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Old 11-11-2010, 04:17 AM   #1  
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Default Fruits: Good or Sugar?

In particular I want to discuss apples. They are easy, convenient and aplenty in my neck of the woods. However my "carbs = bad" mentality makes me stay away from them.

Thoughts?

Last edited by slayrick; 11-11-2010 at 06:33 AM.
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Old 11-11-2010, 05:50 AM   #2  
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Well, I am not a nutrition expert but I don't think fruits are that bad. Maybe certin types of fruit like pineapple and water melons should be enjoyed in moderation but apples and pears and such...shouldn't be that bad. Maybe if you eat 15 apples a day but I haven't found any person who does that yet :P.

Keep in mind that fruit has natural sugar that your body is designed to handle better than prossesed sugar. PLUS, with the fruits you get lots of important vitamins and minerals, while prossesed stuff like a candy bar is just sugar and nothing else. So my opinion is that you can eat your fruits without feeling bad about it.


It is very well explained in this video - The truth about fruit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOuMaOGrnxU

Hope this helps
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Old 11-11-2010, 06:26 AM   #3  
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I have been eating about 3-5 apples a day . I use them for dessert so I'm not tempted to get anything unhealthy after I finish a healthy meal. I especially love them cold!
By the way, carbs do not equal "bad." Carbs may equal "trigger foods" for you and cause a lack of moderation (I know they can for me--especially pasta!), but they are not "bad." Anything that comes out of the ground is good for you--we just have to figure out how to balance everything correctly.
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Old 11-11-2010, 08:40 AM   #4  
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I always keep apples in the house. Nutritious and deliscious!! They are good for your teeth... they have fiber... My son ate TWO with his dinner last night (he will be two in January). I like to eat one as I am leaving work - so I don't come home starving. When I think about all the things I ate to get up to 250 lbs... I personally think that eating an apple a day is a good habit for me to have.

And I personally think of "bad" carbs as doritos, fritos, buttery crackers, cookies, white pasta, white bread, soda, etc.

Last edited by SCraver; 11-11-2010 at 08:41 AM.
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Old 11-11-2010, 11:22 AM   #5  
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I vote GOOD!!! I try to limit my fruit servings to about 2 per day for myself. Although full of fiber, etc. too many of them can be a bad thing. Moderation is the key.
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Old 11-11-2010, 11:56 AM   #6  
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i just can't buy that fruit is bad. It grows ON A TREE! It's natural! We give them to babies, old people, and sick people. Along with the sugar there is fiber, vitamins, nutrients. AND THE FINAL STRAW: People will say a fruit is bad but go eat a "diet snack" with 30 words in the ingredients you can't understand and High Fructose Corn Syrup in it? Please.

Now, i am vegan, so really i must eat fruit. But i find it doesn't hurt my weight (so far) and doesn't offer any ill side effects-perhaps if you are diabetic it is different.

Also on apples, don't just stick to the red delicious. i try a new one every time i buy a bundle. So far i have tried fuji and gala i think it was called. YUM to both!! Also you know what is good this time of year: pomegranates! super yum!
good luck
-fm
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Old 11-11-2010, 01:47 PM   #7  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foodmasochist View Post
i just can't buy that fruit is bad. It grows ON A TREE! It's natural! We give them to babies, old people, and sick people. Along with the sugar there is fiber, vitamins, nutrients. AND THE FINAL STRAW: People will say a fruit is bad but go eat a "diet snack" with 30 words in the ingredients you can't understand and High Fructose Corn Syrup in it? Please.

Now, i am vegan, so really i must eat fruit. But i find it doesn't hurt my weight (so far) and doesn't offer any ill side effects-perhaps if you are diabetic it is different.

Also on apples, don't just stick to the red delicious. i try a new one every time i buy a bundle. So far i have tried fuji and gala i think it was called. YUM to both!! Also you know what is good this time of year: pomegranates! super yum!
good luck
-fm
LOL! Yeah... any diet that tells me I can eat bacon, but I have to pass on apples just isn't for me!

Gala apples are my FAVORITE!!
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Old 11-11-2010, 02:01 PM   #8  
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Another apple-head here. I don't know how I would have lost 60 pounds without fruit, especially apples. They are so perfect! Pre-portioned, easy to transport, long shelf-life, relatively inexpensive, crunchy, packed with vitamins and fiber ... what more do you want in a food? Currently I eat 3-4 pieces of fruit a day - usually two apples, and either a banana, an orange, or both.

I think that eliminating fruit from your diet on the theory that "sugar is BAD" is throwing out the baby with the bathwater - an example of taking nutritionism and reductionist thinking to unhealthy and illogical extremes. Most of us didn't get fat from eating fruit.

That said, this process is so individual - you have to do what works for you, and the only way to find out what works for you is to do the science experiment. If you find that fruit is a trigger food for you, then don't eat it. My own guess is that fruit isn't going to be a trigger food for most people, even those who have serious problems with processed sugars. But what do I know? Do the experiment and find out for yourself.

Last edited by carter; 11-11-2010 at 02:04 PM.
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Old 11-11-2010, 03:51 PM   #9  
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Fruit definitely has sugar, but it certainly isn't bad! In moderation (2-3 servings a day for most people) it is a wonderful source of vitamins, nutrients, and fiber, not to mention delicious! I eat at least an apple or two a day, most days. Yes, they have sugar, but sugar isn't inherently evil in it's natural, unprocessed form. Fruit sugars don't trigger food issues with me like, say, corn syrup or sucrose does.
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Old 11-11-2010, 04:02 PM   #10  
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I don't think it's a simple question (at least not for everyone).

I firmly believe that no food is healthy, except in the context of a person's entire diet, and even then it's also dependent upon the unique situation of the individual.

If you're starving to death, a Big Mac would be "healthier" than an apple.

If you're diabetic, eating more than a few apples a day might not be healthy. Even if the sugars are from a healthy source, they are still sugars.

I lose best and feel best on a relatively low-carb diet. If I eat more than 100g of carbohydrates per day, I start experiencing problems (and the higher the carb intake, the more severe the problems, even if the carbs have all come from "healthy" sources).

I spent many years eating only foods that most people consider healthy, and I was still able to maintain my super morbidly obese weight, because I ate too much of them. Too much of a good thing, is still too much.

I LOVE fruit, and can easily eat too much, so I have to remember that moderation is immensely important, even when dealing with healthy foods. I have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and I have to practice moderation even with low-calorie vegetables. I eat a lot of vegetables, but I had to gradually increase servings to my current amount. I can't just decide to eat a lot more on any random day, just because I might be hungrier than usual. Eating more than my usual amount will cause severe gastrointestinal problems.

If you're eating tons of processed sugar, switching to fruits is a no-brainer. At least with fruits you're getting fiber and water and all those antioxidants and other micronutrients.

Dried fruits? Well, they still have the fiber and the antioxidants, but they're much more concentrated, so they can be more like candy than fruit. Caramels or raisins? Raisins win. But raisins or grapes, grapes win (unless you're trying to gain weight instead of lose it).

It all depends on your current health/diet/weight and your health/diet/weight goals.

Last edited by kaplods; 11-11-2010 at 04:08 PM.
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Old 11-11-2010, 04:11 PM   #11  
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I love fruit - when I was actively losing weight I had a sliced apple with 1 tbsp light caramel apple dip for an evening snack a lot. As time went on it moved to more apple and less caramel. Loved it.
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Old 11-11-2010, 08:16 PM   #12  
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I'm a fruit fanatic & I eat 4/5 pieces of fruit everyday. Yes I am fruity! I enjoy grapes, grapefruit, pear, banana, kiwi, strawberries etc. I was never a huge apple fan, but now I enjoy apples with a smear of peanut butter or almond butter. My latest apple kick is similar to Shannons, I was one who hated greek yogurt, bleh, BUT now greek yogurt is my fave, who would have thunk?! I cut an apple into slices & dunkeroo into Greek oikos carmel yogurt (wally world & Target boutique carry it) = yummy carmel apples that are good for you! I also enjoy the Greek oikos honey flavor with a banana dunkerooed in it too! I also add in some ground flax as I like the texture it adds.
I also love Greek Chobani blueberry yogurt & I mix in 1/2 cup of dry oats & a piece of fruit cut up & this is one of my favorite breakfasts, so chewy & oh so filling! Yup, I love fruit & eat it often.
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Old 11-11-2010, 08:34 PM   #13  
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Apples and cheese, baby. Smoked gouda on apple slices is the most amazing snack...
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Old 11-11-2010, 09:07 PM   #14  
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I love apples and they've been a staple of my "healthier" diet since I started. I probably eat 2 to 3 servings of fruit a day and I don't see any issue with it as long as it's within my target calorie/carb range.
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Old 11-12-2010, 06:20 AM   #15  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foodmasochist View Post
i just can't buy that fruit is bad. It grows ON A TREE! It's natural!
So does laburnum, but that's poisonous! There's a certain amout of correlation between things that are natural and things that are good for health and weight loss, but I never understand this kind of argument. Salmonella, E coli, staphylococcus, foxgloves - all natural, all potential killers. Antiretrovirals - all completely synthetic, save lives. In the past it's been our ability to preserve and process foods which has led to the success and thriving of the human race, yet it's been hounded as being bad, bad, bad now that we are in a position where the preservation of food has led to an excess of food availability.

Salting our meat, pickling our veg and making jam out of our fruit kept us alive through lean winters. Like everything else we need to be smart about our choices, but I don't buy it that natural is necessarily better just on the basis that it's natural. Especially natural medicines - OK so evening primrose oil is natural on the plant, but it's not natural to farm it, harvest it, roll it out of the plant and package it inside a capsule, so why is it still "natural" when it's in a plastic pot of capsules?
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