Large amounts of sucralose; frozen/canned fruit; raw vegetables/fruit

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Jordan, hope you’re well. I had a few questions that I didn’t seem to find much on when I used the forum search. Would be great if you have time to answer these.

  1. I noticed that these days I’m using what seems to be quite a bit of sucralose for daily food prep. I’d say that per day I easily use at least 8 of those 1g packets you get from Splenda or grocery store generic brand, probably upper limit around 15 g/day. My other artificial sweetener intake is probably mostly from diet sodas. I’m not actually sure if one would call this “high” intake, but in any case is there any reason at all to be concerned about this level of sucralose intake? If not is there some kind of upper bound I should try to keep in mind?

  2. Lately I’ve switched to mostly eating frozen fruit (usually pre-sliced frozen strawberries) for convenience and minor cost savings. The only preparation that I do is brief microwaving for thawing (plus some of the sucralose I mentioned above). Is there any reason to expect that fruit that’s been frozen and/or had some “processing” like slicing would be less beneficial than fresh/unsliced? Other examples of “processed” fruit that I eat would be cans of whole/crushed/diced/pureed tomatoes that I use a lot in cooking.

  3. I’ve been eating at least 4 servings of vegetables a day, usually in the form of completely unprepared baby carrots because I’m admittedly a bit of a picky eater and I find them pretty tolerable and don’t want to put a more effort into preparing them. Is it at all more beneficial to cook vegetables in some way or does eating them raw pretty much confer all benefits?

Sorry if these are a bit silly but have seen mixed info on this and would rather go to a source I trust.

Thanks very much!

2

Jnzk,

Thanks for the post. I’ll dive right into your questions.

  1. I don’t think that consuming a lot of sweetened foods is a good idea long-term anyway. That said, I don’t have a problem with artificial sweeteners per se’, nor would I put a limit on it. This is especially true for zero Calorie beverages. I still would aim to, over some period of time, consume a diet without much sweetened food.

  2. Some canned and frozen fruits are processed, yes. You’ll have to look at the ingredients list for evidence, e.g. added sodium, sugar, and/or fat. Barring those additives, I think it’s fine.

  3. Yes, cooking foods makes the nutrients easier to absorb and use. I would advocate for not only a bit more variety here, but also cooking (or pre-cooked) vegetables.

-Jordan

3

Hi Jordan,

Thanks very much for the info. I’m wondering if you could clarify why a diet without a lot of sweetened food is better in the long term if the sweeteners themselves aren’t the issue?

-Jon

4

Jordan, I understand minimizing added sugar intake, but could you elaborate on why you would try to eat minimal sweetened food (including artificially sweetened food) over time? Does your concern pertain to stimulating appetite?

5

In general, people who eat a lot of sweetened foods will eat too many Calories for a variety of reasons, such as the diet tending to be high in processed foods, reduced satiation from sweetened foods, and so on. There are ways to get around this with very specific dietary patterns- similar to the one you’re describing- but that’s not the norm.

1 Like
6

I see, makes sense. Thanks a lot for your time!