Is Feeling Fruity Naughty?

Why has fruit all of a sudden got such a bad rep? Well I suppose you could say it was Eve who started it off by taking a bite of the apple(!) but more recently it’s become common thinking that all fruit makes you fat. If I were a tree, I’d sack my agent. Most people get their fitness information from the Internet and it seems, as we have mentioned before, that many fitness leaders just seem to make stuff up. Fructose is guilty by association; but the fructose naturally found in fruit is not high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

 

 

HFCS is a cheap sweetener used in food production. You could argue that it’s unnatural as it is modified from cornstarch using enzymes but it has an extremely high glycemic load value; the main factor that relates to weight control. This means that the sweetener has a high sugar content, which is released into the system at a high rate; the knock-on effect being that you’re unlikely to be able to use the sugar, so certain hormone levels spike and trough (particularly insulin). HFCS has been used widely since the 70s and, it is strongly linked to obesity and type II diabetes. It’s not just fizzy drinks though; from breads to cereals, soups to ketchup and so on, you’ll often find it added (it’s cheap after all!). Therefore naturally, as everyone knows, ingest more sugar than you need and you’ll gain weight.

 

But how does fructose compare? Well simply, the glycemic load value of most fruits is pretty low. That means the sugars are released at a much slower rate, allowing your metabolism the time to use them. The actual pulp of the fruit itself is key here though too. The fibrous nature of, for example, an apple or an orange dictate the speed at which the sugars are released; therefore it doesn’t make sense to drink off-the-shelf fruit juices if you want to lose body fat, as the lack of the actual pulp means the sugars are released too quickly. Juicing at home using a blender is a little better but the blending itself will increase the speed at which the sugars are released when ingested.

 

There are certain fruits that you might want to eat sparingly though. If you’re looking to lose weight, bananas are the most common to look out for, but generally, most fruit is fair game, particularly if it is especially fibrous (apples, oranges, pears etc.). Surprisingly low too though are strawberries and pineapples.

 

If you are looking to lose body fat, it makes good sense to limit other types of carbohydrate rich foods. Foods such as rice, noodles, bread are not too dissimilar to sweets/ candy in the way that the sugars are released (very quickly), so they can make you gain weight. You might seem a bit of an oddball in the canteen, swapping the bowl of rice for an apple or two, but after a week or so you would expect to notice a difference on your waistline.

 

Many people find fruit only really fills them up if they use it as a dessert. Fruit does ferment in the stomach so for some people, fruit as a dessert isn’t comfortable, but unless you’re a permanently inebriated hummingbird eating its own bodyweight daily, this shouldn’t be an issue for most. For many (including myself), fruit makes a perfect mid-morning snack on it’s own. Find out what works best for you, but as long as you don’t overeat (which is never a good idea), fruit can be a really useful (and healthy) tool in weight and appetite control. Pineapple season in the springtime is a particular highlight for me!