Fruit = fat?

KavemanKarg

I still enjoy fruit, in small amounts, nearly daily. For example, tomatoes (which are actually a fruit). Heirloom tomatoes especially taste almost like apples, they are so sweet and wonderful.

If you replaced all your grain calories for fruit calories, you would lose so much weight, get so much more fiber and nutrients, it would shock you. Fruit is good stuff!

My "low carb" diet is a 100 grams or less of carbs a day (most days I try to stay below 50 net carbs), that is a fair amount of fruit if I wish to use it that way.

Fruit on its own will not make you fat. High sugar fruits may trigger more insulin response then others, such as ripe bananas. This may make you feel hungry soon after as insulin levels rise (if you are insulin resistant this will really hit). But its not the fruit itself that will really make you heavy.

Overall, I think most low carb and primal eaters make a place for fruit in their diet. Its the stuff that packs high starch and sugar levels and very low fiber and nutrients in comparison to fruits (looking at you grains) that give us pause. Compare 100 calories of fruit to 100 calories of any bread to see what I mean, nutrient and fiber wise, fruit is a win!

millermail101

Take for example, the Atkins diet: Fruits are generally forbidden as they contains sugars which are, despite being all natural and healthy, considered carbs, which subsequently mean out-of-bounds for those who are following this diet.

I have never tried Atkins and dont think I could, to be honest, but I take a bit of useful knowledge out of every diet I have ever read about and put together a base of facts which may or may not be true, so it's good to learn other people's POV's.
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I have always been against the fad diets for fear that they are a diet... you stop dieting you stop losing.... I couldn't live without Fruit!

neanderthin

Don't complicate the issue, fruit is a wholesome natural ingredient, and we all know what makes us fat, which can't be blamed on an individual food.

catwrangler

Blueberries (I have 2 blueberry bushes at home on my windowsill)

windowsill blueberries???? Cool!

NoDairy

I eat only fruit and some veggies all day and im not getting fatter its helping in everything from weight, skin, and best of all great health!!
Problem is if you eat other crap and fruit then theres ur problem... But eating only fruit is best... Those carbs and sugars are our natural energy that we were meant to use, and the fiber keeps everything goung smoothly.

Try it for a week only fruit and veggies and dont count cals, youll drop major weight feel great energy and skin will look great!!!

Grokette

Take for example, the Atkins diet: Fruits are generally forbidden as they contains sugars which are, despite being all natural and healthy, considered carbs, which subsequently mean out-of-bounds for those who are following this diet.

I have never tried Atkins and dont think I could, to be honest, but I take a bit of useful knowledge out of every diet I have ever read about and put together a base of facts which may or may not be true, so it's good to learn other people's POV's.

I have always been against the fad diets for fear that they are a diet... you stop dieting you stop losing.... I couldn't live without Fruit!

Atkins is not a fad, it is a lifestyle change.

Fruit is not forbidden on the Atkins plan. It is added back in the eating plan in a particular order in order for a person to test themselves for food intolerances. You start adding back in fruit after the 2 week induction phase and you start with the lowest glycemic fruits first, which would be berries, then melons, then citrus, etc.............

Why speak on a subject that you have obviously have never explored or even educated yourself by reading the book?

HMonsterX

I eat only fruit and some veggies all day and im not getting fatter its helping in everything from weight, skin, and best of all great health!!
Problem is if you eat other crap and fruit then theres ur problem... But eating only fruit is best... Those carbs and sugars are our natural energy that we were meant to use, and the fiber keeps everything goung smoothly.

Try it for a week only fruit and veggies and dont count cals, youll drop major weight feel great energy and skin will look great!!!

Cool! So i can eat 100 bananas a day, and i'm guaranteed to lose weight!



Don't restrict yourself so much! Eating a balanced diet is far better overall. Do you intend to eat nothing but fruits and veggies for the rest of your life?

chris1529

Funny cause I've heard that Weight Watchers Points Plus says that you can eat fruits and vegetables without tracking them as points. And people lose weight on that diet and feel good! You can't go wrong with blueberries!! They are a super food!! Also, cantalope is so good for you as well!

AND I really don't believe that you will get fat from eating blueberries and cantalope. There is some fruits though that are very high in sugar! There really is no simple answer here cause I think that the benefits of the vitamins and antioxidants in the fruits far outweighs the sugar content!

HMonsterX

Funny cause I've heard that Weight Watchers Points Plus says that you can eat fruits and vegetables without tracking them as points. And people lose weight on that diet and feel good! You can't go wrong with blueberries!! They are a super food!! Also, cantalope is so good for you as well!

A banana on average has 100 calories.

This is why, imo, WW is sooo flawed. Most people i know who have tried WW don't get long term success. Just the fact that they say you can eat as many calories as you like if it's in fruit or veg form doesn't do much for their credibility tbh...

chris1529

Remember also the formula for sugar and fiber! If you eat something that is high in fiber than it actually REDUCES the carbs in that food!! The food has to have 5 or more grams of fiber though for that to take place.

eeebee

Compare 100 calories of fruit to 100 calories of any bread to see what I mean, nutrient and fiber wise, fruit is a win!

oh absolutely

stroutman81

I'd ditch the sugar phobia. Especially if you have calories and nutrients in check. Here's a blurb that I wrote in a recent article that needs to be read here:

Yesterday Gordy and I had a business meeting. We conversed over mugs of beer, hot wings, cheese steaks (we’re Philly boys… what do you expect?) and finished it off with some cheesecake. Yet, we’re both leaner than most people in this country and do things like mountaineering, mountain biking, lifting heavy things, hiking and everything else that most people seem to have forgotten.

This isn’t bragging.

The point is, the diet culture needs to move away from polarized categorizations. We have this terrible tendency to make blanket categorizations about food being either “good” or “bad” on its own merit without context.

By and large this either-or mentality generates loads of anxiety and guilt. It leads to what appears to be neurotic and obsessive behavior. This mentality sets people up to feel as if they’re walking a tightrope – one misstep can lead to nutritional disaster in their minds. Inevitably, when that misstep happens… and it does happen… these dieters typically give up entirely and binge.

It’s the teenager psychology – tell them over and over again not to do something and chances are they’re going to do it.

First, the intentions behind labeling specific foods as good/bad or clean/unclean are well-meaning. People like simplicity. It’s easier to make decisions when there’s an obvious right or wrong. Very few things in life are black and white, however. Most of life happens in some shade of gray and it’s no different with the foods that we eat.

You need to realize that things can seem one way when viewed in isolation and look quite a bit different when viewed in the grand scheme. For example, people tend to look at junk food as a deal breaker as far as fat loss goes. They see the cookie, and solely the cookie, and believe it’ll ruin their dieting efforts.

What happens when we zoom out a bit though? How devastating does that cookie look once your total diet and lifestyle is factored into the equation? Assuming your calories are in check, assuming you’re consuming adequate amounts of protein, essential fats, fibrous veggies and some fruit, and assuming you’re doing some sensible exercise… do you really believe a few cookies are going to break you?

Hint: They’re not. Unless you let them.

What’s worse is many dieters carry their polarized viewpoints over to the other side of the fence. On one side they are in total control. On the other they’re entirely out of control. It’s a viscous loop where they’re unnecessarily rigid while dieting, then they eventually cave, and when they cave they cave hard. Instead of eating a few cookies, they eat the entire box. Eventually the guilt and self-pity amounts to a point where the only way to feel happy again is to diet. And so the cycle continues.

All of this anxiety, obsessiveness, and stress about eating isn’t healthy. If you need a reason to stop, think of it like this…

Your body deals with psychological and physiological stress pretty much the same. In your body’s ‘mind,’ stress is stress have it be psychological, physical, real, imagined, or whatever. In addition, it has a finite capacity to cope with stress. Anal retentiveness can come back to bite you in the *kitten* (see what I did there).

Read the book written by Robert Sapolsky called “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.” He’s a great author and a genius when it comes to the stress response of the body. Humans unfortunately can work themselves up into such a psychological mess about the future by thinking about catastrophic thoughts and building psychological hurdles that are simply impossible to clear and thus, their biology that’s really in place to keep them alive winds up going in overdrive.

People just need to relax, set realistic expectations, avoid perfectionism, and be patient.

I’m not here to tell you to eat junk food. Most of us have vices though and if you learn to eat them in moderation, the process can be a heck of a lot less painful and volatile. Dirty food doesn’t make you fat irrespective of the big picture.

What does clean food even mean? Is it washed really well? Is it grown a certain way? When it comes down to it, food is simply a vehicle we use to deliver nutrients, vitamins, minerals and water to our bodies. Pretty much all foods are capable of doing this – junk food or not. Sure, some foods are denser with nutrition. But that’s looking at things in a vacuum.

Moral of the story – look at the nutritional quality of your overall diet rather than each individual piece of food on its own. Be aware of the categorizations you’re using to help make decisions and make sure they’re logical.

BackwoodsMom

Hmmm....this got me thinking that I'm not going to track my sugars either since I don't usually eat any processed foods. Calories in must be less than calories out --- bottom line!

eeebee

Take for example, the Atkins diet: Fruits are generally forbidden as they contains sugars which are, despite being all natural and healthy, considered carbs, which subsequently mean out-of-bounds for those who are following this diet.

I have never tried Atkins and dont think I could, to be honest, but I take a bit of useful knowledge out of every diet I have ever read about and put together a base of facts which may or may not be true, so it's good to learn other people's POV's.

I have always been against the fad diets for fear that they are a diet... you stop dieting you stop losing.... I couldn't live without Fruit!

Atkins is not a fad, it is a lifestyle change.

Fruit is not forbidden on the Atkins plan. It is added back in the eating plan in a particular order in order for a person to test themselves for food intolerances. You start adding back in fruit after the 2 week induction phase and you start with the lowest glycemic fruits first, which would be berries, then melons, then citrus, etc.............

Why speak on a subject that you have obviously have never explored or even educated yourself by reading the book?

Why not speak about a subject I know less about than people like yourself?
This is a discussion board, after all. Is it not?
Thanks for your valuable input.

chris1529

Thumbs up!

noneya2010

This is interesting because has anyone ever KNOWN someone who ate a bunch of fruit and got fat? Back in our ancestoral days, if we were wanderers and gatherers, than the human body surived on fruits and things from the land.....

Personally, I always do lower carb eating plans so I rarely eat fruit of any kind. :frown: I'm trying to reincorporate some fruit into my diet now and get over the whole "its full of sugar - don't eat it" stereo type fruit has been given.

kimberly0416

I am constantly drinking the Naked Green Machines, it is high in natural fruit sugars. Packed with vitamens fruits and vegetables, I no longer have any cravings and I am still losing weight while eating my daily recommended cals.

stroutman81

For you sugar phobes... what's the top 3 reasons you fear it so much? Just curious.

eeebee

Just to set the record straight people:

I like to think I eat a well balanced and healthy diet and I make sure my calories/fat grams dont go over my goal. 95% of the time.

I dont deprive myself of any type of food. Within reason, if I want something, I will have it, I just know I'll need to balance the rest of my day out.

I do indulge sometimes, I am not overly strict on myself (although this site is helping to make me more disciplined, hats off to it) and as long as I meet my target goal, I am happy.

You only live once, after all, and one of life's greatest pleasures (to me at least) is FOOD. All kinds of food. Exercise is important, being active, feeling good and eating healthy foods all in equal measure make for a good balance.

***I asked about the sugar theory because I was hoping to see what the general consensus was, simply that.***

It certainly does not mean I will or have stop(ped) eating the fruits (or any foods for that matter, good or bad [occasionally]) that I enjoy.

Life's too short and food's too good

chicky89

Fruit does have lots of sugar in them, but its a natural sugar. Some fruit have more than others.

I keep my fruit intake to 2-3 a day.

Keep in mind, grabbing a fruit when you need something sweet, is better than any junk food.