There seems to be a fear of fruit going round.
Fruit started to get a bad rap when the low-carb diet craze came into full swing a few years ago. I would jump to its defense any day.
At its most basic level, fruit is an all natural food, containing no additives, no artificial flavours, no damaged fats, no processed sugars, just natural fructose sugar, and an abundance of water, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fibre. Thanks to its outstanding nutritional value, fruit has the capacity to fight fatigue, adrenal disorders, hormonal imbalances, cancer, digestive disorders such as constipation or diarrhoea, liver disorders, immune dysfunction, diabetes.. and the list goes on.
Secondly, you will never consume as many calories from a piece of fruit as you do from processed snacks, whether it be a mars bar or a ‘healthy’ protein or fruit and nut bar. For example, a mars bar has 260 calories & 42.6g/11tsp of refined sugar (sucrose or glucose) and an Eat Natural fruit and nut bar is 231calories & 10g sugar (sucrose, glucose syrup and fructose), whereas a cup of strawberries has 47 calories & 7g /2tsp of natural sugar (fructose) and a banana has 89 calories & 12g/3tsp of sugar.
People are scared of the “high-carbohydrate/high sugar content” of fruit. Both fruit and vegetables are rich in carbohydrate for very good reason. They are available to provide our bodies with a source of fuel. Every muscle and cell in our body functions on glucose, the brain in particular (fructose travels to the liver to get converted to glucose). If you cut out fruit (& eat very little vegetables), chances are, you will likely experience fatigue and your body will cry out for its ‘fuel’. This increases the odds of you suffering from sugar cravings and increases the risk of bingeing on a carbohydrate-rich food that contains little or no nutritional value, such as pasta or a chocolate bar. If you are an athlete or partake in daily exercise (so you are burning up the body’s available glucose at a high rate), it is even more important that you ensure you are obtaining sufficient carbohydrates – the best form of which is found in fruit and vegetables.
So isn’t the best option to enjoy the beautiful bountiful fruits of nature rather than shun them?
Please note: All fructose discussed in this post refers to natural fructose found in fruit, not the highly detrimental overly processed fructose found in high fructose corn syrup.