Fruit Is Evil!!!! WHAT????
After being in the low carb diet space for a while you are bound to hear the statement above, “fruit is evil”. That is right, one of the foods your parents told you was good for you will now kill you. This week I came across this video claiming fruit is evil. Watch it if you dare.
What is so bad about fruit? The carbs of course. What is wrong with carbs? An excessive amount of carbohydrates can cause constantly elevated blood sugar and lead to things like type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. We know that is bad of course, but really, fruit is the cause?
Lets take a look at the carb count in some common fruits.
Keep in mind the above numbers are “net carbs”, in other words it is subtracting out fiber from the total carb count.
Outside of dried fruits, (more on this below) the highest carb count there is 21 carbs for a banana. Should we not blink an eye at the 21 carbs? No it is not insignificant, especially if you are trying to follow a ketogenic diet and you need to stay below 50g of carbohydrates. However, the 21 carbs in the banana is only a very small piece of the picture. Here is the complete nutritional value of 100g of banana
We already know about the 21-22 grams of carbs, but what else is there? Well it is only 89 calories, pretty much 0 fat, and very little protein. It does come with some vitamins and minerals.
What about something with a similar carb count? A standard size Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar happens to have a very similar carb count, slightly higher at 25 grams but that is not a huge deal. What else though?
The chocolate bar has 230 calories, 12 grams of (unhealthy) fat, and again a very small amount of protein. Notice though it has 22 grams of sugar compared to the bananas 12 grams of (naturally occurring) sugar. Vitamin and minerals are pretty much a wash, but I would be willing to bet what you get from the banana is much more bio-available by your body since they occur naturally.
Which one would you choose if I said you could eat 25g of carbs? This shouldn’t even be a question, the banana, every time, especially if you are concerned about weight loss as you would get far fewer calories with the banana. We haven’t even mentioned the ingredients in the Hershey’s bar  .
At this point you are probably saying, “Ryan this isn’t a fair comparison, you are comparing a banana to a chocolate bar!” You are right, but this is the point. Most people would choose the chocolate bar over the banana when given the choice, you can’t argue that. If we were just to consider the carbohydrate content of the food item and carbohydrates alone were the cause of obesity and the many diseases associated with it then it wouldn’t matter which one you chose, they would have the same negative health effects.
The fact of the matter is that we do not have a health epidemic because of eating too much fruit. It is ultra-processed food like the candy bar that is the problem. We just don’t see a combination of fat and sugar like there is in the candy bar in ANY NATURAL WHOLE FOOD. This simple example will illustrate the problem of why it is the ultra-processed high carb, high fat, high calorie food is the problem and not the natural piece of fruit.
Say you eat the banana, and you are still hungry so you have another banana, and maybe you are REALLY hungry and you eat a third banana. Thats 66 grams of carbs and 270 calories.
Now say you eat the Hershey’s Chocolate Bar, but since you know the chocolate bar is bad, you don’t have another one. Your brain wants those 22 grams of sugar again so it is sending all kinds of hunger signals for you to eat again. Instead of another chocolate bar you think a Protein Muffin from Dunkin Donuts would be a better choice (remember that from last weeks email?) thats another 460 calories and 61 grams of carbs including 26 grams of sugar.
Can you see the problem? Sure a piece of fruit may not be that satisfying, but even if you over indulge on the fruit you won’t come close to the damage that could be done over indulging on highly processed food. In fact this is the conclusion that a couple of studies have come to. You cannot blame obesity, and the many associated diseases on one macronutrient, instead it is the combination of fat and sugar (plus several other factors like like of movement and exercise) that is the problem.
There are certainly some exceptions of course.
First, if you already have diabetes or pre-diabetes, or are triggered by sweet tasting things like fruit, I would limit or avoid it until those situations are resolved. Also dried fruit is a special case. As we see above dried fruit gives you a huge wack of sugar and should be used as a garnish or in situations where a large dose of carbohydrates are necessary (races/hard workouts/etc). Another special case is fruit juice. These are just concentrated forms of fruit with most of the good stuff removed. For example, to make an 8oz glass of apple juice you would need to use 3-6 whole apples. I guarantee you would never eat more than 1 or 2 apples at a time! Juicing fruit is the equivalent to making fruit into a candy bar.
If you choose to limit fruit in your diet, that is fine, but to go around and say fruit is evil is just plain wrong. Fruit can be enjoyed as part of a healthy diet and as long as it is not overdone there is no need to be concerned.
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