Fruit: is it necessary?
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leanitup123
Posts: 489 Member
"EAT 4 SERVINGS OF FRUIT PER DAY BECAUSE HEALTH!!!"
"FRUIT IS GOOD FOR YOU EAT MORE FRUIT!"
"I'M SO HEALTHY BECAUSE I EAST FRUIT!!!"
Okay, okay don't get me wrong... I get that it's "healthy" because of the fiber, vitamins and minerals - but it also has plenty of (natural) sugar. I eat plenty of vegetables but veer away from fruit.
What are your thoughts - is it really necessary to eat fruit every day? I could easily go a week, a month - heck even a year without eating it.
"FRUIT IS GOOD FOR YOU EAT MORE FRUIT!"
"I'M SO HEALTHY BECAUSE I EAST FRUIT!!!"
Okay, okay don't get me wrong... I get that it's "healthy" because of the fiber, vitamins and minerals - but it also has plenty of (natural) sugar. I eat plenty of vegetables but veer away from fruit.
What are your thoughts - is it really necessary to eat fruit every day? I could easily go a week, a month - heck even a year without eating it.
6
Replies
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It has some vitamins that are good for you. And a bit of natural sugar is also good for you to an extent. But I suppose as long as you are getting all the sugar and vitamins you need from another source then you could ignore fruits.4
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I have Oral Allergy Syndrome and cannot eat most fruits. So no it's not necessary for weight loss or life.2
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You can get the nutrients supplied by fruit elsewhere of course, so I would not call omitting it problematic. But since I happen to enjoy fruit myself, It would not be my preferred way to proceed.4
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I hate fruit with a passion. I eat huge amounts of vegetables. I cannot find one nutrient that I'm missing by not eating fruit.6
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Alatariel75 wrote: »I hate fruit with a passion. I eat huge amounts of vegetables. I cannot find one nutrient that I'm missing by not eating fruit.
You and me both. Only fruit I ever eat and enjoy is raspberries or blueberries.2 -
Personally I love fruit. I'd be unhappy if I had to go without it. But I understand that not everyone likes it, or can tolerate it, and that's fine, too. My philosophy is, if it works for you, then you do you, boo.7
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I think one of the most wonderful things about being born an omnivore is that we get to make decisions like this. No, I don't think excluding fruit long term is unhealthy. I do think its important to have vegetables, though, and that to remove those from a diet would be terrible for your health.
My take on fruit: I would be sad without the occasional banana or slice of watermelon.5 -
leanitup123 wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »I hate fruit with a passion. I eat huge amounts of vegetables. I cannot find one nutrient that I'm missing by not eating fruit.
You and me both. Only fruit I ever eat and enjoy is raspberries or blueberries.
The raspberry and blueberry are extremely worthy additions to a person's food plan, and are frequently used as ingredients in many 'not fruit' products.1 -
I adore fruit nowadays (mostly the sweeter stuff like grapes, strawberries and pears) but no, I used to barely eat any of it and I was totally healthy!!
I find pears to be useful as they fill me up, but that job could be done by a whole host of other foodstuffs.2 -
I eat my fruit last which drives my husband crazy. After all they are so good for you. I find if I get behind eating my citrus fruits I'm more vulnerable to sore throats.0
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Ok, fruit contains sugar, and?
Sugar is need in the proper amounts, and it widely changes depending on the type of fruit.
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fpmferreira wrote: »Ok, fruit contains sugar, and?
Sugar is need in the proper amounts, and it widely changes depending on the type of fruit.
Just to clarify something for you - your body does not 'need' sugar, any glucose that the body needs can be manufactured from fat so there are no dietary 'needs' for sugar.7 -
Just to clarify something for you - your body does not 'need' sugar, any glucose that the body needs can be manufactured from fat so there are no dietary 'needs' for sugar.
As you started to be the picky one: The body needs, like you said, glucose. Glucose is a sugar. So technically, the body needs sugar. That it can get this monosaccharide from different sources is a different point.7 -
fpmferreira wrote: »Ok, fruit contains sugar, and?
Sugar is need in the proper amounts, and it widely changes depending on the type of fruit.
Just to clarify something for you - your body does not 'need' sugar, any glucose that the body needs can be manufactured from fat so there are no dietary 'needs' for sugar.
If you want to be really pedantic, you should say that your body doesn't need to ingest sugar. Because your body most certainly does need glucose so much so to the point that if none is ingested, it will make its own.
On the subject of fruit, I don't agree with the demonization of the sugar in it and personally love it, but I don't think it offers anything nutritionally that you can't get from vegetables.
If you don't want to eat it, don't eat it. I don't think this needs to be a polarizing discussion.6 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »fpmferreira wrote: »Ok, fruit contains sugar, and?
Sugar is need in the proper amounts, and it widely changes depending on the type of fruit.
Just to clarify something for you - your body does not 'need' sugar, any glucose that the body needs can be manufactured from fat so there are no dietary 'needs' for sugar.
If you want to be really pedantic, you should say that your body doesn't need to ingest sugar. Because your body most certainly does need glucose so much so to the point that if none is ingested, it will make its own.
On the subject of fruit, I don't agree with the demonization of the sugar in it and personally love it, but I don't think it offers anything nutritionally that you can't get from vegetables.
If you don't want to eat it, don't eat it. I don't think this needs to be a polarizing discussion.
Yes, I should have qualified that with the need to ingest sugar
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fpmferreira wrote: »Ok, fruit contains sugar, and?
Sugar is need in the proper amounts, and it widely changes depending on the type of fruit.
Just to clarify something for you - your body does not 'need' sugar, any glucose that the body needs can be manufactured from fat so there are no dietary 'needs' for sugar.
Not exclusively from fat... glucose can be manufactured from protein - either dietary or body protein (muscle).
We need about 120g-130g of glucose per day (it varies slightly from person to person) for our brain and central nervous system. Except if you are in ketosis, when that amount decreases at a rate of approximately 10% per mmol/l of blood ketones.
Muscles can directly oxidize fat (dietary or body) for energy, so they do not need glucose. However, people who consume glucose (carbs) on a regular basis have muscles that are adapted to be most efficient at using carbs glucose and not fat. This is why it isn't wise to just suddenly stop eating without researching to know what you are doing. Same goes to those eliminating carbs suddenly without doing their research first so that they understand what to expect while muscles adapt to become more efficient at oxidizing fat.
While humans do not need to consume carbs / glucose at all, one should understand certain things before eliminating all carbs. No worries, though... if you only cut fruit from your diet, you will still likely consume a lot of carbs from vegetables, grains, legumes, and certain types of dairy.
*Edit shown above.0 -
I don't think it's necessary. (I do think vegetables are basically necessary although of course you can manage to live even without eating them, and some rare people have problems digesting them.) I also find it annoying that they get grouped together in recommendations or that people read "10 servings of fruit and veg" as meaning 5 servings of fruit and 5 of veg," since I think veg are more important and really those kinds of recs should be fulfilled primarily with vegetables, with fruit as a nice extra. (This could be me being a crank, though.)
I do think the idea that fruit is bad for you or must be limited, because sugar, is an outgrowth of the current demonization of sugar and carbs and should go away. That people think they need to avoid fruit for health is messed up, IMO, and shows that nutrition advice is being communicated poorly.
Some people (although again I think this is rare) may find that they have a blood glucose reaction to some fruits that means they should be limited or not eaten alone. Others may find that they do better on a very low carb diet, so end up limiting fruit as a result, and I think that's fine, of course (although for me the pleasures of in-season, local fruit are not something I would give up, and I think they contribute to a healthy diet).
And obviously some people may have allergies or digestive problems with some foods, some of which may be fruits, and those people should not eat those foods.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »fpmferreira wrote: »Ok, fruit contains sugar, and?
Sugar is need in the proper amounts, and it widely changes depending on the type of fruit.
Just to clarify something for you - your body does not 'need' sugar, any glucose that the body needs can be manufactured from fat so there are no dietary 'needs' for sugar.
If you want to be really pedantic, you should say that your body doesn't need to ingest sugar. Because your body most certainly does need glucose so much so to the point that if none is ingested, it will make its own.
On the subject of fruit, I don't agree with the demonization of the sugar in it and personally love it, but I don't think it offers anything nutritionally that you can't get from vegetables.
If you don't want to eat it, don't eat it. I don't think this needs to be a polarizing discussion.
Yep, all this.0 -
Yesterday I hit over 1,000 grams of produce and around half of that was fruit. I definitely put emphasis on veggies but the fruit breaks things up and adds a bit of variety to my diet.2
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »leanitup123 wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »I hate fruit with a passion. I eat huge amounts of vegetables. I cannot find one nutrient that I'm missing by not eating fruit.
You and me both. Only fruit I ever eat and enjoy is raspberries or blueberries.
The raspberry and blueberry are extremely worthy additions to a person's food plan, and are frequently used as ingredients in many 'not fruit' products.
Flavonoids - extremely beneficial. You don't necessarily have to get these from fruit e.g. if you have an allergy you can still get these via supplementation - teas, pills, etc.0
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