Fruit Salad

Food · Fruit · Food, Typed Supps

Drain it and you pour away some of the vitamin C; keep the juice and you keep the sugar too.

Stage by stage

Intake (Pre-softened by canning): Heat processing has already softened the cell walls, so little chewing is required.
Digestion (Fast gastric transit): Free sugars in solution need almost no digestion and leave the stomach quickly.
Absorption (Split between fractions): Vitamin C and folate travel with the juice; beta-carotene and fibre stay with the solids.
Large intestine (Colonic fermentation): Remaining fibre is fermented by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids.

Time to effect

Under an hour: Blood glucose rises within roughly 15 to 30 minutes, fastest from the juice alone.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

163 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

1.1 kg CO2e and 199 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Other fruit" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £3 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Vitamin C
Fibre
Beta-carotene
Folate

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 48
Protein: 0.7g
Carbohydrate: 10.4g
of which sugars: 9.8g
Fat: 0.1g
of which saturated: 0g
Fibre: 1.4g
Sodium: 4mg

Food vs. supplement

A vitamin C tablet supplies far more ascorbate than any tin of fruit, and if that single nutrient is the goal it is the cheaper route. What the tin gives that the tablet does not is fibre, potassium, carotenoids and a fruit serve — which is the whole reason to eat it.

Kitchen tip

If you want the fruit without the sugar load, drain it and rinse briefly — you lose a little more vitamin C but cut the free sugars substantially. If you want the nutrition, use the juice in the same dish rather than pouring it away, in porridge or over yoghurt.

Common myth

"Canned fruit has had all the goodness processed out of it." In reality: Fibre, potassium and beta-carotene survive canning largely intact, and packing in juice adds no sugar. Most of the vitamin C that goes 'missing' has simply moved into the liquid in the tin.