Why should we eat fruit?

Austerity · 02-10-2010 3:14am #1

Fruit contains mainly sugar and water. It has small amounts of vitamins and such but you can get these vitamins by eating eggs and liver. This way you can reduce the sugar in your diet. Are there any reasons to eat fruits at all except that it tastes good?

gerrycollins · 02-10-2010 8:46am

fruit contains fructose which in term can be called "fruit sugar". Your body can more easily deal with this kind of suger more so than it can with refined white sugar or any of the "ose" products and by products.

the process of fructose causes a slow constant release of energy into the body over a period of time where as a chocolate bar full of suger will only give a lift of energy for a shorter period of time.

fruit is also beneficial for its fiber however you must eat the whole fruit not a juiced or smoothie version to get that fiber.

reducing the sugar in you diet is a very good idea however it is the refined sugars and processed sugars you need to reduce not the natural sugars.

El_Dangeroso · 02-10-2010 9:52am

Potassium? Pectin? Probably could get that from other sources too but why would you want to when they taste so good.:)

Blueberries have compounds that have been proven to improve cognitive function and aid weight loss by reducing insulin resistance.

Plus, strawberries and cream...c'mon :cool:

cormie · 02-10-2010 10:20am

gerrycollins wrote: »

fruit is also beneficial for its fiber however you must eat the whole fruit not a juiced or smoothie version to get that fiber.

As far as I know, this isn't the case if you actually make the smoothie yourself and drink it straight away..

rubadub · 02-10-2010 10:35am

cormie wrote: »

As far as I know, this isn't the case if you actually make the smoothie yourself and drink it straight away..

Somebody posted ages ago about liquidising breaking up the fibre or something, I am not sure to what extent it is supposed to "damage" it, like if you chewed it up very well it should have the same effect.

cormie · 02-10-2010 10:44am

I'm not sure myself, blending is supposed to have some great benefits, but not too blend too much but I guess it's all relevant to the type of blender you have, speed etc, how quickly you drink the meal after etc.

gerrycollins · 02-10-2010 11:13am

cormie wrote: »

As far as I know, this isn't the case if you actually make the smoothie yourself and drink it straight away..

Its nothing to do with the blender the mix or the smoothie itself its how your body can process it. the best blender in the world is your mouth and its saliva. take an orange for example

sqeeze the juice out of one and see what you are left with. Thats were the fiber is, its in the structure of the friut not the liquid in the majority.

also hitting you stomach with the contents of 5 fruits(for example) within a 5 mins period, if you drink a smoothie your stomach will more than likely dispose of some of it straight away instead of processing it and getting its benefits

now eat 5 fruits one after the other your stomach will have time to do its work etc because the breakdown begins in your mouth with you saliva etc where as with a juice or smoothie it head straight for the stomach.

now juices and smothies are not the evil but they have to be treated as a meal or part there of, not a between meals supplement . where as fruit or tow is an excellent between meal snack.

cormie · 02-10-2010 11:42am

Just on that, I've heard myself that blending will make digestion a lot easier, but I've also read that you should chew your smoothie too

Not just drink it right down, mix it with saliva and all that, then swallow. Chewing apparently releases serotonin also.

rocky · 02-10-2010 11:47am

gerrycollins wrote: »

fruit contains fructose which in term can be called "fruit sugar". Your body can more easily deal with this kind of suger more so than it can with refined white sugar or any of the "ose" products and by products.

Not really. Fructose has to be converted to glucose by the liver and it's either stored in the liver glycogen or released into the bloodstream. It's definitely not "easier to deal with" than refined sugar (which contains glucose and fructose).

the process of fructose causes a slow constant release of energy into the body over a period of time where as a chocolate bar full of suger will only give a lift of energy for a shorter period of time.

That is true, however excess fructose has been associated with the presence of blood triglycerides.

gerrycollins · 02-10-2010 12:17pm

cormie wrote: »

Just on that, I've heard myself that blending will make digestion a lot easier, but I've also read that you should chew your smoothie too Not just drink it right down, mix it with saliva and all that, then swallow. Chewing apparently releases serotonin also.

the serotonin is one ive never heard but a good one if true.

ApeXaviour · 02-10-2010 2:43pm

rocky wrote: »

That is true, however excess fructose has been associated with the presence of blood triglycerides.

Indeed, it looks like fructose is pretty crap when there's any kind of quantity. Also (@gerrycollins) the sugar in a chocolate bar (sucrose) is 50% fructose.

Sapsorrow · 03-10-2010 8:01pm

If you haven't seen this yet..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Then you must live under a bigger rock than I do!

dxhound2005 · 03-10-2010 9:23pm

ApeXaviour wrote: »

Indeed, it looks like fructose is pretty crap when there's any kind of quantity. Also (@gerrycollins) the sugar in a chocolate bar (sucrose) is 50% fructose.

How much is any kind of quantity? This fellow says 50 grams per day would be OK.

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

Sapsorrow · 03-10-2010 9:32pm

dxhound2005 wrote: »

How much is any kind of quantity? This fellow says 50 grams per day would be OK.

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

I'd say it's highly individual, and would depend on your priorities and needs as well as your overall diet and metabolism. If it's raised triglycerides that are your concern then you need to look at all the other heart disease risk factors before you decide what action to take as they are all so confusingly interrelated, but if I was in a high risk group for heart disease I'd consider seriously limiting it and replacing my fruit with vegetables. I think if you're eating fresh fruits in their whole form and not going too crazy on the higher sugar (usually tropical) types then fruit itself isn't a big concern for the vast majority of us. Some people are very very sensitive to fructose though, some can't digest it, for others it feeds parasites (candida) or causes other intolerance like reactions so as usual it depends on the person.

El_Dangeroso · 03-10-2010 9:43pm

dxhound2005 wrote: »

How much is any kind of quantity? This fellow says 50 grams per day would be OK.

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

I think 50g of fructose in the form of fruit would give most people a tummy upset. That's like 6 pieces of fruit.

Sapsorrow · 03-10-2010 11:44pm

dxhound2005 wrote: »

How much is any kind of quantity? This fellow says 50 grams per day would be OK.

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

Thanks for the link to that, very interesting article (and ensuing raging discussion), although I think I'll need a can or two of red bull (sugar-free of course

) to get through all the comments. I love articles where the comments are as good as the post itself! I agree with some of Aragons points, in particular how important the dose and context are and that you can't blame the whole obesity epidemic on fructose (or any one element of our diets) but it's still a great lecture for learning the nitty gritty of how fructose is metabolized, it was a real eye opener for me as we never covered fructose metabolism in college for some reason and so, was all news to me.

Why should we eat fruit?

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