After announcing my masochistic desire to give up sugar last night, I got a lot of questions about fruit.
To Fruit or Not To Fruit, apparently that is the question.
Well, this morning I got an email from Women’s Health magazine about some good fruit choices…
Slim Pickings
Everybody knows that fruit is good for you, but some are actually packed with tons of sugar and calories. The editors at Women’s Health magazine break down the best fruits for weight loss that won’t pack on the pounds.
Raspberries: 64 Calories per Cup
Because they’re small, you get a larger portion. Not only do you feel like you’re eating more for that reason alone, but they have the most hunger-quelling fiber of all berries. The fact that 1 raspberry is equal to 1 calorie makes it easy to keep track of your intake.
Grapefruit: 82 Calories per Medium Grapefruit
They’re low in sugar and high in fiber. Grapefruit also improves insulin resistance, making you feel fuller than you really are. In a study, adults who ate half a grapefruit before each of their three daily meals lost three more pounds over the course of 12 weeks than those who didn’t.
Apples: 95 Calories per Medium Apple
Each apple has 4 filling grams of fiber, which helps slow digestion. If your stomach is full of fruit, you are more likely to resist a sugary snack. Also, studies show that inhaling a green apple scent may trick your brain into thinking you’ve actually eaten.
Bananas: 105 Calories per Medium Banana
They contain resistant starch, a fiber which is digested more fully, leaving your blood sugar stable and you more satisfied. Make sure it’s still a little green, because the starches turn into sugars during the ripening process.
See – even bananas were on the list! They were also on my breakfast:
Yesterday I was lucky enough to have some time to chat with Katherine Brooking MS, RD on behalf of Yoplait. (They have a new line of yogurt coming out with 50% your daily allowance of calcium.)
But all topics were free game so I asked about fruit.
She said, “All sugars, including fruit is metabolized into glucose. If you look at the science and how foods are metabolized there is no difference of eating table sugar then eating fructose or sucrose in fruit.”
“But there is a difference in white sugar with no nutritional value versus fruit that offers fiber and nutrients.”
So yeah, my body reacts the same way to sugar in fruit as it does to white sugar. I’ve realized this for a while and have been cutting down on fruit for the last few weeks now. Have you noticed?
But – I am NOT giving up fruit. I’m giving up processed sugar and trying to cut back on artificial sweeteners.
Run: This morning I took my broken Garmin for a 3 miler. My IT band is randomly achey and I want to do a long run tomorrow so I took it slow. I need to stretch!
Speaking of Yoplait…they are doing a One Million Cup giveaway! If you want a free cup of yogurt check out their Facebook page!
I’m with Amber K. I don’t just “love fruit and will never give it up,” ALL fruit is choc-full of vitamins, minerals, etc. It is one of only a few raw, natural foods we can eat on this planet. I have never noticed or felt that I digest, metabolize, whatever, a tablespoon of white sugar the same as an apple. That’s just absurd. When was the last time you just ate a spoonful of sugar? What do you put the sugar on top of…sugary cereal? toast? caffeine? How can anyone compare an apple to that white stuff? Oh, and BTW, Ms. Brooking’s poor grammar speaks volumes: “If you look at the science and how foods are metabolized there is no difference of eating table sugar then eating fructose or sucrose in fruit.” THEN s/be THAN. I think she needs to back up her comments with test data.
Yay Yoplait!! I have SERIOUS Yoplait love, because one of their factories is near me and employs like 15 of my friends! Yay for jobs and free yogurt! (They are so generous and donate yogurt to TONS of events).
I’m glad to hear Yoplait is a generous company with stuff like that 🙂
So I guess it’s all about moderation, right? And proportion. I could never, ever give up sugar, but I desperately need to cut back.
There is no way I could give up apples or bananas!!! I eat two bananas a day and one apple. I throw grapes into the mix usually as well! That is really all I eat, but man oh man, they are not disappearing from my daily meals!! I don’t use sugar anymore- I gues the Wax Orchards Fruit sweet, and non sugar syrups. I am slowly taking out dairy (almost gone) and I am working on gluten (due to the current testing for Celiac)…which fruits are you going to cut, which are you going to miss the most????
I’m not cutting any fruits out all together, I’m just going to try and cut back on how much I eat. I used to eat a whole watermelon in 2 days. No joke.
Well that is good. I don’t understand that fruit could be bad for us due to sugar. I could never give it up! A whole watermelon in 2 days…you do love fruit 😉 I used to get in trouble by my doctor because I would eat up to 7 apples a day…I cut it down to 2 a day, sometimes only 1….hurts my guts, but they are so yummy!
Thanks for the info girl! Yes I didnt think you would be giving up fruit, and thanks for the comment back! U look beautiful in that pic btw : )
Monica,
You know my body reacts the same way to fruit, and I fully support you. Yes, fruit is a much better choice than a Little Debbie snack cake, but all that fructose can really add up. That being said, I think bananas are fine, especially if you’re running a lot. I just wouldn’t eat 5 a day. 🙂
I could never give up fruit! It’s too delicious. I’m of the mindset that if nature naturally supplied it, it’s meant for our bodies. (I’m sure that is also pro-marijuana people’s argument too… hahaha) I don’t know, I just feel as though the planet itself wouldn’t supply food that harms us.
With the obvious exceptions of toxic mushrooms, berries and plants. 🙂
I don’t think I would ever be able to give up fruit. I love it too much. 😀 Sugar…I could definitely cut back. I’m working on that already this month.
Thanks for the great post.
I try not to eat too much added sugar, except for cupcakes, yum! hehe
I need to incorporate more fruit into my diet for sure. I was on a roll with an apple a day for a while…but that fizzled out.
I like your “except for cupcakes” rule 🙂
Maybe I should start eating the grapefruits are sitting on my counter?
I agree, you have to leave fruit in but cutting back or being mindful of the amount of sugar is a good way to go. Fruit is awesome!
I have a total sweet tooth and sometimes put myself on sugar detox… ie go a week or two with no non naturally occuring sugars. I always leave fruit in and just cut out refined sugar and limit sweeteners.
Ah, my Garmin band broke as well! I’m glad to see I’m not the only one. Nice MacGyver fix.
This is something that I wondered about last year. I use the iPhone all My Fitness Pal to track my food. I eat a lot of fruit. I love fruit (apples, bananas, strawberries yum!) and because I eat several servings of fruit a day it ALWAYS said I went over my “daily allotment” for sugar intake. This made me mental. I was so confused. I mean apples are healthy! I shouldn’t be restricting THAT right?
I eventually talked to a Nutritionist and told her everything I ate. I discussed the fruit/sugar issue and she said not to pay attention to that “too much sugar” in fruit thing. It’s a different kind of sugar than cookies or candy and it’s HEALTHY.
I’m doing this slow carb diet thing, which means ZERO fruit (except on cheat days). It’s weird to not grab an apple when I’m in the mood to shove food in my mouth, but other than that it’s super easy. Maybe it’s because I’m meh on citrus and little else is in season right now?
I just watch out for added sugar when I’m picking stuff out at the grocery store. Theres like a hundred words for sugar now..its crazy when you read food labels. I just don’t get the whole anti fruit movement, Milk has sugar too, so if fructose is bad wouldn’t naturally occurring lactose be too? I’m an undergrad health science major and we just discussed this whole thing in detail in my advanced nutrition class. Idk. Fruit spikes my blood sugar too so I rarely just have a piece of fruit as a snack but I still love it in my oatmeal!
Glad to hear that you aren’t giving up fruit! The whole thing kinda makes me laugh. I can honestly say that I didn’t gain extra weight because I ate too much fruit!
Such a coincidence! A co-worker today told me I could only eat half a banana at a time because they were bad for you and had lots of carbs. Glad to hear they’re still on the healthy list (though I knew that already…)
Actually Katherine (the RD) mentioned about how often we hear things from people at the gym or at work that are just random info and not based on sound nutrition at all. The half a banana thing is def random!
I’m glad you’re not giving up fruit. I think it’s ridiculous that articles like that even exist. It’s not like you ever meet someone and they say “I’ve been hitting the apples and bananas really hard and got fat”. Fruits and other whole foods are not the problem and something telling you to eat slightly unripe bananas because they have less sugar is just sad.
I agree with this comment. At the hospital where I work I would LOVE to see a patient come in who got fat on apples and bananas (b/c it would never happen). And I take issue with the idea that your body digests fruit and table sugar the same. The fiber in fruit, as you mentioned Monica, will delay gastric emptying (making food stay in your stomach longer) and keep you full much longer than simple sugar.
totally informative – THANKS Monica 🙂
Good luck cutting the sugar
Weight Watchers launched their new plan and made all fruit 0 pts+, and it’s been pretty life changing for a lot of WWers, myself included. I now eat 2-3 pieces of fruit a day (sometimes more) with no shame because I love it so much and its a lot better than other things I could be snacking on.
I just learned that Yoplait isn’t vegetarian. Not that I like their yogurt anyway, but I don’t know why they have to add gelatin. So weird!
I love fruit and I will never give it up. I eat an apple, berries, and a banana daily. Yum!