FRUITS MAKE YOU FAT? |
In today's article, I want to talk about fruit it's something I
was asked about recently so I thought I would write an article on whether the fruit is bad for you and whether it's something you should be avoided in a diet.
So I'm gonna cover quite a bit but I'm gonna try to keep it as
brief as possible just to answer this common question so fruit is mainly
fructose um but different fruits have different ratios of fructose to
glucose-fructose has been demonized quite a lot.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
We've seen that with high fructose corn syrup which we know is
really bad um the reason, why fructose is demonized especially in regards to
weight loss is that the liver can only store a certain amount of glycogen from
when you consume things like fruit or high fructose corn syrup and once this
capacity is exceeded then it's turned into fat and as fat is released into the
bloodstream and turns into adipose fat tissue.
Low-Carb Advocates
So basically the premise of people who will tell you to completely
cut out fruit and you'll find this with low-carb advocates and ketogenic
advocates not that there anything inherently wrong with these diets are that
why would you consume something which is going to be stored as fat more easily
then something which is converting into glucose which is stored in muscles as
glycogen.
Health Benefits
So that basically the idea because the liver can only hold so much
it turns it's fat, therefore, is following that the logic we should be avoiding
fruit in order to avoid fat gain and there's some truth to this but I'm going
to explain why fruit isn't as bad as some of these people say it is so clearly,
fruit and vegetables of course have much health benefits blueberries.
For Example
For example really high in antioxidants there are so many
phytonutrients and vitamins and minerals found in fruit um that is incredibly
beneficial for human beings as with vegetables so this is why many studies show
that fruit consumption, as well as vegetable consumption, is associated and
causative of less chronic disease less heart disease cardiovascular disease
cancer and such so we know that fruit and vegetables are really healthy for us.
We have fiber we have prebiotics we have a lot of good fiber found
in the skin of fruits and that incredibly important for our gut health and our microbiome
so the fruit undoubtedly you so you'll have one extreme say that fruit is
extremely good and you'll even see people who have a diet which completely
consists of eating the fruit they're called fruitarians.
Ketogenic Diet
I don’t necessarily recommend this but that's one extreme and then
you have the other extreme of people cutting out fruit um so you'll see
typically the results and the goal of these people fruitarians or people on a
ketogenic diet the two extremes when it comes to fruit are both lean and healthy
in general and you can lose weight regardless.
Lose Weight Eating
Fruit
So it's not that fruit is inherently fattening it's not your
caloric expenditure is the most important variable when it comes to this you
can lose weight eating fruit and you can lose weight completely avoiding so
it's not that fruit is fattening um but it can be potentially problematic
because of the sugar content.
Type 2 Diabetic
If your insulin resistant if your type 2 diabetic in that case,
eating something like a date which has a ton of sugar may not be the best idea
because of the effects, it will have on your blood sugar regardless of it being
natural.
But for the average person for 90% of people who aren't following
a specific diet or don't have a specific condition such as insulin resistance
type 2 diabetes or any variation of metabolic the syndrome should be perfectly
okay to include fruit in their diet and that's something I advocate right it's
gonna be really good for your gut so that's it's not something.
I think you should avoid as long as it's not the thing that
pushing you over your caloric intake and causing you to gain fat but fruits are
naturally designed in a way that they are very difficult to overeat and that the goal is the same for the amount of fructose it has.
Difficult
To Overload Your Body
It's very difficult to overload your body with fruit because fruit
has things like fiber and it also has water so consuming an orange right in
comparison to orange juice is much more difficult to get the same amount of
sugar what I mean is you might be able to drink ten oranges worth of juice
quite quickly and quite effortlessly.
But it's gonna be much more difficult to get the same amount of
sugar by eating whole fruits ten oranges one by one right and that's because of
the fiber has that because the water has that's because of how expanding it is
in your stomach.
So juicing a fruit may not be a good idea because you concentrate
the sugar and you're getting rid of most of the fiber blending might be a better idea and that's something you can potentially do especially.
Fibrous
Vegetables
If you' eating lots of fibrous vegetables like spinach but juicing
is something I definitely recommend you avoid unless you're extremely
physically active or you're just not trying to lose weight at all on but in
general, that's something you should avoid juicing fruit additionally the fiber
that fruit haslets take an orange.
For example, subtracts and slows down that the glycemic response
that you get from the sugar from the fruit so a fruit compared candy for an example is very different even if the sugar content is the same because of the
antioxidants of course in the phytonutrients.
Benefits
Of Fiber
But also because of the fiber slowing down that clock emic
responds that the candy would have much more of now I know I said that some
like type 2 diabetics, for example, should avoid certain fruits and this is
true but certain fruits don't have as much sugar right you have kiwi fruits are
really great super high in fiber on things like dates you may want to avoid.
Control
Blood Sugar
But fruit in general pears apples have been shown in some
randomized controlled trials to actually control blood sugar and diabetics and
reduce heart disease risk so fruit is really great and I don't think it's the problem the only kind of the way it could be a problem is that it may increase
your desire for other sweet foods after you eat it.
In comparison to being on a low-carb diet where your appetite sort
of disappears because of that state of ketosis so that can be a problem
potentially because you may couple it with really sweet yogurt or ice cream or
something like that but having a few pieces of fruit on its own every single
day.
I actually advocate for and I think there's nothing wrong with
that but I recommend and I reckon that it's way better to try and get the
majority of your micronutrients your vitamins and minerals from vegetables
because vegetable spinach is up they don't have the sugar and people tend to
eat them in comparison to the fruit.
You know people lots of people are deficient in magnesium because
they're not getting enough green vegetables so I think prioritizing your
vegetables in a wide variety of cruciferous vegetables are super important and
I recommend that.
Problems
Of Overeating or Drinking
But if you want to add in some fruit on every single day then I
think there's absolutely nothing wrong with that bananas can be great
pre-workout um so yeah don't listen to people that say the fruit is going to be
inherently fattening but again it doesn't mean it's a free-for-all and you
should you know have your entire diet consist of fruit because that's going to
cause problems on its own.
So as always everything in moderation and that's my takeaway in my
two cents when it comes to fruit one thing you can also, keep in mind which I
mean studies haven't shown that much but I think it's a good rule to go by it's
just eating seasonally.
Change In
Season
If you're in a really hot country or something eats some mangos or
whatever but if you're in the middle of winter or something eats the fruits
that are available in your environment and I think that's a pretty cool rule to
go by just like you know nature kind of sauces that for your oranges.
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For example, come in the wintertime and the high in vitamin C so leave a comment down below tell me how often you eat fruit whether it's something you include in your diet or whether it's something you completely avoid for whatever reasons I'd be curious to know I'll see you guys next time peace you.