Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Okay, so I know there are many studies showing fructose to be bad for animals and humans, but are there any studies showing fruit to be detrimental to humans in any way shape or form?

I enjoy eating fruit daily but should I be concerned?

flag	asked Apr 24 2012 at 22:23 foreveryoung 16.2k●2●11●55

Chris Masterjohn compares HFCS and honey: blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2010/10/… and Stephen Guyenet examines a study of a mostly fruit diet for weight loss: wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2012/02/… – Violet Apr 25 2012 at 2:15

Nance · Answer 1 · 2012-04-25 00:01:37Z UTC

I've had to crochet myself some belts in the past week because the pants that were too tight to sit down in a year ago now fall right off my hips. Other than the 1st month of transition from SAD, I've eaten fruit daily while losing that weight. Some days I just peel and eat a grapefruit; other days I'm right around that "50g of fructose" level.

If fruit isn't healthy, why has my gut healed and why don't I have any of the digestive issues discussed on so many PH questions? Why is my blood panel great?

I don't thrive in the absence of any of the following--meat, vegetables/greens and fruits. I simply cannot go more than a day or 2 without eating some of each. Within 3 days of failing to balance my intake I suffer acute symptoms--energy loss, anxiety, excessive hunger, etc.

We evolved eating all availble animal and plant-based foods and plant-based foods and vegetables/fruits are the "gather" in hunter/gatherer. Why would we eat just a few of our natural foods? All the books, journals and documentaries I ever saw about traditional hunter/gatherers emphasized that the resourceful cultures gleaned every scrap of nutrients from their environments.

Happy Now · Answer 2 · 2012-04-24 22:45:22Z UTC

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Fruit is ok unless your trying to lose weight. But, eating a little whole fruits a day and avoiding fruit juice is still recomended. Just don't over do it.

edited Apr 24 2012 at 22:45

Happy Now

answered Apr 24 2012 at 22:34

missionman
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Haha. Yeah I don't drink fruit juice at all. But why is even whole fruit detrimental to weight loss? (I assume you meant fat loss because losing weight is just a matter of calories, so I could eat 3 oranges a day and would certainly lose tons of weight) – foreveryoung Apr 24 2012 at 22:38

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Folks with insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome often struggle with fruit - many people can eat it, but a substantial population find they gain on it. It's all N=1 on this, right? – IfYouSaySo Apr 24 2012 at 22:47

Yeah, n=1. BUt fruit didn't give them IR/MS, right? – foreveryoung Apr 24 2012 at 22:53

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How is fruit detrimental to weight loss? I've eaten up to 300g of carbs from fruit as PWO meals on a cut for months with no issue. – Wisper Apr 25 2012 at 0:46

April S. · Answer 3 · 2012-04-25 00:11:21Z UTC

There's no dietary requirement for fructose and we do not use it as fuel. *EDIT: It is not used directly or preferentially as fuel and it can be converted to glucose.

Fructose can react with proteins (via the maillard reaction) to form advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which cause damage to your body that leads to disease.

To prevent the formation of AGEs, fructose must either be burned immediately or stored as fat. In the liver, metabolism of fructose favors lipogenesis (I don't think the mechanism is really well known here).

The problem with fructose is when you have an excess of fructose, which Kurt G Harris categorizes as one of the Neolithic agents of disease (NADs). And with that, reasonable quantities of fruit per day are okay.

I eat strawberries often and since it's almost summer, I'm not gonna say no to mangoes. But I dunno, maybe supplement with magnesium on days you eat a lot of fruit?

what’s so bad about fruit?

3 Answers