Cotton Candy Grapes Are Too Good To Be True

These tiny green bursts of sweetness have taken the term "nature's candy" to a whole new level. In 2013, a small farm called the Grapery invented a new variety of the crop called the "Cotton Candy grape." Each juicy bite pops open an explosion of sugary-sweet cotton candy flavor. Each year since, when August hits and the grapes arrive on the shelves, consumers have flocked to stores and bought out entire shelves of this natural confection, lamenting only the frighteningly short season in which the candies grow.

The treats are known for being bewitchingly healthy, despite their sweet taste. All of the sweet, with none of the consequences? It sounded too good to be true. I mean, you're eating all the healthiness of a grape, yet it tastes like circus candy.

Except that now we're discovering that isn't entirely true — as it turns out, cotton candy grapes are way less healthy than the normal green ones.

Don't start crying over the crop just yet. There are a few healthy attributes of the sickeningly-sweet fruits, including their antioxidant-rich juices, the natural sugars inside, and their fiber-filled skin. Additionally, the crops are 100 percent natural, non-GMO, and cultivated from simple breeding practices — no artificiality required.

But the fact of the matter is that added sweetness always comes with a cost. And in this case, it's the nutrition.

While a typical cup of grapes contains around 62 calories and 15 grams of natural sugar, a cup of cotton candy grapes has approximately 100 calories and 28 grams of sugar. That's almost twice as much sugar — which makes sense, considering there's almost twice as much sweet flavor.

Sure they're still a healthy food filled with valuable nutrients; they're just going to cause a much more significant spike in blood sugar than their average-flavored counterparts. Speaking of produce disappointments... Here are 11 other fruits and vegetables that aren't all that great for you.