Candy bars and ice cream contain sugar and essentially no nutritional benefits so we call this junk food. We would never put fruit in that category, because it contains a lot of nutritional benefits. However, sugar is sugar and too much of it is, well...still too much-even if it is fruit. So do you want to cut down on added sugar? Besides the obvious junk and processed foods, you can kick it up a notch by limiting the amount of fruit you eat. Perhaps you could even treat fruit as a dessert. We need to stop putting fruits and vegetables in the same category, because calorically and nutritionally they are very different. I am by no means saying that you should cut out fruit completely, but rather suggesting that the importance of fruit in a healthy diet has been skewed in the past. Now if you are craving something sweet, then a piece of fruit definitely beats out a cookie every time. That just doesn't give license to ignore that fruit is high in sugar just because its natural and has nutritional value.
As for dried fruit, the natural sugars are concentrated into a much smaller package so more sugar and calories are consumed in a small handful. This is also something to keep an eye on.
Guidelines for Eating Fruit
1. Aim for no more than 2 cups of fruit a day. This is the portion recommended for an average sized person, consuming about 2,000 calories a day. Since I am smaller, I would only consume about 1 cup a day. A cup is about a fistful, or one apple, orange, etc. So I usually eat 1 piece of fruit a day and less on some days.
2. Skip the fruit juice and aim for whole fruits, or unsweetened frozen fruit. Juice contains less vitamins and minerals, and usually contains way too much sugar.
3. Find local fruit that is in season.
4. Watch dried fruit portions. 1/4 cup-1/3 cup (depending on sugar content of particular fruit) of dried fruit equals about 1 cup of whole fruit.
5. Substitute fruits for sweets and add sugar content of your fruit into your added sugars count for the day.
Again, I'm not suggesting that fruit is bad for you; Just that it should be eaten with more caution than we've been taught to eat it with-especially in the case of shedding those few extra pounds.
Suggestions not intended as medical advice, but rather for informative and entertainment purposes.
Have a wonderful day and post any questions!
Laura,
ReplyDeleteMy wife turned me on to your blog, and I usually enjoy reading it, though don't always agree with all of your advice. I just wanted to comment on this article because I think you're touching on a very wide-spread misconception, the mis-categorization of fruits and veggies.
Yes, people should watch out for too much sugar in their diet, but the true problem is that when they're told to eat more fruit, they only think of sugary things as fruit. In general, fruits are much more vitamin, mineral and anti-oxidant rich than vegetables are, and people need to diversify their diets with cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, and the tons of other fruits that generally get lumped in as veggies just because smuckers doesn't make a spreadable jams in those flavors. Preaching veggie overload lends itself to a monochromatically green diet, and what isn't green will be high in sugars and starches anyhow, especially roots like beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, or parsnips, which aren't nearly as healthy. The adviceI give is generally to paint your plate with as many colors as possible, practice overall portion control, then watch sugar intake as a tertiary priority. I'm not saying you're necessarily ignorant of all this, but it's just a pet peeve of mine, so I wanted to leave a comment to see what you thought.