Is eating too much fruit harmful to your health? I'm a fruitaholic!
 

I lost 65 lbs and have been maintaining for 8 mo. For the past year and a half I have really enjoyed having lots of fruit around. I eat 8 or 9 servings a day, 5 of the servings with my breakfast everyday( it's not all I eat). I eat three or four servings with a yogurt for lunch everyday and munch on grapes in between meals. Dinner is always veggies and a lean protein. I count calories and always count the fruit into my daily calories. Besides gaining weight if you go over your calorie limit from it, does anyone know if this can be harmful to your health? There is alot of natural sugar in fruits, can you eat too much natural sugar? Maybe develop diabetes? Any info would be appreciated, thanks chicks!

I think you could get lots of info on the subject just by googling it.I am not an expert but I do know a body needs lots of nutrients to be healthy.Are you fulfilling those requirements with a primarily fruit diet?

If you eat too much of anything, it can have less than ideal health consequences - mostly because if you're eating a huge amount of one food, it can often mean you're eating less of something else.

It really depends on what else you're eating and how much of it, and also which fruits you're eating. If you're eating 8 to 9 servings a day, but you're only eating 4 or 5 kinds of fruit, you definitely could be shortchanging yourself of some nutrients.

If you're eating fruits and veggies of many varieties (and many different colors), it may be less of a problem. You could be shortchanging yourself on proteins and fats (and maybe you're not).

If you can speak to a dietitian that would be ideal, but if not a book on basic nutrition should help you figure it out.

My sister is a registered dietitian and she recommended the book,

American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide by Roberta Larson Duyff

You have been maintaining for 8 months! The fruit is not sending you into a carb frenzy. Sounds like you figured out what works for your body. Of course it would be better to eat a rainbow of fruits and veggies, but you are doing better than the majority of the population by getting at least your fruits in. When I go to the Asian markets I see these tiny women buying cases of fruit. Granted they are splitting this with extended family I think, but still.....of all the things you could have a "thing" about, fruit seems likea benign addiction. Congratulations on maintaining!

I eat fresh fruit and lots of it--many days in the ball park of 7-9 servings of it daily. I don't seem to have a problem with it. Processed carbs--a completely different story but nope, no problems with fresh fruit.

If you ALREADY have diabetes or pre-diabetes it can be bad, but it isnt going to CAUSE it. I can't eat much fruit because it DOES send ME into a sugar spin, but it clearly doesnt for you or you would know.

As Kaplods says, the issue is more what are you NOT eating because of the fruit. 9 servings is probably ~ 600 calories a day of fruit & you are pretty tiny. Unless you are extremely active that is probably around 1/3 of your calories or more. I might consider making sure you are getting at least the minimum servings of protein, fat, whole grains and veggies and then feel free to fill in extras with fruit...there are definitely worse choices.

However you may want to increase the # of times you brush your teeth. Fruits not only have sugar, they typically are acidic and the combo can do a whammy on tooth enamel.

thanks everyone for your input! I do eat a large variety of fruits and I just love it so much that i really don't want to try to cut down. Ennay, yes I do eat about 600 calories from fruit a day, it's about half of my total calories. I am small, so I don't need as much and I am very active. But I also have a whole grain cereal w/ f.f milk with my fruit for breakfast, and a yogurt w/ my fruit for lunch, and a lean protein (fish or chicken)and lots of veggies for dinner. Sometimes I snack on nuts too, so i think I have everything covered in nutrients. I would live on just fruit if I could!

Fruitlady! Congrats on your weightloss!! Well done!!

Well, your name certainly does fit you! :D

Luckymommy, yes it does, my husband started calling me the fruitlady last year when I used to come home with a big box of fruits from the fruit stand every Saturday. Take Care!

The theory that excessive sugar/sweet intake causes diabetes is not a new one (it has been a commonly held belief by healers and physicians in many cultures, for at least 2,000 years or more).

For the past several decades, the experts have been telling us that sugar does NOT cause diabetes.

Now type II diabetes is becoming pandemic in industrialized nations, becoming common in populations in which it has been exceedingly rare, such as children (not only overweight, but normal weight and underweight children as well), and also appearing in healthy (even athletic) young adults.


The causes aren't known, but many of the medical experts are less willing to dismiss sugar intake as a factor that can contribut to Type II diabetes. Pollutants, lifestyle including activity level and diet (including sugar and types of sugar) are all being re-examined.

Maybe the ancient physicians and healers weren't so wrong.

I'm curious about what 5 servings of fruit looks like for you in one meal. For me, I am the same way with vegetables and can eat that volume of vegetables at a meal. :)

Fruit is supposed to be the "tree's" bribe for birds and other animals to carry the seeds. Okay? It is a bribe. I think only certain times of the year, fruit at peak sugar content is available (after that it becomes alcohol?) So, no, I do not think it is safe to eat something that is so sweet that it exists to cater to addicted beings-- Poor plant is creating all this sweethess hoping you will poop out the seeds when you dont even eat the seeds. The plants have been misled, and you have been misled. The whole idea of farming and stable "cities" of people is forigen to fruit trees. I think that "some" fruit is good-- occasionally-- the sugar content of too much fruit is otherwise bad.

Fruit and veggies are very good for you and I think 2 to 5 servings of each is recommended. I just tend to favor fruit more than veggies and eat more than 5 servings. I have been eating fruit like this for about a year, and I have never felt better in my life. Not to mention I now have thicker hair, clearer skin and quick growing nails. I have not been sick for 18mo. (since I switched to whole foods) I was just wondering if it was harmful if did this for life, cause I surely would!