The Truth About Fruit
By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom
Fruit is one of nature’s perfect carbohydrates – filled with fiber, water, and nutrients. With naturally-occurring fruit sugar (fructose), it’s also referred to as “nature’s candy,” perfect for taming a sweet-tooth.
Nowadays, there seems to be a big debate about the health benefits of fruit. So what could be bad? As with all things in nature, moderation is key – and too much, or too little consumption of fruit can each pose problems. Weight Watchers (WW) recently proclaimed fruit a “free food,” while Atkins and other “low-carb” diet plans strictly limit fruit intake.
Replacing a slice of apple pie with an apple, saves your about 300 calories – a great idea. However, munching on 4 extra apples a day (that’s about 400 calories), in addition to your daily food intake might be healthy, but can impair your weight loss effort. Even healthy calories count when it comes to weight loss!
And don’t confuse diabetic requirements with those of healthy people. Diabetics need to limit dietary sugars of all types, include that found in fruit, so the balance of fruit and vegetables is different, with some limitation (but not exclusion) of fruit.
The best health advice is to aim for a mixture of at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. But that’s hard for many people. If you’re way below that number, take a small step – and just add one serving a day. When it comes to fruit, some is better than none!
And don’t forget to always eat your fruit and not drink it!. Even 100% juice is lacking many of the natural benefits of fruit, especially the fiber.
What are your thoughts on fruit?
Nowadays, there seems to be a big debate about the health benefits of fruit. So what could be bad? As with all things in nature, moderation is key – and too much, or too little consumption of fruit can each pose problems. Weight Watchers (WW) recently proclaimed fruit a “free food,” while Atkins and other “low-carb” diet plans strictly limit fruit intake.
Replacing a slice of apple pie with an apple, saves your about 300 calories – a great idea. However, munching on 4 extra apples a day (that’s about 400 calories), in addition to your daily food intake might be healthy, but can impair your weight loss effort. Even healthy calories count when it comes to weight loss!
And don’t confuse diabetic requirements with those of healthy people. Diabetics need to limit dietary sugars of all types, include that found in fruit, so the balance of fruit and vegetables is different, with some limitation (but not exclusion) of fruit.
The best health advice is to aim for a mixture of at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. But that’s hard for many people. If you’re way below that number, take a small step – and just add one serving a day. When it comes to fruit, some is better than none!
And don’t forget to always eat your fruit and not drink it!. Even 100% juice is lacking many of the natural benefits of fruit, especially the fiber.
What are your thoughts on fruit?
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