors and ensure their correct functioning.

Moreover, sugar contains important microelements and even vitamins (of course, there are more of them in fruits). At the same time, if you compare white and brown sugar, it is better to give your preference to the latter. Let's look at the table:

Of course, excessive consumption of sweets has a detrimental effect on health, especially in late adulthood, when the processes of decomposition significantly exceed the processes of synthesis. In one of the articles, we just looked at how to get rid of a common bad habit, like a tradition. Excesses in this case can cause:

Increased blood cholesterol levels;

Platelet aggregation;

Obesity;

Atherosclerosis;

Diabetes;

Weakening of the immune system.

It is believed that a person's daily need for carbohydrates is about 500 g., sweets and sugar at the same time should not exceed 15% from the designated (or used) number. Now let’s compare the table above with such a simple and affordable fruit in our belts as apples:

When should you eat fruit before or after meals?

In addition, plant foods contain fiber, which promotes a feeling of fullness, normalizes appetite and intestinal function. Many fruits help prevent various diseases, reduce cholesterol levels, and have an antioxidant effect. If you are concerned about the question “when to eat fruit: before or after meals?”, the answer is logical and simple - whenever you want. If your body feels a craving for sweets, it means your sugar level is falling, and this is where plant-based sweets will come to the rescue. Otherwise there are practically no differences. However, there are a few nuances that you should know.

1. How to eat fruit correctly?

2. Fruit as a healthy snack

3. Savor with pleasure

So, we conclude: if you are prone to obesity and want to lose weight, you need to exclude sugar from your diet, it is advisable to completely replace sweets with fruits. If your weight is normal, sugar can be beneficial. In which cases? For example, it can be considered part of an athlete's nutrition. After a particularly intense workout, boxers, runners, and cyclists are recommended to take 50 or even 100 g of sugar. The same is true for active mental work. It’s not for nothing that students are advised to take a chocolate bar during the exam, and not half a kilo of apricot. Read in one of our articles about which is scientifically verified. To lose weight without cutting down on sweets too much, you can use a little trick. Namely, sugar substitutes. This is honey, as well as the substances xylitol, sorbitol, and aspartame.

Recipes with fruits

1. Salad “Clean Energy”

2. Salad “Good mood!”

In conclusion, it is worth recalling that the satiation effect after eating plant foods will not come immediately (unlike sweets), but after 15 or even 20 minutes. But it will last longer. Therefore, make a lot of fruit snacks a day, up to 5-6 small meals, but no later than 3 hours before bedtime.

In addition to the above, you can replace sweets with fruit juices and natural sugar-free cocktails. Read one of our articles and which one is better to choose.

Fruits make our lives better. They are sweet, refreshing and delicious. But what is a fruit? Tomatoes are fruits. Cucumbers and avocados too. But we usually don't put them in this category. As it turns out, scientifically speaking, a fruit is the part of a tree or shrub that contains seeds. That is, if it has seeds, then it is a fruit. Then what is a vegetable? And “vegetable” is not a scientific term at all. This is a culinary term. This means that a real scientist would divide the parts of a plant into fruits, roots, stems, leaves, and so on, while your grandmother would most likely divide plants into fruits and vegetables (with fruits being all sweets and vegetables - all the rest). So, now you know everything about fruits and vegetables and you can impress your friends with your knowledge. But get ready to learn a lot more! Because there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of delicious fruits out there in nature that you've never heard of. Today we'll dive into the world of deliciousness with 25 sweet facts about fruits that you didn't know. Apples, peaches and raspberries belong to the Rosaceae family.
Oranges actually contain less vitamin C than many other fruits, such as guava, lychee, kiwi, strawberries and pineapple.
Coffee beans are not actually beans. These are fruit seeds.
If you heat grapes in the microwave, they will explode.
Tomato is the most popular fruit in the world.
Grapefruits interact with certain medications and can be fatal.
In fact, cucumbers are fruits.
The color orange was named after the orange, not the other way around. Previously, this color was called "geolread" in Old English, which means "yellow-red."
The largest fruits grow on the Seychelles Coco De Mer palm trees: their weight can reach almost 42 kilograms.
Pomology is the science of fruit growing.
So, you already know that tomatoes and cucumbers are fruits, but did you know that scientifically, so are beans, avocados, sunflower seeds, lettuce and broccoli buds? This is because a fruit is a part of a plant formed from the ovary of a flower and containing seeds. The remaining parts of the plant are considered vegetables.
Then why do we call many fruits vegetables? Because from a culinary point of view, everything sweet (in general) is considered fruit, and everything else is considered vegetables.
Of course, this rule doesn't always work, which is why sometimes unsweetened fruits like tomatoes are labeled as vegetables because that way of dividing the ingredients is more practical (though less precise).
Enough terminology. Did you know that tomatoes have more genes than humans? There are trees called "fruit salad trees" that can grow from 3 to 7 different fruits... on the SAME tree. This was achieved by grafting two or more plants that grow and function as one.
Some Japanese farmers grow square watermelons.
In total, more than 7,000 different varieties of apples are grown in the world.
Human DNA is 50% identical to banana DNA.
Pineapples and bananas are actually berries.
Let's talk about terminology again. In everyday jargon, berries are typically small, round and juicy. However, from a scientific point of view, berries are fruits grown from the ovary of the pistil, in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into the edible, fleshy part.
When harvested, the fruit does not die. They continue to respond to their environment after this.
After you eat wonderful berries (or sweetish Puteria), sour foods will seem sweet to you (at least for several hours). And all because, according to research, these berries contain the protein miraculin, which “turns off” the receptors responsible for the perception of sour taste.
Not all oranges are orange. If the weather is not cool enough, the chlorophyll in the skin of the fruit is not destroyed and the fruit remains green.
You probably don't really care about the scientific definition of the berry, right? But so that you can surprise your friends, let’s say that, in addition to bananas and pineapples, grapes, eggplants and cucumbers are also berries.
Bananas are slightly radioactive.

Fruits make our lives better. They are sweet, refreshing and delicious. But what is a fruit? Tomatoes are fruits. Cucumbers and avocados too. But we usually don't put them in this category. As it turns out, scientifically speaking, a fruit is the part of a tree or shrub that contains seeds. That is, if it has seeds, then it is a fruit. Then what is a vegetable?

And “vegetable” is not a scientific term at all. This is a culinary term. This means that a real scientist would divide the parts of a plant into fruits, roots, stems, leaves, and so on, while your grandmother would most likely divide plants into fruits and vegetables (with fruits being all sweets and vegetables - all the rest).

So, now you know everything about fruits and vegetables and you can impress your friends with your knowledge. But get ready to learn a lot more! Because there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of delicious fruits out there in nature that you've never heard of.

Today we'll dive into the world of deliciousness with 25 sweet facts about fruits that you didn't know.

25. Apples, peaches and raspberries belong to the Rosaceae family.

24. Oranges actually contain less vitamin C than many other fruits, such as guava, lychee, kiwi, strawberries and pineapple.

23. Coffee beans aren't actually beans. These are fruit seeds.

22. If you heat grapes in the microwave, they will explode.

21. Tomato is the most popular fruit in the world.

20. Grapefruits, when interacting with certain medications, can be fatal.

19. Cucumbers are actually fruits.

18. The color orange was named after the orange ("orange"), and not vice versa. Previously, this color was called "geolread" in Old English, which means "yellow-red."

17. The largest fruits grow on the Seychelles Coco De Mer palm trees: their weight can reach almost 42 kilograms.

16. Pomology is the science of fruit growing.

15. So, you already know that tomatoes and cucumbers are fruits, but did you know that scientifically, so are beans, avocados, sunflower seeds, lettuce and broccoli buds? This is because a fruit is a part of a plant formed from the ovary of a flower and containing seeds. The remaining parts of the plant are considered vegetables.

14. Then why do we call many fruits vegetables? Because from a culinary point of view, everything sweet (in general) is considered fruit, and everything else is considered vegetables.

13. Of course, this rule doesn't always work, which is why sometimes unsweetened fruits, such as tomatoes, are labeled as vegetables because this way of dividing the ingredients is more practical (though less accurate).

12. Enough terminology. Did you know that tomatoes have more genes than humans?

11. There are trees called "fruit salad trees" that can grow from 3 to 7 different fruits... on the SAME tree. This was achieved by grafting two or more plants that grow and function as one.

10. Some Japanese farmers grow square watermelons.

9. In total, more than 7,000 different varieties of apples are grown in the world.

8. Human DNA is 50% identical to banana DNA.

7. Pineapples and bananas are actually berries.

6. Let's talk about terminology again. In everyday jargon, berries are typically small, round and juicy. However, from a scientific point of view, berries are fruits grown from the ovary of the pistil, in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into the edible, fleshy part.

5. When harvested, the fruit does not die. They continue to respond to their environment after this.

4. After you eat wonderful berries (or sweetish Puteria), sour foods will seem sweet to you (at least for several hours). And all because, according to research, these berries contain the protein miraculin, which “turns off” the receptors responsible for the perception of sour taste.

3. Not all oranges are orange. If the weather is not cool enough, the chlorophyll in the skin of the fruit is not destroyed and the fruit remains green.

2. You probably don't really care about the scientific definition of a berry, do you? But so that you can surprise your friends, let’s say that, in addition to bananas and pineapples, grapes, eggplants and cucumbers are also berries.

1. Bananas are slightly radioactive.

Let's consider what connection there is between ripe sweet fruits and a hungry bear. When the fruits ripen, they send a signal to the animals: “Hey, look at me! Here, here! Hey, where are you going? The fruits not only become sweet, they also change color to become more noticeable and attractive. If only no one passed by!

So why are fruits so interested in animals, and vice versa? But let's first understand the interests of the fruits.

Why should fruits be made to be eaten?

Surprisingly, fruits are the ovaries of plants, essentially the same as the ovaries in a woman’s body. The ovaries are the organs where eggs are formed. While women have two ovaries, plants have more. The plant can be literally hung with them. Remember the apple tree in autumn, when golden fruits hang on every branch.

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The healthiest fruits

So, the whole point is this. Plant ovaries are located in flowers, such as apple blossoms. These flowers contain ovules - plant eggs. After pollen fertilizes the ovules, seeds are formed from the latter. The ovary surrounding the seed grows into a fruit. Finally you have an apple with brown seeds inside. Each seed contains enough information to grow a new tree.

Interesting fact: life on Earth has one main task - self-reproduction.

All life on Earth, both animals and plants, has one main task - self-reproduction. Each individual must be confident that both its species and its personal genes will be transmitted and spread far and wide throughout the world. But if you are a blackcurrant bush growing alone in the middle of a large wasteland, then how can you send at least one seed to a nearby meadow, and not drop all the seeds on the road, where they will simply die?

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Fruits - interesting facts

The answer is very simple: you need to use many animals running, crawling and flying past you, capable of carrying seeds to the neighboring meadow and even further. And you pack the seeds in elegant, bright, in a word, irresistible, packaging that no one can pass by indifferently. Everyone will take at least a little with them.

There is a time for everything or the ripening of seeds

The most important thing in life is to do everything on time. It is useless to spread unripe seeds around the world. Therefore, plants use the animals' senses - sight, smell and taste - to force them to pick fruits only when they are ripe, that is, when the seeds are able to sprout.

Let's take strawberries as an example. While the strawberry seeds are growing, the fruits are green and unappetizing; the protective color camouflages them in the leaves and grass. Animals passing by do not notice such strawberries. And if some bear tries an unripe fruit, it is unlikely that the animal will find the hard and bitter fruit tasty. If the bear is not very hungry, then the remaining fruits will remain in place. When the seeds are ready to be planted in the soil, everything changes. The berries become bright red and stand out clearly against the background of green grass - an excellent bait for animals scurrying through the forest. At the same time, the strawberries not only changed color. The berries have become softer and, most importantly, much sweeter. They invite the bears and you and me: “Eat me, try me! It’s so delicious!”