Sugar in fruit and sugar in processed foods are not the same. Fruits contain sugars known as fructose and glucose. When these sugars are combined, the result is sucrose (commonly called table sugar or white sugar). Sucrose occurs naturally in almost all plants but is especially abundant in sugarcane, sugar beets, sugar maple sap, dates, and honey. Sucrose is produced commercially (mostly from sugarcane and sugar beets) for use as an industrial sweetener that can be added to foods and beverages. Processed sugar is concentrated and refined and thus has been exposed to various factors, including reagents and chemical reactions that remove colorants and that facilitate crystallization.
Although sucrose is found in most plants, with few exceptions (e.g., sugarcane, sugar beets) it does not occur in very high concentrations. Thus, the major sugars—fructose, glucose, and sucrose—generally are not very dense in fresh fruits. A medium-sized apple, for example, contains about 19 grams of sugar.
By contrast, soft drinks and sweets are very dense in processed sugar. A chocolate candy bar contains, on average, about 35 grams of sugar, while one soft drink can have as many as 39 grams of sugar. In addition, whereas fruits contain many other nutrients, like vitamin C, and fiber, sweets lack these healthy components. The relatively low sugar levels, in combination with fiber and other nutrients, help guard against sudden increases in sugar in the blood, which is important for people with diabetes.
Of course, eating too much fruit is not necessarily healthy either. And watch out for dried fruits and fruit juice—sugar concentrations are higher in dried fruits compared to fresh fruits and also in fruit juices with added sugars.