Jul 14 2010
Does Fruit Make You Fat and Old?
Mango Vendor in Bangkok
Several readers have asked lately about the impact of fruit–specifically the sugar in fruit–and it’s capacity to cause weight gain and accelerate aging through insulin signaling:
“Do people usually gain weight because of eating fruit and does the sugar in fruit age us? I just hate to think that I am doing my body harm by eating fruit.”
If this question sounds insane to you, it shouldn’t. It is actually a very reasonable query that was sparked by two Summer Tomato articles, one about saving money while eating healthy and another on calorie restriction, aging and quality of life. In the first article I recommend thinking of fruit as dessert, a treat to be enjoyed once or twice per day. The second article is about the impact of sugar and calories on aging.
Body Weight
The fact is that fruit contains a lot more sugar than other natural foods and in large enough quantities it can contribute to weight gain. But fruit is certainly not bad for you, nor is it worse for your health than anything else in life.
The sugar in fruit contributes calories to your diet, but since you need calories to survive fruit is still a very good choice. The reason is that in addition to sugar (fructose, to be specific) fruit also has vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber and many other things that contribute to health and possibly slow aging.
On the rare occasions when I do make an effort to lose a little weight, however, remembering that fruit should be dessert is something I keep in the back of my mind. I eat fruit every day, but when trying to lose weight I keep it under two servings and always choose whole fruit–avoiding anything blended or juiced. (Drinking calories is usually a bad idea.)
But this healthstyle tactic is not for everyone.
Why?
Unlike most people trying to lose weight, I already have a very healthy diet and fruit is one of the easiest places I can trim calories without feeling deprived. Cutting out things like fat and protein make dieting very difficult because you are always hungry. In my experience reducing unnecessary carbohydrates–especially sugars–is the easiest and healthiest way to lose weight.
But it is essential to remember most people are not overweight because they eat too much fruit and the vast majority of people would benefit from eating more of it.
Aging
The question about whether sugar causes aging is a fascinating one that I am very interested in.
Yes, in most organisms eating sugar has been shown to promote aging, but this has not been proven in humans. Sugar induces aging via the insulin signaling pathway, so therefore any food that increases insulin signaling could theoretically accelerate aging. The problem is that you need insulin to survive–those who cannot produce insulin have a disease called type 1 diabetes.
The good news is that eating a diet that minimizes insulin signaling is also the best way to lose weight and stay healthy, so if you are living a healthy lifestyle (one that includes fruit) you do not need to worry about anything else.
Although fruits have sugar, it is extremely unlikely that they accelerate aging. In fact, most evidence suggests that fruit slows aging because of its high levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
If anti-aging is your goal, fruit is your friend not your enemy.
For more on insulin signaling, check out my post at MizFit Online, When is a calorie not a calorie.
Conclusion
While fruits contain sugar, they do not pose a special threat to your health goals. Eat and enjoy fruits as a wonderful and delicious part of life.
How much fruit do you eat?
Originally published August 31, 2009.
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Tags: calories, fruit, insulin
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I don’t eat enough fruit
Darya! I think the photo is great but having it right under the title makes it look like the woman is being called out!
I guess it’s a coincidence that she happens to be big but daaaaaaaaaaaaang!
In my experience, eating fruit has contributed to my weight gain because of all the sugars, whether or not they were natural. So even a banana could be too sweet for me. But I guess this is speaking from when I was strictly on a low carb diet.
I can see your point Jan, but I found this picture particularly telling because NO ONE in Thailand is this heavy. I do not think it is a coincidence that she is sitting behind a giant cart of mangoes and sticky rice.
She did seem like a very happy lady though
Thanks for addressing this. I eat about 3-4 servings a day in the summer, less in the winter. What I love about fruit is that most of the time eating what’s in season is what’s right for your body, too.
I don’t know about “servings” but I probably eat about 10 grapes, 10 strawberries, 20 blueberries, a banana, and 1 or 2 apples/pears/nectarines/etc. on average per day. I love fruit and usually eat quite a bit in my breakfast smoothie (plus hemp granola), and also as snacks during and after work. As far as weight concerns go I think it really depends on how active you are…I ate a ton of fruit this past year (higher than usual) and actually lost about 10-12 pounds.
I never really gave the aging idea much thought, but this article was very insightful and useful.
Here’s a question…is there any possibility of finding the fructose to vitamins/antioxidant ratio of a variety of fruits?
Great point about activity levels and personal differences. That really is the key, to find out what works for yourself.
As for fructose/antioxidant ratios, we could probably figure it out but I think our time would be better spent eating fruit
Not all fruit is created equally. I have no worries eating berries. Bananas, grapes, cherries, watermelon are different..too much sugar for my system, and need to be monitored. When I want to LOSE weight, gala apples seem to help me stave off hunger. In winter, I eat an apple a day, but I also love pears,which again have too much sugar, unless I get them hard and not too ripe. I am very sugar sensitive and I can feel the effects immediately, so I think there are times fruit can be too much of a sweet thing.
Having said all that, cookies or grapes, choose grapes.
Angela,
As I have gotten older, I have the same kind of reaction to sweet fruit! I live in Thailand, and rarely eat sweets. But pineapple, watermelon, and mangos are too sweet for my system, and I gain weight easily on them.
Interesting article!
It’s drummed into everyone that fruit is unquestionably healthy. Some people with diabetes will mistakenly eat lots of bananas assuming they are ok, but this plays havoc with their blood sugar.
As you point out, most people have terrible diets, so its a fine line when you say watch out for fruit. I can imagine people cutting back on apples to eat a Mars bar!
You nailed it. This was a tricky post to write because it is hard to send the right message.
You reminded me that I need to write a post about bananas. Those big yellow ones in supermarkets are such a bizarre phenomenon.
I eat about 8 fruits a day and have in the process reversed my insulin resistance. My diet is not high-calorie though, since I rarely eat grains or animal based foods… Fruit and vegetables form the basis of my diet.
Thanks for chiming in Hanlie, congratulations on your success!!!
I’ve been wondering about this lately, I eat an awful lot of fruit in the summer. I am always trying to eat more vegetables instead, but I don’t like them as much. But I no longer fool myself about it, these medjool dates I like so much are about 150 calories each, dripping sugar. I just found a calorie count for them, so now I have to moderate them a bit more than I have recently.
hey i am a recovering anorexic, and currently at a very low weight of 69 lbs and i am 5’2…i am a vegetarian so i tend to get a lot of my calories from fruits, beans and grains and of course vegetables…right now i am trying to gain weight, and i eat around 4-6 serving of fruit a day like 1/2 a banana and 2 tbsp of raisins in my oatmeal at breakfast. a fruit and nut bar (lara bar)=1 fruit…usually a small apple with lunch and then another serving at snack in the afternoon and sometimes to reach my calorie goal i need to get i have some prunes or a fresh fig or medjool date at night…reading this, i was getting scared that i eat WAY too much fruit, 5 a day? i thought the food pyramid said 5-7 a day? i have also been to treatment centers for my anorexia where the nutritionist says 5-7…. well i think everyone should just enjoy food they love and if one happens to love fruit(like me
)then eat it! but just dont go crazy 
well fruit is so healthy and has so much vitamins, potassium, natural electrolytes that help make your weight stable, and did u know dried fruits help you not retain water? well i found this all interesting, but i just dont think eating fruit is a dessert nor is it bad to eat more than 4 servings a day…i maintained a healthy weight for a while a year ago and ate 5 fruits on average a day…and nothing bad happened. okay sorry such a long comment i left here.
Thank you for your comment Eliza, and I’m happy to hear you are on a path to recovery. Certainly you do not need to be worried that you are eating too much fruit! Fruit is very healthy, you are absolutely right about that.
It is important to remember that everyone is different though, and clearly you are at a point where you have very different metabolic needs that most people. The recommendation of 5-7 servings per day is actually referring to fruits AND vegetables, and for most people it should lean heavily toward vegetables. Some people, myself included, think we should eat even more produce than this, more like 7-9 servings.
Also, don’t rely on the USDA pyramid that was created by the agriculture industries. A better resource is the Harvard healthy eating pyramid.
We all need to discover our own healthstyle, and this includes learning how much fruit we can eat for optimal health.
Thanks again for the comment!
Hi!
I’m fortunate enough to live in Spain, where there’s superb seasonal fruit and vegetables all year.
In recent years I put on quite some weight, and at the start of April decided to change my eating habits (hopefully for good).
I enjoy 5 meals a day: breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, afternoon, dinner. Mid-morning and afternoon are always (and only) fruit, seasonal whenever possible. I don’t know how to measure servings, but it’s not rocket science; you just eat a little less than you would like to… And, yes, some fruit are more fattening than others, but those are also more filling; I mean, you can’t really eat as much of figs as you can of melon, can you?
I’ve lost 17kg in 14 weeks at a steady pace, feel better than ever, and latest tests show I’m healthy.
My two euro cents’ worth…
Thanks for chiming in! Sounds like great advice, but unfortunately I think for most Americans “not eating as much as you’d like to” is inconceivable :\
I was born and raised in Canada, so I know what you mean.
A great suggestion comes from a great Spanish chef, Karlos Arguiñano. He calls his secret “diet” the “J.E.H. Diet” (loose translation): “just eat half”. Take what you think you’d like to eat BEFORE you cook or order (when you’re hungry), then actually cook/order and eat half of that; that should be enough…
Oh, and one more thought on fruit: I don’t eat fruit (or anything sweet) after meals; it alters the digestion… Only in the morning or afternoon!
I actually do not eat ANY fruit because I believe it has way too much sugar… and I know if I were to start eating it, I wouldn’t be able to stop!
The problem with fruit isn’t so much an insulin spike. Almost literally everything we ingest can cause this. Meat, nuts, vegetables, even a lot of supplements cause insulin spikes (though little ones). The problem with fruit is fructose. Insulin can be easily managed, but fructose really does some nasty things in the liver and totally throws off lipid metabolism and the management of insulin. Fruit does taste good, though…