You’re Eating Fruit???

Last night at a dinner party, I sat next to a gentleman who shared how he’d recently lost thirty pounds.  

Not atypical when someone finds out what I do for a living, asking my opinion on the manner in which the weight was shed as well as asking some questions about what one might change about expediting further weight loss- both of which are welcome conversation topics for me.

He ran through what his current regime was and commented that he’d lost the initial big chunk of weight and that he would like to drop another thirty pounds or so, but that he’d plateaued a bit.

While his approach certainly wasn’t Paleo, it had given him the confidence to know he’d be able to achieve his goals and he’d simply reached a tipping point at which he’d need to make further changes.

One of these changes was the addition of fruit to his diet.  He was under the impression that all fruit was a bad idea and when he saw me eating some fresh local berries after our lovely meal of seared striped bass and grilled veggies, he was astonished.

“Weren’t those berries loaded with sugar”, he asked?

When I began to explain about balancing out macros and the variations between sugar content in different types of fruits, he looked the way I looked back in college in my physics class- utterly gobsmacked.

Rest assured, he left the dinner understanding that if he wanted a little bit of fruit to accompany a meal it wouldn’t be considered cheating or ‘eating high sugar fruit’, so whilst his personal predicament was resolved, the bigger issue is still glaringly present.

There is far too much inaccurate information in the media.

Yes, some of it may have been based on fact (eating 8 bananas in one meal while you’re sitting at your desk is clearly not a balanced meal and is indeed very high in sugar), the idea that we should nix all fruit, period, is ridiculous.

Certain fruits are higher in sugar than others and as such, need to be timed appropriately and balanced accordingly, however there are plenty of others to choose from that simply make the meal look prettier, add a whopping dose of antioxidants and add just a hint of natural sweetness, all of which can help make someone who is on a weight loss regime more likely to stick to it long term and make it a lifestyle, rather than a ‘diet’.

Bring on the blueberries!