In recent months, my dietitian colleagues and I have
been encountering more and more people making claims like “fruit is bad
for you” or “fruit is toxic.” “What is going ON?” one of them posted on
a dietitian Internet mailing list. What’s going on is that the current
crop of fad diets, such as paleo, keto, carnivore and pegan — have
convinced a lot of people that fruit is a dietary no-no.
There
was a time when we didn’t question whether fruit was good for us, when
we more or less took “eat your fruits and veggies” to heart. Today, many
people are worried that fruit is too high in carbs, sugar and calories.
One of my patients wouldn’t eat any fruit other than blueberries
because she had bought into the myth — again, promoted by fad diets —
that blueberries are the only “safe” fruit to eat because they are “low
glycemic” (in other words, they don’t cause your blood sugar to spike).
Here’s the kicker: She didn’t even like blueberries.
Berries
are the only fruit allowed on the pegan diet, the subtext being that
other fruit is a ticket to high blood sugar; but this is a fairly
liberal stance compared with other fad diets du jour. For example, many
followers of the keto diet and the trending carnivore diet (a.k.a. the
“zero carb” diet) call fruit toxic because of its sugar. Now, that’s
what I consider disordered eating.
It’s
true that whole fruit contains sugar, but it is natural sugar. The
sugar we would be wise to limit is added sugar, found in regular soda
and many highly processed foods. When you eat an apple, a pear, a peach
or some berries, their sugar comes wrapped in a fiber-rich, water-rich,
nutrient-rich package. That fiber slows the release of fruit’s natural
sugar into your bloodstream, preventing a sugar spike, especially if you
eat your fruit as part of a meal or snack that contains protein and
healthy fats.
Ditching fruit may mean missing
out on some key nutrients. Many fruits are rich not just in vitamins and
minerals, but also in phytochemicals, natural plant-based compounds
that appear to have a variety of health benefits, including helping to
prevent cancer and promote cardiovascular health. Pigment-rich berries
and cherries are especially good sources of phytochemicals, but apples,
oranges and other fruits contain phytochemicals, too.
