Posted by desolationrower on March 31, 2009, at 22:51:44
In reply to Re: How can fruit be bad for you?, posted by garnet71 on March 30, 2009, at 12:31:09
> I always hear it's because of the sugar content, yet I don't understand how fruit can be harmful to one's health.
>
> My son and I have been drinking a lot of fruit smoothies; I add greens to them too, like kale, parsely, cilantro-but not everyday 'cause my son always begs me to make the ones without green stuff in them, though he'll drink the green ones sometimes. It's hard for me to eat breakfast, but these work.
>well putting veg in your fruit smoothy sounds a bit ick (hippie), but there isn't a health problem here. Btw, the main thing that breakfast is good for is avoiding mornign hunger and eating lots of vending machine snacks. if i'm going to lose weight i usually do 20h fasting and then eat dinner.
> I'll mix up the fruits to mix up the vitamins and antioxidants-like I'll take a ripened banana (to sweeten), pear, frozen mixed berries, a kiwi, and some frozen papaya. Or apples, pinapple, frozen strawberries, etc. Usually have to add some orange juice or milk, water works too if out of those.
>
> Just think of all the vitamins and good stuff in these..Then I read all the time that fruits should be limited in diet.
>
> ???nutrition has one of the worst signal/noise ratios of anything i can think of.
>I can only think of 2 reasons: worry about weight gain and/or difficulty losing due to straight math >>> i.e., excess calories in, not enough exercise. It's so easy to consume a lot of daily calories with fruit
?? maybe fruit juice, but actual fruit is pretty good as far as satiety. fruit is one of the last things to worry about.
> as fructose delivers quite a few, but in a good way with other nutrients and fiber, too. The other concern in U.S. society for sure, would be diabetes, and the group who are pre-diabetic (me). If insulin resistance *might* be going on, or is, even slightly then my doc figures don't tempt fate with so much simple sugar, even in the healthy form of fruit, but try to increase the complex carbs instead, to stabilize BS and not stress out the insulin producing and delivery system so much.
ok. hm. arg.
fruit (and fructose generally) causes less insulin to be used than glucose (including 'complex carb' starch, which digests into glucose). Fructose (and galactose, from milk) is used by the liver (since most of the body can't use it) so it doesn't need insulin. The bad thing with fructose is if your liver is 'full', it can cause tryglyceride formation. So, solution->don't eat fructose when you're eating other things or have eaten recently; eat it when you're coming off a fast - like, you know, <i>breakfast</i>. At any rate, 'complex carbs' probably means grains, which are worse for prediabetic. legumes, those are pretty good. But for people who should restrict carbs, fruit is the most nutritious option. carb intake should generally follow activity level -> if you spend hours a week playing basketball, biking to work, whatever, more carbs. inactive, overweight ->few carbs. fats a bit more level and protein .5g/lbs for inactive, 1g/lbs if lift/endurance sports. most important though is diet is enjoyable and maintainable long terms without return to bad eating habits.
> You guys are great :Dthey are. unfortunately wading into food ideas makes me grumpy. :\
> I remember the aspect of the fiber now that you mentioned it; i think i was mixing up the blood sugar affects of fruit juices rather than the whole fruit that has fiber, and leaving the skins on some (though eating pesticides is not good!)
i never found a great answer to this, i think blending will result in finer particles than just chewing with teeth, but the fiber/sugar type etc. still results in reasonable gi. and skins are good.
> I suppose any risk of a spike in blood sugar would be mitigated by the fiber aspect and could be helped by adding protein? like yogurt or milk?
proteins or fat, yes (although milkfat=bad). one thing is that milk may bind to many of the polyphenol type components in teh fruit, which either delays their absorbtion or prevents it; this is analagous to teh binding milk does to harmful things. i still add yoghurt to my smoothies, though. i try to cluster my milk consumption during the day, but thats pretty crazy.
> It seems the benefits outweigh the risks. I've just been reading alot about the glycemic index lately, and of certain fruits and veggies (like corn is high) and wondered if that has adverse affects. Also, reading that excess blood sugar is one of the highest 'aging' factors you can do to your body has given me incentive to read up on this subject a bit more. Hey, I have to make up for the years I didn't take care of myself and at times, seemingly abused my body. Regrets, regrets...
more important if you are prediabetic; an analogy: As long as you aren't 'full' (liver and muscle stores of sugar), and your insulin and everything systems re working well, the amount/gi of carb isn't a big deal. Once you fill up, they start to overflow and mess stuff up. So being healthy weight, and exercising regularly (which deplete glycogen stores) allows for more carb intake. All the bad stuff from obesity/diabetes happens when your storage systems get full.
> 10der, that was cute what you said about the blender. I don't even have a dishwasher, so I it doesn't make much of a difference to me. If you rinse the blender in hot water right after mixing, it cleans easier. it is a pain to wash it every day though, i hate seeing it unwashed on the counter if I need to make a smoothie. lol
>
> BTW-Military acronyms ok with me.i make a full blender full and freeze them individually. it really is a lot of work ot make them.
ah. i feel a bit more relaxed now.
-d/r
poster:desolationrower
thread:887666
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20081212/msgs/887984.html