Fruit has somehow turned into a controversial food group. Some fuckers just want to ruin everything.

The logic behind this incredible boring argument is that is contains sugar.

SUGAR?! Holy shit fuck, why didnt you say earlier! It must be trying to kill you, poison you with it’s sugary goodness and sleep with your wife (I may have made that last one up).

I want to share you with the reasons why you definitely should be eating fruit, not just a story about my nans sisters dog who once ate fruit and is now 2 stone overweight.

Lower Calorie Density

You know your friend Dave? Yes, the guy who is overweight but is blaming the grapes he ate for breakfast. I can tell you that those grapes are much less likely to be the cause of his cuddliness in comparison to the donut he had for lunch.

I’m sure this wont come as a surprise to you clever bunch, but that donut contains about 6 times the amount of calories for the same amount of weight.

If we want to control the amount we weigh, we need to be controlling to foods that we put in our mouths. The food that is going to be the biggest in volume, but the lowest in calories is usually going to be our best option.

So, it appears that size does matter! My wife was right….damn!

Shortened answer: Eat your fruit.

Keeps you fuller for longer

Staying less hungry is key to eating less. Eating less helps us lose weight. Put these two sentences together and we begin to realise that hunger plays an important role in losing weight.

Well, I have some great news. Fruit is brilliant at managing hunger.

Coupled with being high volume and low calorie (as we mentioned in the previous paragraph), fruit also contains a high amount of fibre. Fibre is a clever little bugger and it keeps us fuller for longer by slowing our digestion down.

This is going to stop us going balls deep into a KFC bargain bucket binge on a Friday because we are starving hungry from eating nothing but Rivitas and dust all week.

Shortened answer: Probably a good ideas to eat your fruit.

Vitamins and Minerals

Hey, they sound pretty cool, we should probably eating some of them…right?

Those numpties that are slating fruit because of sugar, are very quick to forget about all the goodness these foods contain.

Vitamins and minerals are essential to our bodies and are used within thousands of processes to make this jiggly machine work. They are required in very small amounts and are found within the foods we eat, in particular fruits and vegetables. In fact, fruit is one of the biggest providers of vitamins and minerals to our bodies in natural food.

Skipping fruit to avoid sugar would cause a lot more issues with deficiencies in other areas.

Note: Eat your bloody fruit!

Summary

I think from my extensive and comprehensive review we can begin to understand that there is more to fruit than just sugar. It would be very short sighted of us to think of sugar being bad, therefore anything that contains sugar must also be bad. From looking at the bigger picture, it would seem that fruit could be very helpful to keep us full, keep us healthy and will help us lower calories. All of which seem like sensible approaches to managing your weight.

I would just like to add that eating too much fruit can cause you to gain weight.

Wait….what!!

Yes, this is true. The same applies to every other food imaginable. Eating too much of anything will cause you to gain weight. It is not the food in particular, it is the total amount of calories. We cannot escape the simple law of calories in vs. calories out (even with a shiny apple).

The Bad Bits

Is fruit bad for you

As with any high, there must be a low.

Fruit is no exception to this rule.

I would say this section is less of a low, but more of a word of wording. Some fruits are to managed carefully or they could end up pulling your pants down when you least expect it (metaphorically of course).

Some fruit has been designed and labelled up as lovely normal fruit, but is hiding a dark secret. That secret is that they don’t infact contain fibre or are much higher in calories than expected.

These fruits include:

  • Tinned fruits
  • Dried fruits
  • Fruit juice

Tinned fruits are stored in fruit juice or syrup. Whilst they taste delicious, those added calories from the juice is usually not very helpful and defeats the purpose of choosing a lower calorie option.

Dried fruits contain much less water than their whole fruit counterparts. You may be thinking “water? So what!” But this reduction in water, and therefore weight, means that they are much more calorie dense. A 200g ‘share’ bag of dried mango contains 660 calories…..fuck!

Fruit juice is also a hidden trap. Lurking in the shadows trying to trick us into being all cool and hipster. Fruit juice contains almost no fibre. Stopping you from staying fuller for longer and not getting the gut health benefits. Also, it massively increases calories without even realising it. You would never sit down and eat 8 huge oranges, but you could easily sip away at a large glass of orange juice.

Ending

I am hoping that you have managed to pick through my sarcasm and dad jokes to realise that fruit isn’t all that bad. Yes, we need to manage it, but the same applies to all food groups. There are certain types of fruit we need to watch more carefully, but as a whole, fruit is a splendid idea.

This has been a very pleasant and fruitful discussion (too soon?). If you have enjoyed it, I would be most grapeful if you could share it with your friends.