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Comment by trustfundbaby | Hacker News Reader

I'm actually curious about what this says about consuming fruits in large amounts ... since they are pretty much all fructose.

Some folks I know (I did for a bit) consume fruits with gusto, erroneously thinking they don't have effects close to what refined sugars have on the body

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According to the National Soft Drink Association, average daily consumption for U.S. males age 12 to 29 is about half a gallon of soda per day. There was no data on how much of that is diet soda, but even assuming half of the consumption is sugar-free that's about 66 grams of fructose (just the fructose, not all sugars) per day.

That person would have to eat 11 apples every single day to match the fructose intake in soda alone.

I'm curious how much fruit are you referring to?

I believe Lustig says the fiber in the fruit reduces the amount of sugar absorbed by our bodies.

However, he also says that sweet fruits in large quantities can still be bad for us.

There is an argument to be made that modern fruits have been bred to be sweeter, which is worth examining. Also, it is well known in the "paleo" community that fruit should be avoided when trying to get lean (~10-11% body fat for men) - and this is related to fructose and/or its affect on blood sugar. Last point is a type 1 diabetic, now doctor, eats no fruit and this was a very important step for him to maintain healthy blood sugars and get healthy - Dr. Richard Bernstein (he runs a diabetes clinic in NY). I believe that modern fruit eaten is large quantities isn't so benign.

I wonder this as well. Lustig seems to say that fruit is fine - the sugar in fruit is nature's way of getting you to eat the healthy fibre or some such - but I've yet to see a scientific explanation of why sugar is bad but sugar in fruit is OK. Sure there are good things in fruit, but if sugar is bad then surely you'd be better off getting those good things from other sources, like vegetables.

Sugar isn't 'bad', too much sugar is bad. Lustig says that the sugar in fruit is fine, and is the same sugar found elsewhere. It's fine in fruit because it's wrapped up in a fiber package, that prevents your body from absorbing most of it.

Check the Wikipedia article for fructose for a breakdown of how much sugar is Glucose, Fructose and Sucrose in some common fruits. There's not as much fructose as you might have thought. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose

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