The Truth About Fruit

Fruit has been a controversial topic when building a diet to compliment your training. Fruit, as we have always been told, is extremely healthy and should be consumed daily. This is true, for most people. What we don’t always learn is that a lot of fruits we enjoy are loaded with sugar, a substance we try to limit or exclude from our health themed diets. So how do we decide on if we should or shouldn't be including fruit in our diets? Should we include an inordinate amount, or none whatsoever? Should we include it sparingly? Well, I’ve done the research and formulated my own opinion. I've gone through the trial and error and I can say earnestly that I have discovered the truth about fruit.

My answer is that fruit is both good and bad for you, and should be included in your diet sparingly. Yes, fruit does contain sugar, and that is something we try and stay away from. However, natural sugar, and the more primary sugar, fructose, isn’t the worst thing in the world for you, as it doesn’t trigger an insulin surge or cause your blood sugar levels to decline. Over a lengthy period of time, constant consumption of fruit may have a negative effect on body fat levels, but this can be avoided by simply laying off the fruit for a few days.

Unless you’re actually trying to get your body fat lower than 10%, I would keep fruit in your diet.  If you think fruit is the reason you’re having a hard time losing weight, you need to examine other aspects of your diet first.  Like removing everything you eat that comes in a box.

The sugar is really the only aspect of fruit that I could find that may turn one off to including it in his or her diet. You can’t beat the vitamins and minerals found in fresh fruit. Plus, it’s extremely portable and eases our panging sweet tooth. 

Be sure to include a noticeable, but not overwhelming, amount of fruit into your diet, and cut back completely for a couple of days every two weeks or so to keep your body guessing. Here are just a few of my favorite, most health conscious fruits: avocados, apples, bananas, oranges, mangos, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and pomegranates.