Is Fruit Sugar Fattening? Everything You Wanted To Know About Fruits And Weight Loss.

How many times have you heard this: "fruits are high in sugar, sugar is bad for weight loss, so you should stop eating fruits"...

In the world of diets and weight loss, there is still this significant dogma that fruits might cause weight gain. In this article, we're going to use science and basic nutrition principles to decide whether fruits are good or not for efficient weight loss.

First, let's talk about health. There is clear evidence that increased consumption of fruits reduces the risk of three of the leading causes of death - heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. Moreover, there is conceivable evidence that it protects us from cancer, our additional top killer!

But what about all of this sugar? The traditional thinking is that all carbs and sugars are bad for our weight and that fruits contain more natural sugars than other whole foods like vegetables. Consequently, it makes sense that many of us believe that fruits are also contributing to weight gain. 

Fruits sugar VS white sugar

The question is, does fruit sugar affect our body weight in the same way as refined carbs and white sugar do?

Let's start with some facts, that will help us understand how fruits are digested differently than other sugars.

Fruits usually have a significantly lower glycemic index than carbohydrates such as white sugar, syrups, and refined grains. The Glycemic index is a system of assigning a number to carbohydrate-containing foods according to how much each food increases blood sugar.

To simplify that, foods with a high glycemic index (like white sugar) will be digested easily, and so our blood sugar will skyrocket. It will create a temporary peak of energy, but after a few minutes our blood sugar will drop and we'll feel tired, and hungry and our sweet tooth will be too strong to resist, thus we eat more calories throughout the day and eventually gain weight.

But with fruits, it's completely the opposite. When we eat fruits, the sugar inside comes with an extremely beneficial package. Fruits contain a high amount of fiber, which slows down the digestion process and therefore reduces the glycemic index of the fruits drastically.

Thanks to the low glycemic index, eating fruits gives you a balanced and stable supply of energy and crabs, without creating those "blood sugar drops".

Are fruits high in calories?

Fruits are very, very low in calorie density. Calorie density is an index that represents the number of calories in a given volume (weight) of food. Fruits usually have 200-300 calories per pound, which makes them super satiating but very low in calories.

To comprehend this, 45 cups of blueberries contain less than 2,000 calories!!

Practically, it's not humanly possible to eat too many fruits. You will be satiated way before you'll consume too many calories.

Why fruits are so low in calories?

Again, fiber is important here. What it mainly does is fill your stomach, stimulating receptors that tell your brain that it’s time to stop eating, without adding extra calories to your diet. And the cool thing with fiber is that you even feel less hungry hours later compared to foods without fiber. 

Similarly to fiber, foods that contain high water content have a similar property of making us fill fuller and for longer. And most fruits are 85-90% water. For more information on why water is crucial for weight loss, see our latest article. 

How is it translated into weight loss?

On paper, we went through the attributes that make fruits so good for weight loss. Now let's see what the largest studies that have been done on the correlation between fruits and weight has to say. 

The first study followed 133,468 adults over a 24-year span and found that fruit intake was associated with a greater weight loss over time. And interestingly enough, apples and berries seemed to have the greatest effect on weight loss (:

Moreover, several studies that followed a combined total of a half million people and their diets over the years have found that those who tend to eat the most fruits or vegetables seem to have 17 percent lower odds of weight gain or abdominal obesity!

The ultimate nature's multivitamin

The most important attribute of fruits for weight loss is that they are a nutrient-dense food, meaning they are low in calories but high in nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber. This is phenomenal to our general well-being because vitamins and minerals are crucial for a variety of metabolic processes. Basically, they keep us healthy and help our bodies to function.

For instance, one large orange only contains 47 calories while it meets 163% of your daily needs for vitamin C, an essential component of immune health. Variety is helpful here- consuming different types of fruits, like berries, bananas, apples, melons, and more- will help us meet all of our vitamin requirements.

 What about orange juice?

While whole fruits are low in calories and a good source of fiber, the same is not necessarily true of fruit juice.

In the process of juice-making, the juice is extracted from the fruit, leaving behind its beneficial fiber and providing a concentrated dose of calories and sugar. Even children who were given 100% fruit juice as toddlers tend to be at higher risk of becoming overweight.

Liquid calories in general may be less satiating. If you feed people four hundred calories of fruit juice, they go on to eat 75 percent more of a test meal of mac ’n cheese than if you had instead fed them four hundred calories of whole fruit, even if the equivalent amount of fiber had been stirred into the juice.

The bottom line ✅

You can eat as many fruits as you'd like if you're trying to lose weight. For our clients, we recommend a minimum of 3 a day, but even more than that is brilliant!

Perhaps the reason why fruits don't have the same repertoire that protein bars or superfoods have is that the profit margin from bananas and pineapples isn't so big compared with processed foods. But, as you've noticed, no BS science helps us understand that fruits are so good for health and weight loss...

I've never seen someone who gained weight from eating blueberries and apples :-)

A great way to incorporate them into your daily diet is to add them as a snack or dessert, instead of the high-calorie foods such as chips, croissants, and granola bars… Also, currently during the summer months, try to get seasonal fruits such as watermelons and even try to freeze some fruits and make a fruit smoothie. That's amazing!

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this 21st edition of our newsletter. Last week, we talked about our new 2022 Diet Report, which had huge demand from our readers. If you didn't have a chance to get this e-book, for free, click on this link, fill up your contact details and we'll send it to your email!

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