One question that comes up quite frequently among my nutrition clients is how much fruit is it ok to eat. Of course what they’re really asking about is the sugar content in fruit, which, as you can tell from the natural sweetness, is certainly higher than that in vegetables.
It’s important to note that when it comes to eating whole fruit, the sugar that it does contain comes packaged together with lots of really great stuff like dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. In particular the dietary fiber helps to slow down the uptake of sugar into the bloodstream and help keep blood sugar stable.
Fruit juice, on the other hand, has had the dietary fiber removed (ever cleaned out a juicer? All that leftover roughage is what I’m talking about) so the sugar to fiber ratio is vastly different from that of whole fruit. Drinking a glass of orange juice will cause your blood sugar to spike way more than if you’d eaten a whole orange along with a glass of water.
We can say for sure that eating fruit is beneficial and healthy for most people. However, if you’re working on a blood sugar management program for diabetes or pre-diabetes, eating according to the glycemic index, or following a diet such as keto which is very restrictive of carbohydrate intake, you may be curious as to which fruits are the lowest in sugar.
Here are 10 low sugar fruits that you can feel confident about incorporating into your healthy everyday diet!
Note: fruits do vary in size, weight, and sugar content, so the following amounts are based on averages for standard serving sizes.
1. Raspberries
Sweet, delicious red raspberries are like a low sugar gift from mother nature. One cup of fresh or frozen raspberries contains just 5 grams of sugar.
2. Strawberries
Ripe, plump, juicy strawberries are so sweet and delicious you wouldn’t think they’re likely to be low in sugar, but they are! A one cup serving of strawberries yields only 7 grams of sugar.
3. Blackberries
In addition to being super high in antioxidants, blackberries are also a delicious low sugar fruit. Like strawberries, they’ve got 7 grams of sugar per one cup serving.
(Blueberries, unfortunately, don’t make the cut as they’ve got 15 grams of sugar per one cup serving)
4. Grapefruit
This big beefy winter citrus is a good option for a low sugar fruit. A large grapefruit contains 7 grams of sugar per 100 gram serving, or about 8 grams of sugar in a half of a large fruit.
5. Watermelon
Not only is watermelon incredibly hydrating, but it’s also a tasty low sugar fruit. One cup of diced watermelon has just less than 9 grams of sugar.
6. Kiwi fruit
The fuzzy green fruits native to New Zealand are a good low sugar choice with just 6 grams of sugar per fruit. A one-cup serving would contain about 16 grams of sugar, just for reference.
7. Lemons and limes
Although you’re not likely to sit down to a bowl of lime wedges, lemons and limes are both a great option for low sugar fruit with just over 1 gram of sugar per fruit. They’re definitely a great way to add some pizazz to your sparkling water!
8. Cranberries
If you can handle the pucker, fresh cranberries are a great low sugar fruit. They’ve got just 4 grams of sugar per cup. Be aware that most dried cranberries are sweetened, so they’re not a good option.
9. Avocado
Did you know that avocado is technically a fruit? A large avocado only contains about 1 gram of sugar in the entire fruit. Avocado lovers rejoice!
10. Guava
Lastly, this little tropical fruit is a low sugar treat. Guavas contain a little less than 5 grams of sugar per fruit, or 9 grams of sugar in a 100g serving.
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really helpful, mine is slow carb, which basically prohibits all fruit for sugar content in favor of vegetables (I keep forgetting that avocado is a fruit) but these are close enough, thank you, didn’t realize strawberries are low sugar, good to know!