How much fruit should you eat?

Most everyone knows that we all should eat at least 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day.  For years USDA has a slogan:  5 A DAY, to remind us to eat at least 5 servings of fruit and veggies a day.  Many people ask how much of the 5 A Day should be fruit and how much should be veggies?  Mixing up fruits and veggies are a good idea as each provides us with different vitamins, minerals and those good antioxidants.  Some say to limit fruit to 2 servings a day as fruit has “sugar” in it.  But fruit has natural sugar in it, not “added sugar”.  It is the “added sugar” that we need to cut back on.  So what guidance is there about how much fruit we can or should eat?  An interesting article appeared in Time, Is it possible to eat too much fruit?  Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor at University of California at San Francisco discusses some interesting new research on fruit.

What are the concerns about eating too much fruit?

As noted above, the biggest concern is the natural sugar in fruit.  But should you be concerned about this?  Apparently not.  According to Dr. Lustig, eating whole fruit like an apple, orange, banana, actually reduces one’s risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.  

Why does whole fruit reduce our risk of obesity and other diseases?

Fiber is one main reason.  When you eat that apple or the orange you are also getting the natural fiber in that piece of whole fruit.  There are 2 kinds of fiber in fruit, soluble and insoluble.  When you eat this fiber it actually forms a type of latticework in your small intestine.  This is actually a good thing.  This latticework according to Dr. Lustig helps prevent the fruit sugar from being absorbed too rapidly.  This latticework “limits the rate of sugar absorption so that the liver is not overwhelmed”.  This shouldn’t be too surprising.  Did you ever get a sugar high from eating a banana or an apple?  Also interesting is that our intestines are full of good bacteria (especially if you eat yogurt and add these good bacteria to your diet).  These good bacteria apparently love the fruit sugar, they eat it, metabolize it so even though you eat the fruit sugar, you don’t absorb all of it.  (Could this be a reason eating yogurt is not linked to weight gain?  Or eating fruit is not linked to weight gain?)

Fiber also gives you a feeling of fullness.  Eating a piece of fruit can help you feel fuller as the fiber in fruit helps the fruit molecules reach your small intestine faster.  This full sensation may actually limit how much fruit you eat.  I really never have heard of someone binging on apples, oranges or bananas, have you?

Are some fruits healthier than other fruits?

More and more research is being done on the overall health benefits of fruit.  For years people said grapes and raisins didn’t have that much nutritional value.  Now they know grapes and raisins provide boron to our diets.  In fact, raisins are a fruit with the highest boron content.  Boron is a trace mineral important for many things such as strong bones.  (I love raisins and put a small box of raising on my cereal every day.)

Research is also showing us how important fruit is for the healthy antioxidants it provides.  Each color of fruit provides us with different antioxidants.  Berries, in particular, blueberries are super rich in antioxidants.  Eat more berries to improve your heart and brain health.  

Why is fruit healthy?

Whole fruit has not added sugar and the natural sugar in it is not the problem some people make it out to be.  Fruit also has no fat.  So many Americans have high fat diets so eating more fruit would be a good thing.  I had a student in my class who wanted to lose 15 pounds.  We talked about how important it was to eat 5 A Day so he tried to add more fruits and veggies to his day.  Then he started to lose weight.  When I asked how he did it, he said “5 A Day”.  He said that he ate the apple and then didn’t eat the potato chips.  So, the 5 A Day was replacing a lot of the high fat, processed snacks he was eating.

• Fruit is low in sodium and fairly low in calories.  A whole cup of diced watermelon has only 46 calories.
• Fruit is loaded with many minerals such as potassium. Eating more fruit is great for those with high blood pressure as potassium helps maintain healthy blood pressure.  To get more potassium add bananas, prunes, dried peaches, dried apricots, cantaloupe, honeydew and orange juice to your diet.
• Fruit is loaded with many vitamins such as vitamins A, C and folate.  Vitamin C is a vitamin you should get every day.  It helps growth and repair of tissues, helps heal wounds and cuts, and keeps your gums and teeth healthy.  

Watermelon - a low calorie fruit

Health benefits of eating fruit include reducing your risk of heart disease, stroke.  The antioxidants in fruit (and in vegetables) may protect us from some types of cancer.  The fiber in fruit can reduce our risk of obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  The potassium in fruit may reduce risk of high blood pressure as stated previously and also reduce the risk of kidney stones.  Potassium may help maintain strong bones. 

If you aren’t yet eating 5 A Day, try adding some fruit to your day.  I eat three servings of fruit at breakfast every day: a banana, a box of raisins and a glass of 100% orange juice or grapefruit juice.  Bring some fruit to work for a snack.  Have a bowl of fresh fruit on your kitchen counter top.  Buy some watermelon or cantaloupe.  Add some fresh fruit to your smoothie.  My sister told me she really doesn’t like the taste of watermelon.  But she makes a smoothie with watermelon and then a lot raspberries to mask the taste of the watermelon.  So, she gets the health benefits of watermelon and all those good antioxidants in the berries.  A student told me he really didn’t like fruit.  He started drinking Naked juice to get some fruit into his day and asked if that was a good idea.  I could have told him whole fruit is healthier, which would be true. But for him, getting started with some fruit via 100% juice, was a great start.  Yes, for him Naked juice was a great way to add fruit to his day.  Naked juice is 100% juice and a blend of many different juices with no added sugar.  My sister and many students find a way to add fruit to their day.  So find a way that works for you to add more fruit, especially whole fruit, to your day. Try a breakfast banana split for a breakfast treat.  

Enjoy a breakfast banana split

Sources:  Is it possible to eat too much fruit? , raisins,  strong bones, brain health. , potassium, Health benefits, Naked juice  Image sources:  grapefruit, watermelon, breakfast banana split