Fruit, the Most Misunderstood Food

From the earliest of written history, fruit has played a key role in human health. It was the main food consumed in the proverbial Garden of Eden for an untold number of years. During the Golden Age of Man some 2500 years ago, fruit was the predominant food. This period of time in ancient Greece fostered the development of a hugely disproportional number of history’s greatest thinkers, philosophers, artists, and athletes.

Fruit has always been recognized as health food, and still firmly holds that esteemed position. The old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” has been replaced by “Eat fruit every day, the five-a-day way,” indicating that the benefits of eating fruit are being more fully recognized. Our government, the health industry, the AMA, nutritionists, dietitians, and every disease-control organization that offers nutritional advice suggest that we eat more fruit. Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, there are people who literally shun fruit and others who are actually afraid of eating fruit. A few leaders in the raw food movement actually have suggested that we should learn to live without eating fruit at all. Obviously, someone is mistaken. Let’s see if we can discover where the error rests.

The last thing I ate was fruit.

In the mainstream world, it is not uncommon for people to say to me that they cannot eat fruit because it upsets their stomach. When I ask how they determined this, they tell me it was easy: I tried that fruit in the morning thing, and right away I got an upset stomach. I try explaining that it is very likely that the food they ate the night before is still in their stomach, and that pouring orange juice or other fruit on top of this food is likely to result in a fermenting mess, a “combo-abombo”. I suggest waiting until the stomach is truly empty before adding in fresh fruit for better results. Still, since fruit was the last thing consumed before the indigestion ensued, fruit very often takes the blame.

Similarly, in the raw food movement, fruit takes the blame for problems it did not cause. Based on calculations from personal and professional observations, the average raw fooder consumes 65% or more of his or her calories from fat. The fat is mainly derived from eating meals calorically dominated by oils, avocados, nuts, seeds, nut and seed butters, coconuts, and olives. This is over half again more than the national average of 42%. On a diet that is so predominated by fat, blood levels of this nutrient tend to run extremely high. High blood fat results in high blood sugar, as sugars cannot exit the blood well when blood-fat levels are elevated. Under this scenario, the pancreas and the adrenal glands are forced to work harder 水果杯散水餅 to lower blood sugar levels down towards normal. This causes the organs and glands to eventually become fatigued and eventually fail. This will lead to great swings in blood sugar levels known as hyper and hypoglycemia and, eventually, diabetes and chronic fatigue. The hypoglycemia develops as a result of excessive insulin production. The thyroid gland soon follows suit, for it is stimulated by the adrenals and will often become hypo-functional as the adrenal glands weaken. Other hormonal issues, cancer, heart disease, and most digestive disorders are also known to be caused by the over consumption of fat.

So how does fruit take the blame

Many of the above-mentioned symptoms and conditions do not become apparent unless fruit is consumed. Unstable blood sugar levels are often seen immediately following the consumption of even small quantities of fruit when the consumer is on a high-fat diet. However, almost every condition for which fruit is named the culprit is actually caused by the high-fat diet. While raw food movement leaders continue to blame fruit for a wide assortment of health problems, I must agree with them that these effects will occur as long as the consumer is on a high-fat diet.

Avoiding fruit is not the answer as it is not the guilty party. In fact, it is insufficient fruit consumption that leads raw fooders to consume higher-than-healthy levels of fat. The simple sugars in fruit, namely glucose and fructose, are essential. They are the precise fuel used by all of our body’s cells.