“I eat fruit all the time now that summer is here and hardly ever eat any sugary sweets but I’m not losing any weight. I don’t understand.”
When we talk about sugar in the diet, most people assume we are discussing only sugar derived from sugar cane. The sugar that shows up in cereals, breads, cakes, frosting and candy. Sugar is not only the fine white crystals, dark raw crystals or dusty powdered sugar that we all know and love. Fruits and vegetables contain sugar too.
Vegetables do not contain as much natural sugar as fruits. Obviously they aren’t as sweet as fruits and therefore not nearly as popular.
If you are eating a great deal or large servings of fruits, you could be packing your body with loads more sugar than you really need.
Consider these numbers:
One banana has 28g of sugar.
One orange has 17g of sugar.
One apple has 13g of sugar.
One cup of strawberries has 7g of sugar.
One teaspoon of table sugar contains 4 grams of sugar.
Now this doesn’t mean that you should skip fruits and just start adding table sugar to your vegetables! I just want to give you a realistic frame of reference. This is why fruits are not generally recommended in quantity inn most diets.
Think about this: one banana has the equivalent to 7 teaspoons of sugar! (No wonder we love bananas!)
While fruit is good for us and contains fiber for regularity, carbohydrates for energy and lots of nutrients for a healthy body, to overdo fruit can be a dangerous thing for anyone trying to lose weight.
Try eating your fruit in moderation along with meats/protein, grains and dairy products. A well balanced diet will be much better for you than one that is heavy in any one macronutrient. If you’re wondering what to do with all that extra fruit you won’t be eating, try freezing it. It will be a welcome treat when winter rolls around and those fruits are no longer in season.