Daily Six: Fruit
One of the daily six that I advocate we eat daily for optimal nutrition.
Why should you eat fruit daily?
Optimal nutrition is the biggest reason. In order to hit your RDA on micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) you have to eat a few servings of fruit daily. These goals cannot be reached without fruit. Most Americans are chronically lacking in micronutrients.
Plants are packed full of “phytochemicals” which are compounds that plants make (highly concentrated in the natural colors) that are bio-active in our bodies. They are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, they can help prevent and slow growth of cancer cells, they can help with immune system balance and even help to regulate hormones.
When you eat well you feel well. Losing weight, achieving better blood sugar control, preventing cancer, etc are all valid reasons to eat well but given these are longer term goals they just aren’t as motivating as how you feel today. When people start eating a nutritional dense diet the thing that keeps them there is how they feel today. Waking up with good energy and less inflammation is powerfully motivating.
Cancer
We see reduced cancer rates in those who eat more fruit and vegetables.
Likely due to high content of vitamins, phytochemicals and antioxidants in fruit. Eating a high fruit intake is key or both cancer prevention and as well as optimizing health through and after a cancer diagnosis.
Inflammation
Berries in particular are very high in antioxidant concentrations (particular anthocyanidins). These plant chemicals are well known to reduce inflammation (PMID: 33498671).
Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron, which makes them particularly dangerous to our cells. In this dangerous state these free radicals attack our cells creating something called oxidative stress. The free radical robs our cells of electrons as their unpaired electron needs to be paired to achieve stability. These cells are now “inflamed” and fail to function properly.
Fruit (especially berries) are packed full of antioxidants which roll around neutralizing these free radicals.
We now understand that most chronic diseases have inflammation at their core. Obesity itself creates low grade inflammation. In the context of a chronically inflamed society we should be grabbing enthusiastically for everything that is known to lower inflammation.
Berries of all types are packed with antioxidants and they are relatively cheap, lack any terrifying side effects and as a bonus they taste great. Dr. Michael Gregor and I recommend a ½-1 cup of berries daily. In my house we typically use frozen berries in a smoothie or just eat them straight from the freezer.
Mitochondrial Health (ie optimizing energy)
Our mitochondria - the part of our cells that produce energy- need consistent and high micronutrient intake in order to do their job efficiently. If you check out a metabolic diagram you can easily see the immense complexity of the chemistry that goes into turning our food into energy. Many of these enzymes require cofactors - necessary compounds - needed to run the reaction. These cofactors are often micronutrients, which means if your diet is lacking in a major food group like fruit your throwing multiple stop points into this system by starving these enzymes of necessary cofactors. This means you will not be producing ATP (your bodies energy molecule) optimally and you will likely be fatigued and more likely to suffer from chronic diseases.
By eating fruit you are feeding your mitochondria, optimizing your energy and lowering your inflammation.
Nature’s Candy
Fruit is nature’s candy that just happens to supply exactly what your body needs to function optimally.
However if you are addicted to skittles, soda and the other highly refined sugar products (you know that other “white powder”), raspberries really aren’t going to cut it for you. Your pleasure centers are so used to being massively over stimulated that the natural sweetness of an unprocessed plant isn’t going to satiate you.
What I can promise you is that your pleasure centers are NOT permanently broken. They simply need re-calibrated. Just like a drug addict you have to go through hell week, or more realistically 30-90 days of the world tasting like cardboard. Once these receptors are re-calibrated a raspberry will satiate you. This is one of the reasons I advocate for fasting - you can short cut this 30-90 day recalibration window. That’s a longer discussion for another time though.
Low caloric density
The other beautiful thing about fruit is the low caloric density. You can eat a decent serving of fruit without making a big dent in your caloric intake. If you’ve ever tracked calories you quickly come to terms with how relatively challenging it is to eat low calorie. Fruit has decent fiber content which will help keep you feeling full longer and in the long term help with weight maintenance. Fruit on it’s own will not get you to your daily goal of 40g but it sure helps.
Economical
You can spend a pretty penny eating fruit if your looking to. Dragon fruit, fresh pomegranate, fresh (out of season) raspberries, a watermelon that wasn't quit ready, etc.
However most of our common fruits - bananas, oranges, and apples can be bought at a relatively low cost and if you eat them daily (which you should) you can benefit from buying them in bulk. Many of these are shelf stable without refrigeration and make good work day or travel food.
Frozen fruit also makes a good option - for both storage life and cost. Even berries, a typically expensive fruit, are comparatively cheap to buy frozen.
Some ideas for increasing your fruit consumption…
Frozen berries
Our family eats these daily and most often frozen. We either buy them straight from the freezer or monopolize on summer bounty at local U pick farms and freeze for winter use.
You can eat them frozen (blueberries and cherries are particularly good this way), blend them in a smoothie, or nuke them into a warm berry sauce.
When we do whole grain pancakes we nuke frozen berries and blend them with some dates (carmel flavor) and use this as syrup.
Can also blend defrosted frozen berries with seasonings or balsamic vinegar to make salad dressing or cooking sauce.
Frozen bananas
If you haven’t caught onto this food trick you should. Peel fresh bananas, break them in half, freeze on cookie sheets, and store in a big zip lock.
Then you blend them in either a blender or food processor you effectively get this creamy sweet stuff that rivals ice cream.
Personally I think the best way is to blend them with unsweetened almond milk and a couple spoonfuls of cocoa powder. Chocolate shake full of antioxidants and zero inflammatory foods like white sugar and dairy.
Smoothies
I love fruit but am horrible at consistently eating it. If I am not paying attention I can go weeks without eating any fruit. My energy always takes a hit when I make this mistake. This is why I do smoothies almost daily. I get my two servings of fruit, a serving of greens (kale/spinach), green tea, and flax seed (omega 3’s).
Any fruit works here. Most often we do berries and oranges. Other ideas; frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, bananas, apples, etc.
Pre loading
Fruit is a great pre loading food - simply don’t allow yourself to eat a main meal until you’ve had 1-2 servings of fruit. Full of water and fiber it helps you reach satiety sooner so you can prevent over eating at your main meal. As a bonus your getting a ton of antioxidants and phytochemicals.
Break-a-fast
Best way to break a fast, whether it is an overnight fast or a seven day fast, is with fruit. Full of water, electrolytes and key nutrients, its the best way to wake up your digestive tract before you start eating more caloric rich foods.
Dried fruit
One of my industrialized food irritations is when they add sugar to dried fruit. Fruit - that stuff that is naturally sweet - does not need to be doused in in white inflammatory powder. My hats off to them though - what better way to increase sales and profit than by creating a highly addictive product that’s marketed as “healthy”.
Dried fruit (the kind without added sugar) is a cheap, shelf stable, portable, easy way to get in your servings of fruit.
We add dried chopped dates to oatmeal or put raisins in bags for kid snacks.
Anyone who long-hauls should be using this as their fruit source.
Another trick here is to soak dried fruit (dates/raisins/apricots) in hot water for an hour - and then blend with balsamic vinegar and thyme (or other seasonings) to make an awesome sauce to use as salad dressing or to drizzle on roasted vegetables.
Dr Panza
