>The fiber present in fruit blunts the impact of the sugars they contain (addressing the "quality" issue I mentioned elsewhere).
Some, but not enough to discount the fact that it is essentially sugar you're eating.
>That said, whole fruit (as opposed to juice, in which much of the fiber is removed) is a reasonably good food choice. Especially for breakfast or post-workout.
I think that's problematic though. People use fruit as a food choice, a mainstay of their diet, thinking it's healthy because it's "natural" or a similar line of reasoning. But it's still sugar and needs to be eaten sparingly just like candy or cake. A lot of fruits have a GI of candy bars, and almost all are in the blood sugar disrupting range of starches, refined wheat, etc, that should be eaten in very limited quantifies. For breakfast, that depends, if you are eating it with a lot of protein and fat, and it's a small amount, sure. But just eating mostly fruit for breakfast is a bad idea.
"Some, but not enough to discount the fact that it is essentially sugar you're eating."
I have to respectfully disagree with you about fruits. Fruit is more than just sugar, it's a source of vitamins and minerals and it should not intentionally be limited from your diet. Of course you need to eat a variety of different fruits (and vegetables).
"A lot of fruits have a GI of candy bars..."
Can you give some examples?
A piece of fruit and a candy bar are not nutritionally equivalent even if they share the same GI. In fact, most fruits are low in GI. See for yourself by going to the University of Sydney GI database.
We all need to eat fruit and vegetables daily as part of a healthy diet. It's misleading to claim that fruit can cause health issues or should be limited in your diet without providing evidence to back it up.
Even people with Type 2 diabetes are not discouraged from eating fruits. See the advice here for example from Diabetes UK (a charity). They are a credible and trustworthy source of advice for people with diabetes in the UK.
One final link, a 2011 report from Cancer Research UK found that over 40% of cancers diagnosed in the UK were from avoidable lifestyle choices. For men, the number one culprit was tobacco. Number two culprit? Lack of fruit and vegetables in the diet.
> Fruit is more than just sugar, it's a source of vitamins and minerals and it should not intentionally be limited from your diet.
You can dump a bunch of vitamins into a bottle of coke, that doesn't mean you can eat it without limit and remain healthy. The carbs are still there, and if fruit makes up a significant number of the calories you intake, you are going to have all the same problems you have when you eat a large number of carbs per day from other sources like candy and pasta, just to a somewhat lesser degree. With fruit, you still don't want to go over the daily number of carbs (~40).
>Even people with Type 2 diabetes are not discouraged from eating fruits. See the advice here for example from Diabetes UK (a charity). They are a credible and trustworthy source of advice for people with diabetes in the UK.
First of all, the site you listed is fairly low quality and significantly out of date:
>All fruit and vegetables are low in fat and calories and a good source of vitamins and minerals.
This isn't the nineties. Fat isn't considered bad for you according to any modern scientific theory except to some degree in relationship to heart disease, and for diabetes patients, is beneficial because it helps stabilize your blood sugar.
Secondly, yes, you should eat small amounts of fruit per day and large amounts of vegetables a day. I never claimed otherwise but the site simply fails to point out that fruit should be taken in significantly lesser quantities than vegetables.
>A piece of fruit and a candy bar are not nutritionally equivalent even if they share the same GI. In fact, most fruits are low in GI. See for yourself by going to the University of Sydney GI database.
Searching for individual foods is a terrible way to compare GI levels. And no, most fruit is not "low in GI", most are high and compare to starchy foods and even candy, as I stated earlier. Fruits like tomatoes that are not sugary/starchy are considered vegetables btw.
>Number two culprit? Lack of fruit and vegetables in the diet.
That's somewhat irrelevant. It's the combination of fruits and vegetables that keeps you healthy, and honestly, you probably could do without sugary fruits entirely if you ate enough quantity and variety of vegetables. It's the fresh plant material rich in minerals/vitamins that's good for you. In any case, small amounts of fruit should be sufficient to add nutritional value and not pose a risk, just as small amounts candy shouldn't pose a risk if eat in very small doses.
Some, but not enough to discount the fact that it is essentially sugar you're eating.
>That said, whole fruit (as opposed to juice, in which much of the fiber is removed) is a reasonably good food choice. Especially for breakfast or post-workout.
I think that's problematic though. People use fruit as a food choice, a mainstay of their diet, thinking it's healthy because it's "natural" or a similar line of reasoning. But it's still sugar and needs to be eaten sparingly just like candy or cake. A lot of fruits have a GI of candy bars, and almost all are in the blood sugar disrupting range of starches, refined wheat, etc, that should be eaten in very limited quantifies. For breakfast, that depends, if you are eating it with a lot of protein and fat, and it's a small amount, sure. But just eating mostly fruit for breakfast is a bad idea.