Byron Knows Best- Fitness Tip 3- Is Fruit Making You Fat?

Is Fruit Making You Fat?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away – or does it?

Firstly I want to say there's no denying fruit's health benefits - it's packed with vitamins, fibre and antioxidants, which protect against disease. It's considered so beneficial that the government's five-a-day suggests a minimum amount we should eat.

Its common to eat more fruits and vegetables to achieve a healthier balanced diet. Five portions of fruit and veg a day is what the experts tell us, right? One of the first things I’ll change in a new client’s diet is to moderate overall sugar intake - kill the fruit if you’re looking to burn fat…. And here’s why.

The Science bit

Fat loss and gain isn’t a simple calories in, calories out equation, our bodies just aren’t that simple. A huge contributing factor to why our body stores or burns fat is the hormone insulin. Simply, insulin is released when we consume simple sugars or complex carbohydrates. A gloriously oversimplified way to look at this is the higher and more frequent the insulin, the more fat your body will store over time.

The form of sugar found in fruit is fructose.  Fructose and sucrose (table sugar) are routinely used by the food industry as additives to sweeten foods. Excessive intake of sugar-sweetened foods can increase your blood triglyceride level, increase fat accumulation in your tissues and raise your risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Thus, intake of fructose (amongst other sugars) can increase fat accumulation in your blood, liver, muscles and tissues. It’s not all bad, though. The absorption of fructose into the blood is slowed down by the fibre in the fruit, making it not as unhealthy as other sugars, but a diet high in carbs with added fruit for ‘health’ reasons is unhealthy. With every client I have ever worked with, eliminating or restricting fruit consumption has always resulted in fat loss.

It’s a controversial topic, and those in the fruit camp always argue the fibre, vitamin and mineral qualities in found in fruit, but there is nothing of nutritional value found in fruit that’s not found in vegetables. Did you know a 150g apple contains 4 teaspoons of sugar? For example if you drank 3 coffees a day with 4 sugars you wouldn’t expect to lose any weight would you?! A punnet of seedless grapes has 75g – around the same as two big bottles of coke – and who just eats one grape?

I also hear people, who disagree, say that fruit is natural, or a natural form of sugar. Strictly speaking that is correct, but our ancestors wouldn’t have had access to fruit all year round. For most ancient cultures it was in small amounts and limited to the season. Now we have fruit flown in and refrigerated so it’s available every month of the year.

Interestingly some animals use fruit to increase fat stores throughout the summer in preparation for leaner winter months. Do I need to say anymore?

Make the Change

Everything in moderation. Just as you make a decision not to eat a multi pack of crisps , you should think about portion control when it comes to fruit. And those of you with diabetes, heart conditions, or who just want to shed some fat, should limit their fruit intake to weekly, rather than daily.

Our expert personal trainers, whether you want to work in person or via our online service know that everyone has their own specific needs, and they take this into account when preparing your diet and fitness plans. If you want to start getting fit and you need a personal trainer then call us today on 07415358528 for a free consultation about our services.