Are YOU a ‘fruitphobe’? Doctors debunk the common myth that too much fruit is bad for you

Fruit has been maligned by many who claim that its sugar content negates its nutritional value, but doctors say it’s a myth.

Apples, blueberries, bananas, oranges and dozens of other fruits are high in nutrients and low in calories, with a wide range of benefits from reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

While many people dismiss fruit—aka “nature’s sweets”—as too much sugar to be healthy, nutritionists emphasize that the type of sugar the body takes in makes a big difference.

It’s nearly impossible to ingest too much fructose, the sugar in fruit, and it has the least impact on your blood sugar levels, making it safe for diabetics.

Sucrose, on the other hand, consists of the simple sugars glucose and fructose and is commonly referred to as “table sugar.” It occurs naturally, but it’s often added to candy and other processed foods in amounts that health officials say are fueling obesity and diabetes epidemics in the US.

Ms Kathleen Lopez, a nutritionist from New Hampshire, told DailyMail.com: “I’ve heard over the last five or 10 years, I would say, of certain groups of people who choose not to eat fruit or feel that it’s not fruit. is. healthy for them.’

Candy and other sweets are full of sugars, namely sucrose, a so-called disaccharide that is formed when glucose and fructose react together to form a single molecule.

The simple sugar can raise your blood sugar in the minutes and hours after consumption.

Repeated spikes in your blood sugar can cause problems with your kidneys, nerves, eyes, and heart over time.

Fructose, meanwhile, must be converted to glucose by the liver before it can be used by the body.

This means it won’t cause a huge spike in blood sugar, at least not at the level found in fruit.

Fruit is also packed with fiber that slows down digestion. Not only will this delay help you feel full, but it won’t cause blood sugar levels to rise as quickly as if you consumed the fruit in juice form.

That’s not the only benefit of fiber. A 2009 study by scientists in Quebec suggested that fiber helps regulate ghrelin, a hormone that signals appetite, which could help people lose weight over the long term.

In 2012, a group of endocrinologists at Wake Forest University reported that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber in the diets of more than 1,000 people ages 18 to 81, visceral fat (VAT) accumulation decreased by nearly four percent. The VAT reduction reduces the amount of fat around organs deep in the abdominal cavity.

The waist circumference is a good indication of how much fat is located deep in the abdomen.

Soluble fiber, or the type that dissolves in water, helps lower blood sugar and cholesterol, a waxy, fatty substance produced by the liver.

Taking in between five and 10 grams of soluble fiber — equivalent to about a cup of blackberries and blueberries — each day lowers LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

Once in the intestines, soluble fiber binds to cholesterol, preventing the substance from entering the bloodstream and moving to other parts of the body. It is then excreted in the feces.

Fruit is also a nutritious powerhouse that provides the body with important micronutrients such as vitamins C and A, potassium, folic acid and antioxidants that can boost the immune system.

For example, apples are very high in soluble and insoluble fiber, making them feel full without a heavy calorie load.

By comparison, sweets and other foods high in simple sugars are typically high in calories, meaning you have to eat a lot of them to feel full, increasing your risk of weight gain.

Apples are also rich in vitamin C and polyphenols, which are believed to reduce inflammation and improve heart and gut health.

Blueberries are called “superfoods” because of the enormous nutritional value they contain.

Known for their strong antioxidant properties, they are high in fiber, vitamin C and vitamin K. They can even help neutralize free radical damage to DNA.

A 2007 study conducted by Dutch researchers asked 168 healthy people to drink a liter of blueberry-apple juice daily.

After four weeks, the oxidative stress on DNA from free radicals had dropped by 20 percent.

However, people should be wary of fruit juice, according to nutritionists who warn that it is often packed with unnecessary sugar.

Sarasota nutritionist Bonni London told DailyMail.com: “The big picture is you want to stick to whole fruit and try to avoid absolutely any kind of juice because there’s a big difference once we take out all the fiber and we don’t no more chewing, it’s actually liquid sugar.

She added that not all fruits are created equal when it comes to nutritional value. Grapes, bananas and pineapple are all high in fructose.

While this particular type of sugar isn’t inherently harmful, nutritionists warn that too much of anything can be dangerous.

Excess fructose has been linked to hypertriglyceridemia — too many triglycerides (fats) in the blood, which increases the risk of atherosclerosis and related heart disease — as well as fatty liver disease.

A full fruit diet may be too much for someone with an underlying health condition. For example, people with diabetes should give priority to vegetables.

Ms. London said, “I don’t think we should be afraid of apples, but everything in moderation, stick to whole foods, eat seasonally.”

Kathleen Lopez, meanwhile, stressed the importance of considering a person’s whole health when determining how much fructose is too much fructose.

She said, “As a practitioner I would always consider looking at their underlying metabolic health, so what is their health already when they come to talk to me about their diet or what they’ve heard about a particular food group?”

‘Gene variants are important, I always consider the person’s activity levels and then their circadian health.

‘Are they sleeping? Are they exposed to the right types of light at the right time of day? And do they have a lot of stress or not? So when someone asked me if this food is healthy, I always try to take someone’s biochemistry into account.’