Doc here (Dermatologist), but I had a special interest in nutrition going through undergrad and most of medical school so I feel somewhat educated on the topic. Sorry I didn’t have time to read through this whole thread to check on what has already been said. Before I get into it though, this should not be taken as medical advice, this holds especially true for patients with various medical conditions where excessive sugar intake and specific parts of fruit can be detrimental to health such as but not limited to diabetes, IBS etc. Please speak with your doctor regarding fruit intake and your own personal health history.
Fruit is great for health in general. It’s been shown in various studies to decrease rates of heart attack, stroke, obesity, diverticulosis and the list goes on. With that being said, anything in excess is a bad thing and fruit is no exception. In addition, while eating five apples a day is not “bad for health”, eating five apples in addition to an already caloric surplus diet will cause additional weight gain inevitably leading to an increase in rates of hearth attack, stroke etc.
A common “worried” about feature of fruit is the high sugar level content. However, fruit is in general packed with fiber, pectin and other beneficial molecules that tend to slow sugar absorption and because of this, it is believed that the sugar content in most otherwise healthy people is absolutely fine and will not negatively impact health (quite the contrary). Have they studied people eating 5 pounds of fruit a day? Not to my knowledge. But in general the trend is, the more fruit the better, with several studies backing this trend up.
Of course there are always exceptions to the rule. Fruit juices and dried fruits especially in excess can have dramatic effects on blood sugar levels and the American Diabetic Association openly states that their consumption should be limited in patients with diabetes. In addition, Im sure there is some fruit out there that I’m not aware of that has high sugar levels but very low levels of fiber which may also not be great for patients with diabetes.
If anyone wants citations to any of my claims, feel free to message me. I’m always glad to discuss this topic in more depth!
Also while we are on the topic of health in this forum, I feel obligated to end this conversation by saying you should always wear sunscreen while gardening and the sun is out!
As I mentioned earlier; there are twice the carbohydrates on a whooper than on an apple, 49 vs 26 grams. Throw in a large soda and that’s another 86 grams of sugar. Throw in some medium onion rings and that’s another 51 grams of empty carbs.
I’ll take my chances eating 7 apples instead of a whopper meal with soda and onion rings, with all the extra dietary sludge that would entail.
Generally with advancing age you tolerate sugars less well. If you have high A1C and frequent night urination you are a likely pre-diabetic (type 2). I also have to get up at night unless I have a keto dinner (eggs and bacon and sauerkrauts for example). consider first eating fruits only at breakfast and lunch, and only if you do manual work. It is all reversible, but not if you listen to your doctor.
Where does all of this “but not if you listen to your doctor” talk come from? Every family/primary care doctor I have ever worked with will tell their newly diagnosed diabetes patients to try and make healthier food choices, lose weight, exercise and make other lifestyle changes in order to improve their blood glucose control.
The internet is littered with webpages from well respected medical associations, universities, journals, medical sites and hospitals stating there are plenty of natural ways to reduce your A1C.
Please don’t spread misinformation and make practitioners out to be some sort of group of people who sell their souls to drug companies. If you were diagnosed with diabetes and not told about lifestyle changes in order to improve/reverse your diabetes, I sincerely apologize, but I personally have yet to see that happen.
Eating those 5 apples will likely lead to a sense of fullness that will help a person to refrain from more caloric intake and sustain a more healthy weight- that is the research and not some common sense declaration.
I question your premise because I don’t think most people need worrying about eating too much fruit, but we do have to worry about consuming too much of many other things in our diet- although I admit that in the '60’s, so called fruitarians were not among the healthiest appearing specimens in my social circle.
Common sense is useful (and not all that common), but does not always lead to accurate conclusions- one needs to temper it with science, IMO, and I’m still waiting for a single reply that is based on research indicating a level of fruit consumption that is dangerous to human health. That is the topic, after all. Fruit does contain calories, and caloric intake that exceeds expenditure will obviously lead to weight gain, but that really isn’t the issue we are discussing, is it?
I wish members here would either provide evidence to counter the research I’ve provided links to or agree that such research doesn’t exist. I get a little frustrated when intelligent people simply maneuver around it as if the science is less important than opinions. Genuine information is what I always crave. No research is conclusive, but when opinions differ I will run with the one founded in science.
I recommend you begin to include a daily intake of fermented foods- maybe the fault lies in your intestinal biome.
OK, that’s just a shot in the dark and most likely off-mark, but I am excited about new research that indicates some marvelous health benefits from eating fermented foods, particularly for the gut, although the topic is not fruit related, Anyone have a good kimchee recipe? I do like it hot. Meanwhile I enjoy some whole milk yogurt every morning with my oatmeal or waffles, blueberries and peaches (from my freezer at the moment and for most of the rest of winter).
I think there are health consequences of modern fruit that has been manipulated by man. Im not sure we as humans can tolerate some of the things we create for consumption long term without repercussion.
I’m big on the gut biome concept too, posted some stuff on it last year or two. It’s not fully accepted science yet as far as I know, but it’s getting there.
Myself I’ve taken to fermenting jalapenos, onions, and kraut and eat some plain yoghurt plus frozen blueberries several times a week, and we keep plenty of fibrous foods in our diet: whole grain 100% whole wheat plus oats, fresh fruit, beans, broccoli, etc. Yes, I poot a fair amount, but it’s not (typically) foul at all.
@alan and @marknmt you may already be eating it, but if not, soy natto is probably a fermented food you should try. I can’t even watch a little YouTube video on it without retching, but it is supposed to be super healthy for you.
I do eat fermented food, miso paste on fish, I make my own sauerkraut, and eat Kim chi when I go to Korean restaurants, I don’t make it myself.
As far as sunscreen, I wear them religiously since teenager, I’m a beach bum, same with my husband. We have no skin problem even at our age. I hear other people at the pickle ball court who are the same age as us, they have skin cancer that they have to have them removed monthly. We’re in California with very strong sun so we have to be careful.
But honestly, I don’t eat fruit late at night, same with soup. I stop eating after lunch. So I don’t have problem at night. I sleep straight through from 10pm to 6pm. I live a simple life, hence that’s my secret.
I apologize if my previous message was poorly worded. I was not trying to imply at any point that most people would be negatively impacted by eating additional fruit. I was simply trying to explain that if a person is in a caloric surplus and decided to eat some fruit at the end of the day in order to “eat healthier” when they otherwise would not have eaten anything, it will ultimately lead to additional weight gain and poorer health outcomes. But you are correct, most studies I have read shows that satiation from fruit is more likely to help maintain most individuals weight at a healthy BMI rather than induce further weight gain.
As for the rest of your statements, is that specifically directed at my post? I stated I am more than happy to provide citations for all of my claims and looking back at the rest of this thread, it appears my statements are fairly consistent with yours anyways.
One problem we are having on this conversation is that we keep jumping from the very broad to the very particular as if such things were interchangeable and they are most certainly not.
On a broad term an excess of sugars can be linked to just about all degenerative disease there is. What it means on the particular, well you need to look at it in a case-by-case basis and at that point the broad becomes less and less relevant.
Case in point I used to do long distance cycling, 100-mile days were just an awesome bike ride. I used to put myself on a 300 calories an hour sugar drip for 6~8 hours at a time (on top of food) it and it was perfectly healthy because my body was burning them faster than I could suck them in. Were I to try that now without the cycling, let just say that in short order my next horticultural endeavor would be pushing daisies.
It’s an interesting article and I had thought of tooth decay as being one issue even for humans eating a lot of fruit. This paragraph was BS though… What Lynch is referring to is the genetic engineering farmers have been able to use with today’s technology to speed up the breeding process of crops, typically making them more resistant to viruses and pests. These processes have given way to making fruits much different than how they normally were grown,
There hasn’t been a whole lot of genetic engineering of fruit, and what they say about plums isn’t correct, many older varieties of plums, especially prune plums, are about as sweet as any new varieties- they must be talking about pluots and comparing them to what firm commercial J plums used to be or even underipe prune plums. But pluots were bred through more or less traditional methods.
No, the question was a general one about potential consequences of having as much fruit as you want to eat, which seems to me to mean, does an average person have to be careful not to eat too much fruit even if they want to eat more. That’s all, isn’t it?
I believe Paul got all he asked for and then some.
Do you know that a lot of sweetened beverages have tablespoons of sugar per cup, since most people don’t know how much sugar actually weighs, and they don’t take the time to do the math using nutritional labels they are often clueless. That is way worst than any fruit that I know of, yet such beverages have become a normal part of American life. Compare that to the cup of tea or coffee people make in the morning at home, 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar per cup for the people who add sugar, aka 1/3 a tablespoon to 2/3 a tablespoon sugar per cup. A lot of people think that is too much sugar, even the 1 teaspoon!
I think that it would be hard work eating as much sugar from fruit, as is in a majority of people’s processed food diets. I don’t like soda, and the only tea that I drink that has tablespoons of sugar per cup is the usually just occasional sweet tea, and I don’t get a refill, too much sugar to do that. I am not much of candy person, and most of the candy that I eat is much less bad for you than the candy that I could be eating.
