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One Grape, Two Grapes? Red Grape, Which Grape?
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline
People like to tell me everything they know about health, nutrition, and foods. Often, it’s a way of bragging or trying to demonstrate to me, a health coach, all they know. One fun fact I frequently hear is how they stay away from grapes because of the sugar. Is that really necessary?
Grapes are a funny one. They’re on virtually every charcuterie board but are more complex than a simple snack or sweet complement. Wine, jelly, jam, raisins and more, all come from grapes! These uses though don’t tell us much about their impact on our health. When it comes to that sugar, are they a great choice or a poor metabolic one?
Starting with nutrition facts, 1 cup of red or green grapes offers 104 calories, .2g of fat, 1g of protein, 27g of carbs of which we have 1.4g of fiber and 23g of sugar.
I think the carb count is why they’ve gotten a bad rap, especially with people focusing on blood sugar control and blood sugar balance. And yes, a net carb of 25/26 is more than we want. If we look at the actual Glycemic Index rating of grapes it ranges from 49–59 which makes it low to medium depending on the kind of grape. We can interpret this as saying, grapes can raise our blood sugar but more likely at a slower or more moderate…
