You are here

Eating Too Much Fruit Can Be Bad For Your Health

Many of us have come to believe that eating healthier means eating lots of fruits and vegetables. While fruits and vegetables are much better for you than refined foods like cookies and chips, my experiences and research have led me to believe that too much fruit can be harmful to your health.

A lot of the fruit that is grown today is much higher in sugar than they would be in a natural environment. Have you ever tasted a wild blueberry? How about a wild apple? On their own, they are delicious, but you may be surprised to discover that they aren't nearly as sweet as modern day varieties. Over thousands of years, humans have been able to make fruits larger and sweeter than their wild predecessors through hybridization.

But sugar from fruit is natural, so you should be able to eat as much as you want, right? This question is best asked of fruitarians - people who eat nothing but raw fruits. It is not uncommon for a strict fruitarian to eat five bananas and five dates for breakfast, one large canteloupe for lunch, and five large peaches for dinner.

Some fruitarians take a more balanced approach and eat lots of less sweet, seed-bearing fruits like tomatoes and zuchinni. They also eat plenty of greens like romaine lettuce.

Regardless of which approach is taken, I have not met a single strict fruitarian of more than two years who didn't have significant health challenges. The most common challenges are dental decay, osteoporosis, wasting of muscle tissue, inability to maintain a healthy weight, chronic fatigue, skin problems, thinning hair, weakening nails, and excessive irritability.

Some of these problems are the result of nutritional deficiencies. The most common deficiencies that I know of in this population are vitamins B12, A*, D, zinc, and certain essential fatty acids.

Another problem with a high fruit diet is that it can lead to problems involving the hormones that regulate your blood sugar; insulin, glucagon, and growth hormone. A chronic imbalance of these hormones is a sure way to develop cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The encouraging news is that when you eat fruits in moderation, they can contribute to excellent overall health and fitness. Here is a list of some of my favorite, healthy fruits:

1. Berries - Be sure that they are wild or organic, as commercially grown berries are heavily coated with pesticides. Berries tend to put less stress on your blood sugar - regulating mechanisms than other fruits, and provide loads of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals which protect you against disease. Frozen wild blueberries are available year-round in almost any grocery store.

2. Avocado - An excellent source of raw fat, which is essential for healing and maintenance of health. Avocados are also an excellent source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The fatty acids found in avocados provide excellent fuel for energy. A good avocado has a rich, creamy texture and a rich green color towards the outer part of its flesh.

3. Figs - If you haven't tried a fresh black or green fig, you are missing out on one of the most minerally dense fruits there is. Fresh figs are superior to dried figs, as the drying process creates an unhealthy concentration of the natural sugars in figs. If you are going to eat dried figs, strive to eat only a few per day. Figs are particularly high in potassium, calcium, and iron.

4. Pomegranates - If you could choose only one fruit to get into your blood and provide super protection against free radical damage and chronic disease, pomegranates would be a great choice. By weight, they have one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants among all fruits.

5. Apples - Like all of the fruits listed above, apples are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. From a practical viewpoint, apples are one of the most affordable healthy fruits to eat on a regular basis.

If you want to eat super sweet fruits like bananas, grapes, and ripe persimmons, you may want to eat them with some dark green lettuce, celery sticks, and avocado, as the mineral density in these green foods will help to dampen the unhealthy effect that super sweet fruits have on your insulin levels.

I recommend staying away from fruit juices most of the time, as their concentrated sugars contribute to health problems related to too much insulin production.

* While it is true that vitamin A can be made from beta carotene, which is found in lots of fruits and vegetables, many people are unable to make enough vitamin A for their daily needs from beta carotene alone. Effective conversion of beta carotene to vitamin A depends on a number of factors, like a healthy gall bladder, sufficient dietary fat, and a healthy thyroid gland. Sufficient intake and absorption of vitamin A is essential to a number of processes, including building and maintaining healthy mucosal linings throughout your body, enhancing your immune system, and supporting your vision.

 
 

Join more than 80,000 readers worldwide who receive Dr. Ben Kim's free newsletter

Receive simple suggestions to measurably improve your health and mobility, plus alerts on specials and giveaways at our catalogue

Please Rate This

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (288 votes)
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
 
 
 

Comments

Would be helpful if you clarified that the recommended daily intake of fruit is 2 cups SPREAD OUT over the day. Too many are piling them all in s a smoothie, spiking insulin and lowering growth hormones. I'm not a Doctor, but you are, and yours is the primary article that pops up, so could you edit this one or write another? Could you do a study with 100 men demonstrating the impact of the daily morning fruit smoothie? I love my dad so much and have seen all the changes you mention since he started doing smoothies to replace meals because of time constraints. He has lost 4 inches, most of his hair, 70% of his muscle mass, and he is crankier. He went from rugged gym rat to hobbling old man in less than a year. A lot of stress, yes, but I worry this is adding to/not helping. He has a research background, so having some solid research sources might get him to respect my concerns more. I love him so much - 80 is too young to age so fast. Others in the gym are 87-88 and going strong.
Thank you!

Dear Dr. Ben, I admire your work and I have personally benefitted from the knowledge you share. I have a question about eating fruits especially apples as I have experienced sugar spikes eating apples. I had GDM and I kept on monitoring everything I ate even after delivery. I was pre-diabetic for some time and then with lifestyle changes, I had remarkable improvements. I found some healthy food that still gave high readings. Some of the food items I could remember are oats, millet and quinoa. Do you have any thoughts?

Hi Lemali,

You should definitely heed your body's feedback and strive to mostly avoid foods that cause your sugar to spike unreasonably high. Getting some exercise before eating can help increase your body's blood sugar-regulating capacity. Generally, most people benefit from doing 20 body weight squats before every meal. I hope this helps!

Ben