Why is the Total Sugars number large? Is there any added sugar in LeafSide meals?

Unfortunately this term and number on nutrition labels is confusing, and only recently did the FDA revise the label to separately specify “Added Sugar,” i.e. the chemically processed and separated white sugar/fructose crystals of table/refined sugar. LeafSide never uses any kind of added sugar, thus that number is and always will be ZERO on all our products.

The fructose/sugar in LeafSide meals is only in the form of whole plant foods like berries, mangos, bananas, etc. and thus come packaged with nature’s good stuff: phytonutrients, antioxidants, and above all, fiber.  This “package deal” nature of real food is still being understood, but it’s already clear that eating whole fruit is good for us, and totally different in effects on the body, than eating the same amount of fructose as table sugar.

 

Because words like “sugar” and “fructose” are often used loosely and ambiguously even by health professionals, it’s no wonder that many people have notions like “all sugars are bad for you” and throw whole foods sugars into the same category as ultra-processed white sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.

But there’s abundant science to show that, while ultra-processed sugars do immediate damage to our bodies, at the same time there are no such adverse effects with whole plant foods like fruit — and in fact, in carefully controlled studies it seems there’s no daily upper limit to fruit consumption, and consuming more brings greater health benefits: