Fruit, yes or no?

I am a fruit fanatic, I snack on apples and oranges sometimes bananas all throughout the day. I am obsessed! But lately I've been thinking that maybe all that sugar, even though it is natural, may not be the best thing for weight loss? What is your opinion?

I'm no expert but I can't see anything negative about how much fruit you eat. Since watching my weight my daytime snacks are apples or bananas and I eat a lot. Hasn't hurt me.

Believe me I snack on fruit all the time and the sugar content has not caused a weight gain. The only thing to watch out for is just making sure you have a good estimate of the calorie content. Just be sure to count them in your daily intake. Other than that go for it. Plums, pears, and raspberries are delicious to

Never liked peaches

Too much fruit can be too much of a good thing.  Excessive amounts of sugar - even fruit sugar - set off processes in the body that make it more difficult for the body to release fat and more likely to conserve it.  Also, if a lot of your calories are coming from fruit, the risk is that you aren't getting a balanced diet of all the other foods.   There's nothing like some trial and error, however.  If you cut your fruit consumption down to 1 or 2 pieces a day and replace the missing calories with other foods you could judge for yourself whether it makes a difference or not.

me too...i eat too much fruit....i love it sooo much! especially oranges and apples! i suppose tooo much of anything is not good as the buddha says...you have to be in the MIDDLE road, not too extreme on anything....but be considerate and eat everything in moderation

I eat a least 2-3 pieces of fruit a day and have not seen any impact on my weight loss.  I love fruit :0  I don't eat as many bananas since they are calories dense and don't fill me up very long, mostly orances, apples, grapes and blueberries....this week watermelon :)

I too, have become a fruit fanatic.  Since I have started this life changing journey, I eat a lot of fruit and I don't seem to be able to get enough. 

I do include it in my calorie intake each day to be sure that I stay within my guidelines and I have lost 21 lbs since I started keeping track.  It is a great change from 4 Mcdonalds cherry pies a day, 2 big and tasties sandwiches and not to mention a lot of little debbie snacks.

With all the above, I forgot just how good fruit tasted, not to mention the benefits.  From one fruit fanatic to another, I would say as long as it is a part of a balanced meal plan go for it.

Original Post by mdb47374:

I would say as long as it is a part of a balanced meal plan go for it.

This is the key right here. Too much fruit and not enough of other types of food is something you want to be careful of, and not because of the sugar content (although excessive amounts of fruit does put a lot of sugar in your body), but more because you don't have a balanced diet and you end up lacking in other important nutrients and vitamins, and possibly protein/fat.

A lot of fruit is rich in fiber, which is great, but if you're not getting enough fat, your body can't break down the fiber and you end up getting "backed up" and bloated.

However, the sugar in fruit is far far far better then getting processed sugar in other foods. When you eat fruit, the sugar is wrapped up in the fibrous flesh of the fruit, and is absorbed by your body slowly, so you don't have to produce any extra insulin in process it, like you do when you eat processed sugar. This, by the way, is also why eating fruit is better then drinking juice.

The bottom line is....how much fruit are we talking about here? If you're eating 5 pieces a day, I wouldn't worry too much about it, although you might want to replace 1-2 of those with some veggies. But if you're eating 10-15 servings a day and not eating much else....well, I'm sure you already know that's a bit unbalanced.

i was wondering the same thing! but then i realized theres got to be a point that you stop worrying about eating healthy... i mean, i just basically told myself that if i wasnt eating the fruit i would be eating chips or cookies or some other bad choice snack...so whatever =] i do try to eat more veggies now too though