Best Fruity Fiber

Having recently purchased a bunch of fruits (red grapes, cherries and apples) in Chinatown at deep discounts, I was curious to learn what was the best value not only in terms of price discount but also in terms of fiber vs sugar.

So what did I get?

Five apples for $1, 2 boxes of 454 g of red grapes for $1 and one big box of cherries (1.36kg) for $5. The apples are quite large (#4174 Royal Gala from Chile / Frusan), the cherries are labeled as Okanagan Sunrise Canada No. 1 and the grapes are Mexico No. 1 Illume; however, in Chinatown stores often pick select good fruit manually, often using different packaging than the original. The question on my mind is which provides the most fiber for the least sugar burden.

So I started a Google Spreadsheet.

It looks like with these deals, I paid $0.05/g of apple fiber (aka fibre), $0.13/g of grape fiber and $0.12/g of cherry fiber. Apples and cherries are comparable in terms of fiber at 2.4%, 2.17% respectively, but grapes leave much to be desired, with only 0.93% fiber. Apples and grapes are close in terms of Glycemic Index at 44 and 50, respectively, while cherries sit on top at a mere 29.

The prices for grapes should be easy to track, but at this time in the season, most of Chinatown sells at $0.99/lb while Loblaws has them “on sale” at $2.14/lb. Meanwhile, Loblaws has dropped in the list of “repsected grocers” from the 8th place to the 13th, while its discount brand No Frills fell to 5th right behind Food Basics, previously at 9th (msn-vtd).

Adult males need about 38g of fiber per day while females need 25g (hl-22). Most raw fruits and vegetables contain significant amounts of fiber, and especially chickpeas, lentils, split peas, oats, apples, pears, almonds, chia seeds, Brussels sprouts, and avocado.

It is worth remembering that fruits alone cannot sustain a healthy body and mind. While even Steve Jobs reportedly went through a “fruitarian” phase, a more recent tragic case of an “influencer” who died following her extreme diet is a cautionary tale (ft-zhdrt).

Sources / More info: ls-grapes, hl-apples, vwf-cherries, GI, hl-22, mc-chrt, ft-zhdrt, msn-vtd

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