All sugars are not the same!

Here at iHeartFruitBox we aren't just a fruit store. We are a community founded on the principles of health and wellness, and our mission includes making the resources you NEED to live a healthier life easily accessible. 

This week, we want to bring focus to a very common misconception: 

The sugar in fruit is not interpreted by the body in the same way that refined/processed sugars are!

Eating whole, plant-based foods rich in healthy nutrients is a major key to living a healthy and long life. Still, how many of us are going to reach for an fresh fruit instead of a candy, soda or even fruit juices?

By now, you must have heard all the bad talk about sugar. Processed foods filled with refined sugars are unhealthy and will cause you health issues in the long run. However, all sugar is not the same.

When we eat foods that naturally contain sugar, such as fruit, in their whole form, they contain valuable nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that refined sugars do not. This causes multiple steps that the body has to take to digest and extract the sugar from that whole food. These steps allow its nutrients to be absorbed later down in the digestive tract. The additional steps required to digest whole food, cause a slow increase and stabilization of sugar in the bloodstream and a controlled insulin response.

When you eat refined sugar or drink the juice from the fruit, you are not consuming the fiber. If you consume fruit as a smoothie, it is already mechanically processed and partially broken down. In both cases, it means that they will pass through your system faster, and glucose (fructose) will absorb into your bloodstream at a faster rate. That causes a rapid blood sugar spike, which will cause an insulin spike and eventually rebound hypoglycemia.

Eating a variety of fruit each day is not only good for your overall health, but it is also delicious! Our iHeartFruitBox Tropical Variety Box allows you to reap the benefits of the different micronutrients found in a broad variety of fruit.