Bellamys Organic. Understand fruit & vegetable nutrition for Mindful Eating

There seems to be a lot of confusion about “sugar” in the diet and we thought we should try and clarify things a little.

It’s hard to promote a healthy diet through Mindful Eating if we’re not clear on the basics!

When we talk about “sugar”, generally we all think of white table sugar that we see everyday. White sugar is pure crystals of sucrose that are produced essentially by letting the sucrose crystals form from a hot saturated solution of sugar cane or sugar beet juice. The process is similar to getting sea salt from the evaporation of salt-water pools.

Sucrose is only one type of sugar and there are many. One of the most important and one it’s hard to find fault with is fructose, the sugar found naturally in all fruit and vegetables

It’s true that when we eat fruit or vegetables (dried or fresh) the overwhelming majority of the calories are supplied by carbohydrate – mostly in the form of fructose, which is the natural sugar in the fruit. Similarly in milk, the main source of carbohydrate is lactose, which is a milk “sugar”.

But that’s the nature of all plant foods – they’re predominantly carbohydrate (and that means not just natural sugars, but healthy starches as well as structural elements, like cellulose, that provide fibre). The majority of the calories you consume with vegetables come from carbohydrate, too. But you don’t hear people complaining about vegetables being full of “carbs”. Similarly in milk, the main source of carbohydrate is lactose which is a milk “sugar” but we don’t hear people complaining that milk has too much sugar either.

There’s a big difference between the nutritional value of the natural carbohydrates found in fruits and other plant foods – the sugars, starches and fibers – and what’s found (or, more accurately, what’s not found) in all the empty calories we eat from added sugars that find their way into everything. Not all sugars are the same.

As the Glycemic Index (GI) Foundation points out, some sugars, like sucrose, have a high GI and we generally recognise that as a poor choice of dietary carbohydrates. That’s why dieticians discourage “added sugar”. But fructose is a low GI sugar, which means it gives a slow release of energy that sustains the body for longer and does not produce a “sugar spike” in the blood. Mums often see the effects of this spike in their children when they go nuts for a while after a eating a lolly.

As the GI Foundation web site states:

The World Health Organisation (WHO), the highest nutrition authority in the world, has recently stated that all people should eat a high carbohydrate diet based on low Glycemic Index (GI) foods. The GI is determined by actual tests and does not rest on assumptions of what effect a product has on blood glucose.

So what about Bellamy’s Organic Fruit Snacks?

The idea that our fruit snacks are “full of sugar” needs to be put into perspective. We do not add sugar to any of our Snack products and the sugar that is there is natural fructose.

Faced with a serving of fruit, how much sugar are we talking about, anyway? An average orange has only about 12 grams of natural, low GI sugar (about 3 teaspoons) and a cup of strawberries has only about 7 grams – that’s less than two teaspoons. And either way, you’re also getting 3 grams of fibre, about a full day’s worth of vitamin C, healthy antioxidants and some folic acid and potassium to boot – and it’ll only contribute about 50 or 60 calories.

By contrast, a small cola drink contains 225 calories and, needless to say, won’t be supplying any antioxidants, vitamins, minerals or fibre. You’ll just consuming carbonated water, probably some artificial color and flavour, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 grams of added sugar – usually high GI sucrose. Water might be better?

So there you have it. It’s the difference in the sugars that make dieticians exhort us to eat fruit. They know that as part of a balanced diet it’s a healthy, low GI way to get energy and good nutrition.

What about Bellamy’s products? Here are some answers to questions that we’re often asked that might help a little more:

What is the recommended intake for Bellamy’s apple snacks i.e how many packets a week is ok for my child?

The current recommendation for adults and children is to consume a minimum of 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables every day. There is no recommended maximum, although too much of anything is not a good thing for keeping a balanced diet. As a general observation many Australian adults and children do not eat enough fruit or vegetables.

Generally, children aged 4 – 7 have recommended daily intakes of 1-2 serves of fruit and 2-4 serves of veggies. Our 20g packets of apple snacks are the equivalent of 2 small apples. This is about 1-2 serves of the minimum fruit intake recommended for young children.

Are they the same as eating a fresh apple?

Yes, except water is removed. We have tested the product and can demonstrate that the dried pieces have very similar nutrition to fresh pieces. In fact in the same way the concentration of sugar occurs so does the concentration of other beneficial nutrients.

If the moisture is taken out of the apple, does that concentrate the sugar in the apple snacks?

Yes it does per weight but the total sugar content does not. The nutrition information panel information is based on a per 100grams figure. Because the water is removed the percentage of sugar in 100grams does increase on drying but on a per-apple basis does not. If you think of a whole apple being dehydrated, it would be lighter and smaller than the fresh apple but contain the same amount of sugar, vitamins and minerals. Just remember that the packet is the equivalent of 2 small apples and nothing else.

What about your other fruit snacks? Do they have the same sugar levels?

Superbites 5 fruits = approximately 54% natural sugar

Apple and Pear = approximately 66% natural sugar

Apple and Banana = approximately 69% natural sugar

Apple = approximately 80% natural sugar

To find out more about the Glycemic Index and how it can help you with Mindful Eating choices go to www.gifoundation.com

If you’d like to know more about Bellamy’s Organic baby formula, cereals and our other products for older children click on this link. It will take you straight to our on-line store.

Bellamys Organic. Understand fruit & vegetable nutrition for Mindful Eating

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