30 Day Paleo: Day Twenty One – Reconsider Unhealthy Fruits

 

Looking to make healthier choices? Perfect! This is Day 21 of 30 of my 30 Day Paleo Plan. For more information on 30 Day Paleo as well as 30 Minute Paleo, check out the get started page. Post each day on your 30 Day Paleo journey to Twitter or Instagram and show me by tagging me with @dranthonygustin — get after it! 

Fruit is often touted, alongside vegetables, as the healthiest of food groups. Fruits do have some natural antioxidants that help with general health, but they are not essential in the same way as vegetables. Many fruits also contain a significant amount of sugar. Absolutely, there are things such as unhealthy fruits. Excess sugar leads to fat storage, even when the sugars come from fruit. While moderate fruit intake can be part of a healthy diet, it’s important to know which fruits are the most unhealthy fruits and which are most nutrient dense.

For the majority of human history, fruits weren’t available year round. If you take notice of fruit harvesting seasons, especially fruits with high sugar contents, you’ll see that the window for a proper harvest is really quite small. This occurs during the fall. Our ancestors likely had a very brief window for overloading on sugar from fruits, gained some fat, then used that fat for fuel in the coming months when general food availability was low.

There is no question – fruit is nature’s candy. It’s still sugar, no matter how many vitamins, minerals, or antioxidants it contains. The sugar in fruit – fructose – is not a preferred sugar for promoting healthy metabolism or fat loss. Even if you are working out hard and need to increase your carbohydrates consumption, glucose is a much better sugar to eat.

The top unhealthy fruits to avoid if you’re trying to shed some pounds include anything dried, watermelon, pineapple, mango, apricots and papaya. Basically, if a fruit is incredibly sweet, it means you’re eating sugar. Skip it.

As far as fruits go, berries are typically the best bang for your buck. Berries are high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, and usually very low in their blood sugar raising properties. If you have a sweet tooth you’re trying to curb, this isn’t a bad way to go.

Reduce fruit to 1-2 servings of berries per day, maximum. Treat sugary fruit as you should candy – limit.