Too much fruit?

Fruit can be a great healthy convenience food for everyone and especially is loved by children for it’s natural sweetness.

But can you eat too much fruit?  Well yes, you can eat too much of anything.  But fruit, although does have some great vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre, does have a lot of fructose (it’s natural sugar component).  Also depending on what fruit you grab, can spike your blood sugar levels dramatically eg fruits that have a high glycaemic index (and minimal fibre) such as watermelon.  Fructose has to be dealt with firstly by your liver, so you don’t want to swamp it in too much fructose.  Also people can be fructose intolerant which can lead to all kinds of digestive problems and pain.

Fruit is digested the quickest out of most foods by our stomachs.  So it is better for your digestive system to have fruit on an empty stomach eg first thing of the day or to have it before your lunch or dinner.  If fruit is following a high protein meal – which takes a considerable longer time to digest and break down through your digestive system, fruit will sit on top and can start to ferment which can lead to gas, bloating, pain and discomfort.

So don’t avoid fruit (unless you are fructose intolerant or have uncontrolled blood sugar problems), but keep it at a healthy amount at no more than 2-3 serves per day and eat it on it’s own before other foods.

Also worth noting, is to make sure you eat fruit when it is in season and organic/spray free if possible.  Summer is a wonderful time of year in Australia for such an amazing variety of fruit with the stone fruits – plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, mangoes.  Make the most of these fruits before the season is over – summer fruit season closing very soon in Australia.  Some fruits such as cherries, if found in Australia outside of summer, are usually transported from America.  This is not fresh fruit you want to enjoy.

A note on dried fruit.  Generally we don’t need dried fruit in our diet as that fructose level has skyrocketed in the drying process.  But if you insist on having some, then apart from limiting the amount, be mindful of the chemcials used to preserve it.  Try to get dried fruit that doesn’t have any 200 numbered chemicals which are sulphites and metabisulphites.  Our bodies can’t usually handle these.  Dried apricots should not be bright orange!!  Have you seen sultanas that are bright green of the grapes they once were?  NO!  All dried fruit will naturally turn a brown to nearly black colour in the drying process.  If it is brightly coloured, then a number of chemicals may have gone into the process.  Avoid these dried fruits or find out more about their processing!!

  10/02/2019     Articles     0 Comment(s)