Fruit: is it necessary?

Packerjohn

TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »

Cost prohibits fresh fruit in my area (for me). I take a multi along with a vit C w/ flavonoids from Costco.
Why does the government subsidize corn and wheat but not fruit?
I simply will not pay $1.50 for an apple. Not worth it.

Yet how many people gleefully hand starbucks $5 a couple times a day for a coffee drink?

ccruz985

I definitely don't think it's necessary as long as you're getting those same nutrients from other healthy(ish) food sources.

Christine_72

Clawsal wrote: »

I love fruit. I have a sweet tooth and fruit provides a low-cal snack. Just by switching cookies, ice-cream, chocolate, cake etc for fruit, I decrease my calorie intake by quite a bit. Today I ate a pound of watermelon.
I don't believe sugar in fruit is bad for you.
Do you need to eat it? No, eat what works for you.

Edit: tasty fruit does get a bit expensive though

It's winter here, so after finishing my watermelon and cantaloupe that i have left, I'm quitting it til summer rolls around again.
They just don't taste the same and are no where near as good as they are in summer. And the kicker is, 1 small cantaloupe and a quarter piece of watermelon costs me a minimum of $15 right now I really need to kick this habit, it's sending me broke and totally not worth the diluted taste.

Alatariel75

Sloth2016 wrote: »

theresejesu wrote: »

<snip>
I can tell you from my own personal experience having gone full keto this past week and a half, I feel a steady sense of energy, started losing a lb a day, and I feel satiated with little to no snacking and I don't miss the carbs one bit.
<snip>

(And yes, I am seeing signs of age reversal too. )

Amazed that aging can be reversed with a week and a half of keto, actually.

Amazing. At this rate, you'll be ready to crawl back in the womb by Christmas.

sympha01

If you don't like fruit and you eat plenty of vegetables, you don't have to eat fruit.

If you want to avoid fruit because OMG SHOOGAR IS EEEEEVIL fine, more fruit for me.

Bottom line: DON'T EAT THE FRUIT. IT ALL MINE.

kimny72

I don't think you need to eat fruit to be healthy, as long as you are eating a wide variety of veggies. However, as many people don't eat anywhere near enough produce, I think demonizing fruit due to "sugar" is unhealthy.

Personally, my philosophy is that if delicious things grow on trees I'm gonna eat them .

theresejesu

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Sloth2016 wrote: »

theresejesu wrote: »

<snip>
I can tell you from my own personal experience having gone full keto this past week and a half, I feel a steady sense of energy, started losing a lb a day, and I feel satiated with little to no snacking and I don't miss the carbs one bit.
<snip>

(And yes, I am seeing signs of age reversal too. )

Amazed that aging can be reversed with a week and a half of keto, actually.

I think you completely misunderstood. Sorry if I was not clear. I didn't say that.

That picture is too funny!

OliveGirl128

04hoopsgal73 wrote: »

I enjoy seasonal fruits. Berries r one item I want year round and pay dearly for blueberries in the winter.
I eat more veggies now so I'm eating less fruit. Seasonally things change, watermelon in the summer is dessert to me. Baked apples with cinammon in the Fall is dessert to me and so on.

If you use blueberries in smoothies and in baking you can flash freeze them when they're in season/cheap-it's really easy to do

Christy1977Z

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

T1DCarnivoreRunner

Christy1977Z wrote: »

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

Fructose from whole fruit raises BG just as quickly as other net carbs (slightly faster than some, slightly slower than others; but not significantly different compared to anything else). As someone who has observed my own 24/7 BG changes for years with all kinds of foods, I'm going to let you in on a secret: The glycemic index is over-sold and is truly only observable when measured in clinical conditions with clinical controls. If you want to slow conversion of carbs to glucose, changing the type of carb is going to do very little to help. What makes a much bigger difference is pairing those carbs with macronutrients that take much longer to digest - the most effective macro to pair with is fat. Even then, it takes a lot of fat to make a noticeable difference. Restaurant pizzas are the best example and beat fast food fries by a whole lot, though fries are still going to take longer than fruit to impact BG (not by a huge amount, still).

As to whether it is possible to "overeat fructose" - yes, it is. Of course, that depends on how you define "overeat." To someone who believes there is no level of fruit consumption that can ever be considered overeating, then it is impossible to overeat fruit, by definition. More practically, if overeat is defined based on calorie intake and output, I can tell you with certainty that it is possible to overeat fructose. If the definition is based upon the existence of glucose spikes, I can also tell you with absolute certainty that it is possible to overeat fructose.

scarlett_k

I love fruit and it's full of good stuff. But nk you don't have to eat it if you have an otherwise varied diet including plenty of different vegetables.

OliveGirl128

midwesterner85 wrote: »

Christy1977Z wrote: »

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

Fructose from whole fruit raises BG just as quickly as other net carbs (slightly faster than some, slightly slower than others; but not significantly different compared to anything else). As someone who has observed my own 24/7 BG changes for years with all kinds of foods, I'm going to let you in on a secret: The glycemic index is over-sold and is truly only observable when measured in clinical conditions with clinical controls. If you want to slow conversion of carbs to glucose, changing the type of carb is going to do very little to help. What makes a much bigger difference is pairing those carbs with macronutrients that take much longer to digest - the most effective macro to pair with is fat. Even then, it takes a lot of fat to make a noticeable difference. Restaurant pizzas are the best example and beat fast food fries by a whole lot, though fries are still going to take longer than fruit to impact BG (not by a huge amount, still).

As to whether it is possible to "overeat fructose" - yes, it is. Of course, that depends on how you define "overeat." To someone who believes there is no level of fruit consumption that can ever be considered overeating, then it is impossible to overeat fruit, by definition. More practically, if overeat is defined based on calorie intake and output, I can tell you with certainty that it is possible to overeat fructose. If the definition is based upon the existence of glucose spikes, I can also tell you with absolute certainty that it is possible to overeat fructose.

Pp has obviously not seen me during cherry season-I can put a pound away within minutes and be scrounging for more

lemurcat12

Christy1977Z wrote: »

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

There is a nutritional/culinary use of fruit and a botanical one, and normally in these discussions the first is meant.

I generally don't respect AN as a source, although I happen to agree that being afraid of fruit is a bad thing. But it's just not true that eating added sugar is going to necessarily lead to a greater consumption of fructose than fruit.

A large apple (according to the USDA) has about 13 g of fructose and another 5 of sucrose (about 2.5 of fructose when broken down), for 15.5 grams of fructose total.

The 200 cal chocolate chip cookie in my recipe box has 14 g of sucrose or 7 g of fructose, a lot less than the large apple.

Now, am I worried about fructose from an apple? No, for the same reason I'm not worried about moderate consumption of added sugar. But to me the reason the apple more often fits easily in my diet is that it has fewer calories, more fiber, is for me more filling (that's not the case for everyone), it's easier for me not to want to keep eating, and has more micronutrients. Nothing about the specific amount of fructose which varies fruit to fruit (and if you are worried about blood sugar spikes, which I am not, glucose is actually more of an issue, not fructose).

T1DCarnivoreRunner

OliveGirl128 wrote: »

midwesterner85 wrote: »

Christy1977Z wrote: »

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

Fructose from whole fruit raises BG just as quickly as other net carbs (slightly faster than some, slightly slower than others; but not significantly different compared to anything else). As someone who has observed my own 24/7 BG changes for years with all kinds of foods, I'm going to let you in on a secret: The glycemic index is over-sold and is truly only observable when measured in clinical conditions with clinical controls. If you want to slow conversion of carbs to glucose, changing the type of carb is going to do very little to help. What makes a much bigger difference is pairing those carbs with macronutrients that take much longer to digest - the most effective macro to pair with is fat. Even then, it takes a lot of fat to make a noticeable difference. Restaurant pizzas are the best example and beat fast food fries by a whole lot, though fries are still going to take longer than fruit to impact BG (not by a huge amount, still).

As to whether it is possible to "overeat fructose" - yes, it is. Of course, that depends on how you define "overeat." To someone who believes there is no level of fruit consumption that can ever be considered overeating, then it is impossible to overeat fruit, by definition. More practically, if overeat is defined based on calorie intake and output, I can tell you with certainty that it is possible to overeat fructose. If the definition is based upon the existence of glucose spikes, I can also tell you with absolute certainty that it is possible to overeat fructose.

Pp has obviously not seen me during cherry season-I can put a pound away within minutes and be scrounging for more

There was a time when I would cut up a cantaloupe, a honeydew, a pineapple, and maybe grapes, strawberries, and/or bananas to make a fruit salad. The entire fruit salad could be gone in a single sitting. Back then, I would sometimes cut up a watermelon and eat the whole thing (not a personal-sized watermelon, but a full-sized melon) at 1 meal. And sometimes I would eat 2 lbs. of grapes at once. When I was really hungry, I would eat a whole watermelon and then still eat a whole fruit salad consisting of an entire cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, etc.

Now I don't touch fruit because I found a WOE where BG is more manageable and I'm losing fat. Eating even a single grape is likely to send me into a spiral just as would eating a single Hershey's Kiss.

amusedmonkey

Christy1977Z wrote: »

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

I wonder what "overeating" means in terms of fructose. I didn't even have to go for pounds of fruits, I managed to score 15 grams of fructose in 130 calories of dates which was less than a handful, entirely possible to overeat. Dates have 5 times the fructose per gram found in soda (one of the biggest sources of added fructose) and slightly less fructose per calorie than soda.

perkymommy

I don't eat a lot of fruit or veggies but they are good for less calories and to fill me up in between meals if I ever do eat them.

DamieBird

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Christy1977Z wrote: »

Avacados are fruit. Squash is fruit. I know we're talking bananas and apples, but just sayin'.

I love this article on sugar in fruit: https://authoritynutrition.com/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

From the article: "Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose. However… this is completely wrong, because fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it is almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruit."

I wonder what "overeating" means in terms of fructose. I didn't even have to go for pounds of fruits, I managed to score 15 grams of fructose in 130 calories of dates which was less than a handful, entirely possible to overeat. Dates have 5 times the fructose per gram found in soda (one of the biggest sources of added fructose) and slightly less fructose per calorie than soda.

mmmm . .. I love dates, especially the ones that are a little drier, so that the outside has a more crumbly texture while the inside is pure gooey goodness! Concur - very easy to overeat!

kaypee65

FireTurtle75 wrote: »

Yep, look at all of the fruit Eskimos used to eat before modern technology & advancements in engineering could bring it to them.

Berry picking is a hard core ritual for Alaska natives. Berries were crucial for them and when berries were out everything else waited.

Also Inuit/Inupiats have a CPT1a genetic mutation which impacts their metabolism supporting a higher fat diet. That said, their high incidence of colon cancer at a young age suggests drawbacks to their traditional diet.