Refined sugar is the type of sugar that you’re likely to add to your coffee or breakfast cereal by the teaspoonful or to cake and cookie recipes by the cupful. It provides sweetness but no nutrition. Fructose, by itself, is no better a nutritional bargain, but if you obtain it from whole-food sources, you’ll get vitamins, minerals and fiber along with your fructose.
Fructose Sources
Fructose, found naturally in fruit and vegetables, also constitutes about half the sugar in refined sugar -- the other half is glucose. Fructose also makes up 42 to 55 percent of the sugar in high-fructose corn syrup, used to sweeten soda and other beverages and foods, according to an article in the April 2011 edition of “Circulation.” All types of sugar can lead to weight gain and clogged arteries. Your body turns sugar into triglycerides, a type of fat that acts similarly to low-density lipoprotein -- LDL, or “bad” -- cholesterol in your bloodstream.
Recommended Intake
To protect your heart health, limit the amount of both refined sugar and fructose in your diet. The American Heart Association recommends that women include no more than 6 teaspoons -- about 100 calories -- of added refined sugar in their daily diets and that men include no more than 9 teaspoons, about 150 calories. You should limit consumption of fructose to 100 grams or less daily if your triglycerides measure more than 150 milligrams per deciliter of blood. Limit consumption to 50 milligrams or less if your triglycerides measure more than 200 mg/dL. Triglycerides higher than 150 mg/dL put you at borderline risk for cardiovascular disease, and triglycerides higher than 200 mg/dL put you at high risk.
Fresh Fruit
Obtain most of your fructose from fruits and vegetables rather than from refined granulated sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Fruits high in fiber and with low to moderate amounts of fructose in them include raspberries, oranges, grapefruit, bananas, apples and pears. Dried fruits and canned fruits contain relatively high amounts of fructose. A cup of raspberries contains 2.9 grams of fructose per 1-cup serving, compared to raisins, which contain four times as much fructose -- 13 grams -- in a 1 1/2-ounce serving.
Added Sugar
A single-serving chocolate bar contains about a full day's supply of refined sugar. And refined sugar also hides in a lot of processed foods, including pizza sauce and ketchup. Check food labels. If sugar in any form tops the list of ingredients, the food probably contains more sugar than you need. A teaspoon of sugar equals about 4 grams. Four pieces of strawberry-flavored licorice contains 15 grams of sugar, or about 4 1/2 teaspoons.
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