05/10/2021
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🤔 You may be asking yourself a simple question: if eating fruit is good for you, then how much fruit is too much? Is it possible to overeat on fruit, leading to worsening health, higher A1c values, increased blood pressure, increased risk for heart disease and weight gain?
📖 In a study performed in 1971, researchers classified the effects of a “mainly fruit diet” to determine what happened to 17 people who ate 20 servings of fruit per day. On this regimen, people ate up to 200 grams of fructose per day, the equivalent of 8 cans of soda 🥤.
🧪 Researchers found that after 3 to 6 months on a mainly fruit diet, there were no adverse effects, and that body weight, blood pressure and insulin levels began trending down.
💥 Following up on this research, in 2001 researchers tested the effect of 20 fruits per day on blood lipids and colon function, and found that within the first 2 weeks, total cholesterol dropped significantly (-40.6 mg/dL), as did LDL cholesterol (-37.9 mg/dL) (10). Although in this case it was a short-term study, they also reported zero adverse side effects of a diet packed with fruit.
🍉 Based on this evidence, it appears that there is no upper limit on the amount of fruit you can eat on a daily basis, and that any argument suggesting that fruit contains “too much sugar” is misinterpreting the scientific evidence.
References:
1️⃣ Some biochemical effects of a mainly fruit diet in man. - PubMed - NCBI [Internet]. [cited 2017 May 22]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5573330
2️⃣ Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Popovich DG, Vidgen E, Mehling CC, Vuksan V, et al. Effect of a very-high-fiber vegetable, fruit, and nut diet on serum lipids and colonic function. Metab Clin Exp. 2001 Apr;50(4):494–503. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11288049
