Granola is healthier than most other cereals

[Aliceisagooddog]

Ongoing argument with dh. He thinks granola is bad because its high sugar. I think it's not as bad as cornflakes etc because it's much less processed, you can actually see what it's made of.
Who's being unreasonable?

I think it depends which granola.

I stick to porridge and add nuts, seeds and some fruit most of the time for breakfast.

That just isn’t true though.

Compare Bran flakes with a mars bar. Compare weetabix with a mars bar. Even compare cornflakes and rice crispies with a mars bar.

Obviously if you are eating honey nut loops or cocopops there will be sugar in them, but most cereals are not that bad. Usually better for you than toast.

Oats give me a big sugar spike (according to Zoe) so I switch them for barley instead. I just do barley, lots of seeds, sultanas and Greek yoghurt and kefir. It’s delicious.

It is true if you look at carbs per 100g not “of which sugars” because it’s all glucose once it’s in your body.

77.7g of carbs per 100g of bran flakes

70g of carbs per 100g of Mars bar

It’s just good marketing and the obfuscation of how nutrition and metabolism works.

All cereal is just sugar in various forms, including granola. It's not as processed, but it's not nutritionally that different if you look at the macros, especially commercially made granola that often has sneaky added sugar.

I always thought there was a significant difference in refined sugar - the white granules you put in tea - and natural sugars like honey, agave and fruit sugars. Natural sweetener = good
Processed sweetener = bad

@Jumpingthruhoops thats just good marketing.

It is all glucose and fructose when you eat it.

I'm not sure that's true. Eating anything in its natural form will always be better than anything processed.

Fruit in general is FULL of sugar but you can eat as much of that as you like!

Table sugar is also 'natural' but is really bad for you.

I think this idea that 'natural' = good and 'processed' = bad is really going too far.

Whole fruit contains a lot of fiber which slows down the absorption of sugar. Also, it's difficult to eat too much of it. You'd probably find it hard to eat 5 oranges in one sitting, but you could easily knock back the equivalent in orange juice, without the fiber to slow down absorption and in liquid form which quickly enters your bloodstream. It has more sugar than fizzy drinks, yet it's touted as a 'healthy natural product'.

White table sugar isn't 'natural' - it doesn't grow like that, it's made into that. Sugar grows as sugar cane. So raw cane sugar - more in its natural state - is better for you than refined white sugar.
Honeys and agave syrups are even better.

don't have the time or money to make stuff from scratch

@Wrennyjenwren you don’t have time to tip some oats in a bowl, add some nuts and seeds and cut up an apple? You could even leave out the nuts and seeds if you can’t afford it. A quarter of an apple and some oats? Surely cheaper than pre made cereal.

Can you tell me how your body processes raw cane sugar in a 'healthier' way than white sugar?

All of the products you mention are very high in fructose, which is a very unhealthy ingredient. How is fructose somehow OK in 'natural' sugar or honey, but bad in white sugar?

And just because a product has been processed does not make it not 'natural'. If that's the case then nothing other than an apple you pluck off the tree and eat there and then is natural. Even washing is a process.

Sugar has no artificial ingredients added, so is therefore a 'natural product'.

A quick Google search says this:

'While table sugar is white, raw sugar is light brown because it is less refined and, as a result, contains more of the natural molasses present in sugar cane.
Table sugar that is made from sugar cane undergoes additional refining to remove molasses.'

It's not about how your body processes it - it's about what you're putting in your body to start with. Food in its most natural state will always be better.

But the 'quick Google' tells us nothing.

Like I said, honey, syrup and raw cane sugar are all very high in fructose, which numerous studies have shown to be very bad for our health. Simply because a product is 'natural' doesn't magically transform fructose into a healthy ingredient. Many extremely potent poisons are 'natural' after all.

Some foods are only digestible because of processing, e.g. olives, all oils. Cooking, which is processing, makes many foods more digestible and/or safer.

The only problem with the low sugar ones are they're full of sweeteners (generally). It's much better to get the maple syrup ones which sadly are now very expensive.

There's a chap near me that supplies really decent granola with dark chocolate and a nice mixture of nuts and seeds. Much better than even the most expensive supermarket ones.

Broadly I'd agree but eating too much fruit is bad for you. Especially as a lot of fruit and some veg have been modified to be sweeter over the last 5 or 6 decades. (Try buying sweetcorn that isn't super sweet).

Also cooking isn't really natural but does improve the digestibility and health benefits of lots of food - such as carrots, which are much better for us cooked (nutritionally, at least).

We're talking about sugar. Which is not.

You can't really consume 'too much' fruit - it's nutrient and volume dense, a little fills you up quickly.

Sugar isn't good for you, obviously. But in its rawest form it's not as bad as refined sugars and/or added sweeteners.
That's all I've been saying.

I get Lizis low sugar granola. It’s not UPF and has only a very small amount of added sugar (less than 3g per 100g).

It’s basic chemistry regardless of your opinion.

Sugar is two molecules… glucose and fructose. Whether that comes from potatoes, honey, carrots, cake, milk and ice cream (lactose) etc. etc. your body doesn’t care. It all becomes sugar.

Every carbohydrate is broken down to simple monosaccharides … glucose, fructose, galactose regardless of the source.

Yes, but you've not explained exactly how it's better. You've simply said because it's 'natural' therefore it must be better.

Raw cane sugar and honey may contain some trace nutrients that white sugar lacks. But the amounts are so tiny as to make no appreciable difference. Your body doesn't really care if the fructose comes in the form of 'natural' maple syrup or 'refined' table sugar.

OK... whatever. I don't need to explain anymore, then, you obviously know better.

Anecdotally, though, I've ditched sugar in favour of natural 'sweeteners' and, guess what, I've lost weight (now 9st) and am in generally better health.
So you can split hairs about what's better if you want - but ditching refined sugar has been better for me. 🤷‍♀️