Fruit Friday: Friend or Foe?

Hello lovely weekend!

'You should eat more fruits and vegetables'

How often did I hear this when I was a little girl? If I had been given 1€ each time someone mentioned this,well then I would be rich now!

Everyone knows that fruits are healthy, some people even call them nature's fast food as they are fast to prepare and can easily be carried around. However many people think that fruits aren't that good for us as they are high in sugar, compared to other whole foods. 

What about the sugar in fruits?

Everyone knows that added sugar is the devil itself. This includes table sugar and high fructose corn syrup which is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. If you wanna learn more about sugar, check out this article of mine HERE.

Now that you may have read this article, you know that sugar is bad for you! The problem is that people think that the same must apply to fruits, because they also contain fructose,right?

However, this is completely bull****. Fructose is only harmful in large amounts and it's almost impossible to overeat fructose by eating fruits! It all depends on the dosage!

Why are fruits good for you? 

While eating whole fruits, as already said, it is impossible to over-consume fructose. Fruits are loaded with fiber, water and have significant chewing resistance. For this reason, fruits , like apples, take a while to eat and therefore also take a while to digest, which means that the fructose hits the liver slowly.

Plus, eating an apple makes you feel full and satisfied. And this one apple only contains 23 grams of sugar , of which 13grams are fructose. (Compared to a 400ml Coke: 52 grams of sugar of which 30 grams are fructose) 

What happens when fructose hits your liver? 

When you drink sodas and eat candies, fructose hits the liver faster and in a larger amount. But if you eat an apple, it hits the liver slowly and in a small amount, meaning that your body can easily take care of the fructose. 

Your body can easily tolerate the small amounts of fructose found in fruits. 

Can I eat fruits while trying to lose weight? 

YES, you can!(Sorry Obama for twisting your phrase)

What most people forget when discussing the sugar and carb-content of fruits is that they are also incredibly filling.

Due to the high fiber content, the water and all the chewing, fruits can make you feel pretty full, calorie for calorie!

Fruits like apples and oranges are among the highest scoring foods tested in the satiety index, they even beat beef and eggs!

Which means, if you increase your intake of apples or oranges, chances are that you will feel so full that you automatically want to eat less other foods. 

 

What about fruit juices?

Even though whole fruits are healthy, don't fool yourself by buying fruit juices at a store, as they are not ''real'' fruit juices. Many of them only contain water, some kind of concentrate and a whole bunch of sugars. 

Even if you buy a 100% real fruit juice, it's still a bad idea. 

If you drink your juice, you no longer have fibers nor chewing-resistance to slow down consumption, meaning that it makes it easier to consume a large amount of sugar in a short period of time.

Dried fruits like raisins can be a problem too as they are high in sugar and it is to easy to consume a large amount at a time. 

If you still don't want to eat whole fruits but want to avoid juices, smoothies should be the best way out! 
In this article I shared some smoothie ideas and if you need a good, but cheap, blender for you smoothies click HERE! 

Conclusion: 

Unless you have a fructose-intolerance or are on a ketogenic or low-carb diet, I think that you should go on eating fruits! They are tasty, juicy and healthy! And they make life more colorful!

I wish you all a nice weekend!